It has been written that once you visit Tracy Arm, you won’t feel the need to ever go back to Glacier Bay. Wishing to find out for ourselves, we couldn’t go past Tracy Arm without taking a look. The trouble is Tracy has a very long arm and being a deep fjord there is no anchoring for the night, part way down, so you must do the trip in one day.
So after leaving Taku Harbour, we were headed for an anchorage right at the top of Tracy Arm to stay the night. We keep getting reminded that our sailing season is near over, and it was a cloudy and cold drizzly day. When we arrived in Alaska it was still light at midnight and now it is dark by 1930 and daylight is getting noticeably shorter every day and colder as well. But to be surrounded by glaciers, I hardly expect it to be warm!
We passed Quantum of the Seas, the sister ship to Ovation of the Seas that we saw at Juneau, as we headed down Stephens Strait. Looking through the binoculars the only people out on deck looked to be smokers and parents with young children, and with those huge viewing windows, I don’t blame them for staying inside.
Being a transit day, we didn’t mind too much about the weather, and it was still really beautiful to see the cloud forming across the mountains and the white snowy tops glistening down on us.
The temperature dropped as we neared Sumdum Glacier with its cold air falling down on us. Dean thought that whoever named it was being immature and meant “Some Dum” Glacier however it supposedly means “big noise” in Tlingit, from the cracks and booms that come from glaciers.
We could see waterfalls fed by the permanent snow up so high from miles away and they looked amazing. Dwarfed by the huge mountains they looked so small, but in fact are large swift running streams.
Due to the moraine left by the glacier, the entrance to Tracy Arm is actually a lot narrower than it looks, however it is well marked and easy to enter. It did used to have a lead light that was activated by a sequence put into your radio but we tried it and it didn’t appear to be working, so I assume with modern navigation equipment it is not in use anymore. Dean was most disappointed, he had been talking about activating the light all day!
The bay we were anchoring at has no name but is located right near the entrance, so within no time we were safely anchored. Low whispy cloud hung around the trees, but thankfully it was clear down lower.
A lovely bay, we still had the afternoon to enjoy it. As we were upstairs eating our lunch Dean spotted a black bear ambling along the beach towards the river. But although it was black, a closer check through the binoculars showed it was a grizzly. You can tell by the distinctive hump they have on their back. Both grizzly’s and black bears have a wide variation in colour.
We then spotted another dark coloured grizzly minding its own business fishing in the river. It had caught a fish and was eating it when it spotted the first bear still ambling but definitely moving towards it.
Some pecking order came into play, and the bear stopped eating its fish, sniffed the air then just bolted. I managed to catch them in the same frame, the bear at the back literally galloping away and gone in seconds.
We had a float in the dinghy to get a bit closer but being upwind couldn’t get too close and being low tide the water was quite shallow enough for a bear to run through. But we observed him for a fair while, running through the water catching fish. We were still a bit far away to get a good photo but we could see him clearly through the binoculars. In the photo below, can you see the bald eagle sitting on the rock watching the bear fish?
Finally he finished fishing and continued walking along the shoreline. He looked directly in our direction so I think he knew or at least suspected we were there. Finally he melted away into the treeline.
Looking closely, there were also eagles everywhere. There were a few Bald Eagles and also a darker type. I counted seven at different spots around the bay while we were sitting there, foraging, drying themselves, or annoying the seagulls.
We waited a while to see if the first grizzly came back, because it hadn’t finished eating, but I think our presence had been noted, and it also started drizzling and it is way too cold for these Queenslanders to stay out in that weather!
RTP looked lovely at anchor in such awe inspiring surroundings. Of course once we were onboard the bears came out to fish again. But we were content to watch through the binoculars and leave them to get their fill before winter arrives.
Run to Paradise 