Blogs from Tracy Arm, Juneau, Alaska, United States, North America

Carnival Pride sailed up Stephens Passage and reached Holkham Bay, the entrance to Tracy Arm, fjord at noon. The ship continued up the fjord until Sawyer Island, where the fjord divides into North and South fjords. Susan and I had booked a small boat tour that took us up Tracy Arm, providing us with an up-close view of the fjord and its natural features. Then, it continued right up to the face of Sawyer Glacier, where the ship could not navigate. On board, naturalist Mariann described the geology and natural features of the fjord and Sawyer Glacier as we made our way along the waterway. Tracy Arm Fjord is similar to the fjords of Norway or Iceland, except for the complete absence of pine forests in Iceland. During the tour, we saw numerous waterfalls, some small ... read more

Next on the tour was Alaska’s capital town of Juneau. Many campaigns to move the capital to Anchorage have failed and this small tourist town, isolated from roads in or out, is still home to Alaska’s first family. We took and adventurous bike ride which took us to nearby Mendenhall Glacier. The base of the glacier ends at a small lake with a spectacular waterfall. The bike ride was pretty easy as biking goes, but perfect for tourists who haven’t been on a bike for few years. The glacier cooled air was a joy to breath as we rode through paths in the forest where one of our guides provided new words to challenge us by. These were pretty interesting terms such as glacial isostatic relief which describes the unweighting of glacier pressure on the ground, ... read more

Alaska was amazing! We boarded in Vancouver and spent the first full sailing day going up the inside passage. We didn't expect the boat to move so much as it was so big but you definitely get quite a bit of sway going on when on the open sea. It is much smoother in the fiords and inlets where the swell is smaller or non-existant. The scenery for the entire trip was just spectacular. Up the inside passage you had the coastline of Canada on one side with the snow capped mountains. We were never too far from land and there was always a forest covered coast line or mountains to gaze at when on deck. We spotted plenty of spouts from whales on and off during the trip but nothing more until Glacier Bay. The ... read more

Dad Blog Yesterday was a big day on a boat to Tracy Arm. We had hoped to see whales on the way but didn’t. the Inlet up Tracy Arm was really cool—huge waterfalls every few hundred feet fed down from the canyons. The canyons and everything around here is really steep as its all carved from the Fjords and Glaciers cutting through the mountains. We stopped at one spot where the walls were at least 2000 of more feet straight up. At the Glacier itself, there were 850 seals who had either been born recently or were those that gave birth. They go to the glacier area to get out of the moving sea for birth, and will return to the open sea in time. It was much better weather—cool still but no rain. The night ... read more