Our Great Alaska Adventure - Part 3 (Tracy Arm and Juneau)

The highlight of our trip was the day we spent cruising Tracy Arm Fjord and exploring Juneau (Wednesday). The boat arrived at the entrance of Tracy Arm Fjord at 5:55 am. We woke up early, bundled up in our winter clothes, and were out on the deck shortly after 6 am. We stayed outside until we left Tracy Arm (about 10:30 am) and were in awe by the beauty we saw all morning. The haziness in some of these pictures is from smoke from the fires in Russia.



The pictures we took of Tracy Arm Fjord don't do it justice. If you get the chance to see this place, definitely go there! We saw many glacier-carved walls and valleys (the U-shaped valleys were created by moving glaciers), sea otters and icebergs (notice the icebergs in every picture).



The glacial calving in Tracy Arm was quite spectacular! We saw the Sawyer Glacier calving three different times. It was fun to see the huge chunks of ice break off and hear the ice land in the water below. We are already planning a return trip to Tracy Arm and Juneau (one of these days!).


After cruising in Tracy Arm, we arrived in Juneau. Charles went on the fishing trip of a lifetime - salmon fishing in Alaska! There were 4 other fisherman on the boat. Charles caught the first salmon! The fish is being processed and will be shipped to us shortly (we hope). While Charles was on his fishing trip, he saw a bunch of whales in the distance.


I went with mom and dad on a Juneau highlights tour. We first stopped at the Alaska State Museum where we saw some interesting artifacts. Then we spent an hour at Mendenhall Glacier. That was another spectacular glacier to see.

Our third stop was to a place that highlighted native trees and flowers. Our fourth stop was to the salmon fish hatchery. It was quite interesting to see the salmon running the fish ladders back to the hatchery and how many thousands of salmon came "home" to spawn.