Tracy Arm Fjord Excursion
White Pass & Yukon Railway
So… how to sum up these last 2 days? Poorly, I’ve no doubt. Every trip like this I’ve ever taken seems to
start out with me having TONS of time to do these blogs, only to quickly
descend in little blurbs to try and describe the epic events that transpired…
and thus left me too tired to write about them…
For instance, yesterday evening I was simply too exhausted
to write anything… and tonight I have this incredible desire to write:
“We rode a big boat.
We rode a smaller boat. 2
glaciers and a waterfall.” For Tracy Arm Fjord along with “We rode a bus, then
a train… we pet sled dogs”… for Yukon & White Pass Railway and then gently
drift off to sleep…
My typical desire towards the OCD spectrum, however, screams
for a bit more detail, so I’ll need to find the most pleasant in-between to
satisfy the rock of one and hard place of the other. Bear with me…
Early on the morning of the 29th, we sailed into
the mouth of Tracy Arm Fjord. Phenomenal
mountains flanked both sides of the ship, all covered with pines and often
ending in ice capped tops. Perhaps more
incredible was the water itself… the most amazing shade of turquoise you’ve
ever seen. It was breathtaking and
surreal. Truly, I’ll edit these photos
for days (I’ve already been at it) and will still never be able to replicate in
the photos the exact shade of turquoise… or how nearly alien yet
Alas, fish and other marine life tend not to be so fond of
it. First off, it can’t really make up it’s
mind whether to be fresh or salty… mostly, however… that’s a lot of
sediment! I would imagine swimming
through it… breathing it through gills… etc etc… would be unpleasant. The predominant wild life we saw throughout
the day were Harbor Seals, which apparently like to mate around the actual
ocean, where food can be found, and then have the females birth and take care
of the young within the fjords, were their predators (orca whales) are unlikely
to go.
We had left the main ship, you see, and entered onto a much
smaller ship that was able to take us in closer to the glaciers and the
waterfalls. As ice hunks… from small to
enormous, bobbed and flowed all around us through the fjord, navigating around
them required something a little less gigantic than a cruise ship. The smaller boat was simple, but fun, with
decks on top and a crew that was near to bursting with enthusiasm.
Thus, we sailed into the bowels of Tracy Arm Fjord… which
basically means there were long, fjords of
turquoise water surrounded by high,
carved mountains and, around a couple of corners… Sawyer’s Glacier! This, also, is a bit difficult to put into
words. First off, the ice is only white
in parts. The top, for instance, is
pretty brown with dust. The inside,
however, shown to us due to the constant caving of ice into the fjord, was a
brilliant blue. It was actually somewhat
amazing to realize how quickly the glacier was disappearing right in front of
our eyes as pieces kept breaking off… and from what we were told, nothing has
really been added back to them in over a hundred years. As I said above, there were also seals
everywhere! Laying placidly on the ice
chunks, basking in the absolutely gorgeous day we were having.
We did a waterfall as well… which was gorgeous and I enjoyed
it, but I can probably spare you some of the details as I’m sure you’ve seen
one or two yourself in the past. I will
say, however, that the boat got up pretty darn close… like, I could reach out
and touch the waterfall, close… at one point… making me a tad bit nervous…
Other than this, however, it was a fantastic day and one
where I was soooo happy I had my new camera lens! Woot!
White Pass & Yukon Railway
I never thought I would be, like, “What’s that?!? Oh, it’s
just another glacier… what else is there to photograph?”
I mean, does that statement even make sense to you?
Yea, that’s what I thought.
Crazy. Still, I suppose when
you’re in one, single State in the Union that contains approx. half the worlds
glaciers (according to our “Naturalist”, anyway… and just what the hell is a
“Naturalist”? I keep thinking
“Naturist”, which is just another word for “Nudist”, right? Thus, every time I hear our “Naturalist” on
the PA, I picture her giving us sage advice about Alaska and Canada in the
buff… how did I get onto this subject, anyway?)… oh yea! So, glaciers… Today I saw a gaggle of
glaciers… (well, it wouldn’t be a murder of glaciers now, would it?).
We started the day off on a bus tour. A cute little guy named Drew (with the most
gorgeous blue eyes) was our host and driver and provided a rather entertaining
dialogue as we drove through Skagway, then into Canada.
The terrain was simply breathtaking. Enormous mountains covered in dense
forest. Incredible water falls that
seemed to go on forever. Countless
rivers, lakes and streams with varying shades of that amazing turquois. Even a desert! Yep, due to some bizarre fluke of nature,
there’s 1 square mile of
Anyway.
We had lunch in Carcross, Yukon. Carcross was once “Caribou Crossing”, but
apparently had it’s name changed by the Post Office as there were already 3
Caribou Crossings in Canada… who knew? There
really isn’t much to Carcross. There’s a
taxidermy museum (which was, admittedly, pretty impressively done… but I find
taxidermy… like wax museums… a bit creepy… those eyes follow you everywhere!). Also, the training ground for dog sledding
tournament people… so you can see the dogs
Other than that, it was a lot of driving and a couple of
photo stops. Unfortunately, as long as
it took to get everyone on and off the bus, we didn’t stop very often, and taking
photos through the tinted bus window wasn’t ideal. Ah well.
I still took something like 200 photos from this day alone =).
The remainder of the day was spent on a train, riding back
to the boat some 68 miles.
Unfortunately, the train in question was meant to give you something
akin to the “authentic experience” of those gold rush stampeders that took the
White Pass trail… this translated to a train that jerked, jolted and
essentially threw you around a bunch. We
“authentically” spent a lot of time driving past rock walls and dense forests…
not terribly exciting… but when it did open up, the view was awe
inspiring. The valley and surrounding
mountains were simply too beautiful.
With this, at least, I have a few excellent photos as we were able to go
out onto a platform (thankfully, with a reliable rail!) to take photos. A rather large but friendly guy shared the
platform with me as we both moved into and out of the ‘good’ places to take
photos… and then tried not fall into one another as the train would suddenly
lurch.
This brings me back around to the glaciers. Yea… so every mountaintop… just about...
seemed topped with an enormous sheet of ice that had some name that sounded
like, “Blah blah blah Glacier”. Really…
at some point… who remembers these things?
Mind you, they were incredibly impressive! Especially as the clouds rolled in as the day
advanced, rolling over the glaciers in this amazing display.
Yea… it was cool like that.
Other than that, a little shopping in Skagway ended the day
(did I mention it used to be Skaguay before the Post Office changed that,
too? Who knew the Post Office was really
this insidious, undercurrent of power… changing names… and stuff!... Skagua,
apparently was a native word that meant either, “Wind that Blows from the
North”, “Northern Wind that Makes White Caps on the Water”, or “Place Where
Only Stupid White People Would Live”… depending on who you ask in the town…).
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