27 June 2018. Tracy Arm Fjord. Juneau, AK
We booked an excursion on the Captain Cook boat to see the Tracy Arm Fjord. This was an all day excursion, so there weren’t any cruise ship people on it (cruise ship people aren’t in Juneau for long enough to enjoy this tour). But every seat was still full. This was a great experience, traveling south out of Juneau to the Fjord, seeing icebergs, wildlife, and the southern Sawyer Glacier.
On the way down we saw a whale who wouldn’t pose for the camera, several eagle sitting on icebergs, and a seal or two.
We continued into the Tracy Arm Fjord and witnessed many more icebergs. Several of these had interesting shapes, our captain drove circles around the icebergs to give us a view of all sides.
The Fjord itself was beautiful. Mountains shot up about a mile. Waterfalls were abundant!
Then we reached the Sawyer Glacier itself. It was about 1/2 mile wide and we were able to get pretty close. It was very active, we witnessed many calving events (ice chunks falling off the glacier into the sea).
On the south side of the glacier, seals and their pups were laying on the ice flows. Apparently, Orcas (who eat seals) don’t like going into the Fjord, so the seals were pretty safe there. There were hundreds of seals on the ice.
On the way back home, we sailed by some sea lions. Quite the day for wildlife viewing!
