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labmansid

From Icy Strait/Hoonah, it's a short 60-70 mile ride to Juneau, Alaska's capital city. Based upon a strong recommendation from a coworker who had been to Alaska before, we opted to do a boat tour to Sawyer Glacier, located at the end of the Tracy Arm Fjord south of Juneau. We booked with Adventure Bound Tours, which did a great job. It was a long tour, since it took quite a while to actually get to the glacier and back, but there was some awesome scenery along the way, as well as a few really cool (literally, this is snow/ice melting, you know!) waterfalls. We were not disappointed at all with this tour!

Once we entered the fjord, icebergs became pretty common. Those are seagulls perched on it, using the 'bergs as a temporary base.

This shot gives new meaning to the old warning, "Don't eat the yellow snow"!!

This was one of the better waterfalls on the way to the glacier. The boat's captain would maneuver the front of the boat right up almost into the falling water.

A partial view of Sawyer Glacier as we approached. This thing is huge!!

This shot is to try and provide a sense of scale to the size of the glacier. Sawyer Glacier isn't even the largest one, either.

Harbor seals were there presumably in the hundreds, since orcas, their main predator, avoid the ice packed waters.

I don't see how some of the ice was still attached to the glacier! Too bad we didn't see those chunks fall in. That may be why our captain tended to avoid that area.

A few "small" chunks of ice fall into the icy waters.

Now we are almost getting there.

That's more like it!!

Still photos just do not do events like the glacier calving justice, in my opinion. I learned some time ago that the 7D does very well as an HD camcorder, although the built-in mic leaves a lot to be desired, mostly because of wind noise. I may have to invest in a better external mic if I continue to pursue this avenue of photography. Focus can be an issue if there is a lot of movement back and forth, but in this case not a problem.

Anyway, I uploaded a couple of videos I took to youtube. I will spare you the ones of me waiting for calvings that never happened!!

Like in a lot of nature photography, you sometimes never know exactly when and what will happen.

Just a few days after we were there, apparently a HUGE piece of ice calved and sent chunks of ice flying through the air and actually struck a boat, possibly from the same outfit we used. Details on exactly what caused it are unsure, but a woman reportedly had a leg broken in the incident. She possibly fell in the melee as the boat lurched when the captain gunned the engine trying to put some distance between themselves and the oncoming wave/ice.
Anyway, it is quite a spectacle to see and hear the calvings, and we definitely would go back if given the chance.

The shapes and colors the ice takes on are completely random and fascinating. Blue is not the only color to be seen.

Another neat waterfall on the way out.

Ladies, if you plan on swimming in these waters, I strongly suggest you wear something that will keep you warm!

I hope I didn't get too carried away in this post for you, but this was one of our favorite places on our trip. My wife is still busy downloading other videos of glacier calvings from youtube, taking up precious bandwidth.

As always, thanks for looking!!