Tracy Arm Fjord was phenomenal. We woke up around 5 a.m. to see a wall of stone filling our view from our cabin. We rushed outside to see we had entered a narrow fjord with steep mountains jutting up on each side of us. I grabbed my camera and headed to the top deck and didn't stop taking pictures until lunch when we made our way back out.
When we reached the glacier at the end of the fjord the captain pivoted the huge ship around a few times in the narrow gap so we could all get a good view. There was a helicopter flying around taping us and the glacier for a promotional DVD they were producing which of course we could buy a copy.
In the water below us were icebergs floating by that had calved from the glacier. It was impossible to estimate scale, and it wasn't until I was processing my photos that I noticed some tiny birds in the water and flying near some of the bergs that I realized just how huge they were. Bus sized and bigger. Massive if you consider how much of it we didn't see under the water. I got a little carried away snapping pics of the neat shapes and deep blues of the ice.
There was an eagle perching on a tree which I was able to just get with my zoom. I didn't see any of the other wildlife we were told to expect (whales, sea lions, goats).
The mountains were so close that it felt like you could just step off the top of the ship onto the land. I used my zoom to see the tops of the mountains and reviewing these photos now makes it look like I was up there hiking or in a helicopter. I assure you I was warm and comfortable on the top deck of a luxury liner steaming through the fjord.
Again, the weather was perfect. We were so lucky the entire trip. The blue skies and clouds made such a difference, although the brightness of the snow made for tricky exposures. I bracketed most of my photos, but mostly was able to use the first shot, so my camera must have been compensating pretty well for the brightness.
They're not National Geographic level shots, but definitely capture what we saw.
