Tracy Arm

This was my favorite day of the trip. It was gray and dreary as we started, with intermittent rain.

Tracy Arm

Green Water in Tracy Arm

On a fast boat we headed south from Juneau to Tracy Arm, right into fog at the entrance. The water color gradually changed from dull gray to deep green. The fog and overcast weather slowly improved until we arrived at South Sawyer Glacier, where it was sunny under partly cloudy skies. The water color near the glacier was dirty/milky.

South Sawyer Glacier

The captain shut the engines down as we came to a stop a few hundred feet from the glacier face. We were surrounded by floating ice in a fjord with steep walls. I could clearly hear cracking sounds coming from the glacier, along with a steady stream of melting water and ice and rocks as it splashed into the fjord.

Meltwater Streams from Dirty Ice

The sun took the bite off the cold, but it was still chilly. I was expecting the blue ice and it was very cool to finally see it. In these shots I did not process it to bring the blue out; I merely set the white balance and added a little clarity, or boosted the whites when needed.

Dirt, Rock, and Blue Ice in South Sawyer Glacier

The glaciers that I've seen in Europe and Washington (Rainier, St. Helens) always seemed stark white, with almost no variation in color or detail. The Alaskan glaciers that I saw on this trip all had blue in the faces and streaks of dirt and rock.

After what seemed like only a few minutes, but was actually more like a half an hour, the captain started up the engines and we proceeded back the way we came toward North Sawyer Glacier.

North Sawyer Glacier

I found it difficult to judge the size of the glaciers. Here's a tour boat that's some distance away from the glacier face.

North Sawyer Glacier

At this glacier, there was a thin overcast. As we approached, we began to see ice floes with harbor seals hauled out onto the ice. Everywhere I looked, there were seal mothers with pups.

Harbor Seals

Again, the engines stopped and we lingered, surrounded by ice and seals.

North Sawyer Glacier

North Sawyer Glacier

Again, there was the popping and cracking sounds of shifting glacier ice. After we were there for a while, a piece of ice dropped from the glacier face with a continuous rumbling sound. Just when I thought the event was over, a huge piece of blue ice emerged from the water with the sound of rushing water that was running off of the ice. It was a shooter - a block of ice that calved below the surface of the water. As that died down, yet another piece of ice fell, and there was a second shooter. These were enormous pieces of beautiful blue ice that took some time to settle down and stop shedding water, with continuous sounds of moving water and rumbling. Shortly afterward, a wave of water gently rocked our boat. I can't show the whole sequence, but I'll put a few shots in.

Calving Glacier

Block of Blue Ice Emerges from Water

Glacier Shooter

We lingered a while longer, then returned to Juneau. As we approached the Stephens Passage, the clouds lowered again and we spent the rest of the trip in overcast and rain. For more than an hour, as we cruised along Stephens Passage, I watch the forest and shore go by, with dozens of eagles perched in the trees. Dall porpoises jumped in our wake. Loons and other birds dove as we approached. And occasionally there was the spewing water of a whale blowing. We were really lucky with the weather (it was great when it counted). And the shooter was amazing. I don't know how this could have been a better day.