Robert, Tuesday, June 24
Today we took the Tracy Arm Glacier tour. We got on the boat at 8:30 a.m. and were soon underway. The trip to the glacier was a little more than two hours each way. Getting there we saw a number of hump back whales. They rise to the surface, blow, and then dive. They repeat this about every 30 seconds. Sometimes they flip their tail in the air and when that happens it normally means they are sounding and won’t be back at the surface for 30 minutes. They are impressive. If the boat goes very slow, it is often possible to get within 50 feet of them. One even came to blow within 10 feet of the boat! Tracy Arm is a fjord with two glaciers at the upper end. The walls of the fjord are very steep and rise something like 4,000 feet; sometimes in near vertical walls of rock. We did see a black bear on the shore on the way up the fjord. We saw both glaciers and were hoping to see calving where large pieces of ice break off and fall into the water but no luck. I think the most impressive thing about the glaciers is the blue color of the ice. All along the fjord there were waterfalls. Some were mere trickles of water and some were large gushes. We were on the trip with the couple we met and for the periods when we were just motoring along, it was good to have someone to talk with. They are both retired and live in Yakima, Washington. I suspect we will stay in contact with them as they are interesting and they are on a similar tour to ours. When we got back, we decided to get dinner at a restaurant. While Juneau has a lot of tourist shops, there aren’t many restaurants. We finally located a Thai restaurant that was quite good. The portions were so large that we will have at least one more meal from the leftovers. I think spending all day on a boat is very tiring as I went to sleep in one of the recliners almost as soon as we got to the trailer. I did get up at 5:30 a.m. and we got back to the trailer around 9:00 p.m. We did decide that the whales were so interesting that we would go on a whale watching boat while we are in Juneau. While we have been on boats whale watching in the past, the whales seem more numerous here than we have seen before.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tracy Arm and more glaciers
Leslie Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Today we spent over 11 hours aboard the Captain Cook.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656715_6fqBD-M.jpg
We were taking a trip to Tracy Arm glacier area. It takes more than 2 hours to reach the glacier, so the trip was really long. Luckily, we boarded first and captured the best seats. We had seats at a table in the front of the boat. Our friends Michelle and Bob from Yakama, Washington, arrived at bit late but were able to sit with us at the sole table aboard. We had a great time chatting with Michelle and Bob; afterwards Robert and I discussed that we would have been bored on the trip if we hadn’t spent the time with these new friends.
On the trip to Tracy Arm we were lucky to see a black bear on the beach. After they come out of hibernation, black bear desire certain vegetation as an essential part of their diet. They find this vegetation along the beach. This bear seemed very curious about our noisy boat.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656663_CJjng-M.jpg
Most impressive of the day were sights of ice-burgs. The blue color is so unusual. The blue is caused because the ice is so dense. As the ice melts and more air is introduced, the ice appears more white in color. By the way, it was quite chilly at the ice-burgs. I had on cotton long sleeve shirt, light fleece sweater, wind-proof fleece jacket, Goretex jacket, fleece hat and gloves. It rained on and off throughout the day. Sometimes it rained so hard that we were all worried about taking our camera equipment out on the deck to take pictures. Two men tried using umbrellas to protect their cameras but I think that was less than successful.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656682_yJiWG-M.jpg
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656869_6CHui-M.jpg
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656989_GpRxv-M.jpg
We saw some seals near the glaciers. The seals give birth on the ice floats. There were several mom and pup combinations but the best picture I got is of this seal who seems to be performing for us.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320657003_6ysWd-M.jpg
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320657023_hUNWu-M.jpg
We were taken to two different glaciers. You’ll notice that there appear to be more ice burgs near one of the glaciers than the other. That isn’t due to warmer water, rather the fact that there is a strong underwater current near the glacier without the ice burgs. Most of the ice blocks that have fallen from that glacier have floated away.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656809_4p86T-M.jpg
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656797_SGwRb-M.jpg
And although this wasn’t a whale watching trip, we saw several whales:
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656601_tpSFF-M.jpg
Since we got back after 6:30 pm we had decided to go out to dinner. We had been told about a Thai place near our campground. We’re located about 10 miles from downtown and close to the University of Alaska, Southeast. The Thai place was packed, with a long line of people waiting. Since that is generally a good sign, we decided to wait. The food portions were huge; the food was good, but we ordered way too much. We’ll have at least one more meal from the leftovers. We didn’t get back home until after 9:30 but it was still light outside.
Today we spent over 11 hours aboard the Captain Cook.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656715_6fqBD-M.jpg
We were taking a trip to Tracy Arm glacier area. It takes more than 2 hours to reach the glacier, so the trip was really long. Luckily, we boarded first and captured the best seats. We had seats at a table in the front of the boat. Our friends Michelle and Bob from Yakama, Washington, arrived at bit late but were able to sit with us at the sole table aboard. We had a great time chatting with Michelle and Bob; afterwards Robert and I discussed that we would have been bored on the trip if we hadn’t spent the time with these new friends.
On the trip to Tracy Arm we were lucky to see a black bear on the beach. After they come out of hibernation, black bear desire certain vegetation as an essential part of their diet. They find this vegetation along the beach. This bear seemed very curious about our noisy boat.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656663_CJjng-M.jpg
Most impressive of the day were sights of ice-burgs. The blue color is so unusual. The blue is caused because the ice is so dense. As the ice melts and more air is introduced, the ice appears more white in color. By the way, it was quite chilly at the ice-burgs. I had on cotton long sleeve shirt, light fleece sweater, wind-proof fleece jacket, Goretex jacket, fleece hat and gloves. It rained on and off throughout the day. Sometimes it rained so hard that we were all worried about taking our camera equipment out on the deck to take pictures. Two men tried using umbrellas to protect their cameras but I think that was less than successful.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656682_yJiWG-M.jpg
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656869_6CHui-M.jpg
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656989_GpRxv-M.jpg
We saw some seals near the glaciers. The seals give birth on the ice floats. There were several mom and pup combinations but the best picture I got is of this seal who seems to be performing for us.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320657003_6ysWd-M.jpg
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320657023_hUNWu-M.jpg
We were taken to two different glaciers. You’ll notice that there appear to be more ice burgs near one of the glaciers than the other. That isn’t due to warmer water, rather the fact that there is a strong underwater current near the glacier without the ice burgs. Most of the ice blocks that have fallen from that glacier have floated away.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656809_4p86T-M.jpg
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656797_SGwRb-M.jpg
And although this wasn’t a whale watching trip, we saw several whales:
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656601_tpSFF-M.jpg
Since we got back after 6:30 pm we had decided to go out to dinner. We had been told about a Thai place near our campground. We’re located about 10 miles from downtown and close to the University of Alaska, Southeast. The Thai place was packed, with a long line of people waiting. Since that is generally a good sign, we decided to wait. The food portions were huge; the food was good, but we ordered way too much. We’ll have at least one more meal from the leftovers. We didn’t get back home until after 9:30 but it was still light outside.
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