Mother Goose - July 22, 2010 - Leg 5, Day 2 - Tracy Arm Cove to South Sawyer Glacier

We awoke to a clearing day for our trip up Tracy Arm – a truly spectacular trip up the fjord with soaring cliffs above us and over a thousand feet of water depth beneath us. The waterfalls and views of hanging valleys and the striations along the rock faces all attest to the mighty forces of the glaciers that carved this landscape.

Pretty soon we were dodging an increasing number of bergy bits, gleaming blue and white. The boats fell in line behind Deception as she gently threaded her way through the ice. Deception received a call from Adventure Bound, a sightseeing cruise operator, telling us to come in closer to the Sawyer Glacier as there was plenty of ice-free room for our boats. We took his good advice and were rewarded with incredible views of the tidewater glacier, which calved into the sea several times as we watched. There were hundreds of seals dotting the ice floes and we even saw mountain goats on the cliffs above us, not to mention the eagles soaring around us. What an amazing experience! Special thanks to Adventure Bound for their generosity in sharing this special place with us – Alaskans are the best!