DV, Day 4, Part 2

I got back on the ship, and after lunch, I moved from there to a littler charter boat that took us through Tracy Arm Fjord and over to the Sawyer and South Sawyer Glaciers. Here is another small sampling of pathetic pictures that don't do the views justice:

Tracy Arm Fjord

Another picture of Tracy Arm Fjord

The glacier basically carved all of the fjord. Rounded peaks are parts that were below the glacier during the ice age; pointy peaks were above the glacier (and therefore capable of sustaining life) during the ice age. That's the hypothesis, anyway. The naturalist on our little boat said that the water is 900 feet deep in places here, which is in itself pretty incredible.

One of two fabulous waterfalls

Isn't it amazing how trees grow right up next to the ocean?

The glacier was cool. Literally. :-) We navigated through icebergs to get close - the Coast Guard apparently doesn't let you go any closer than 1/4 mile away - and stood there in awe, taking pictures. Then we saw it calve - a piece fell into the ocean, we heard the white thunder, and saw the splash - and then everyone stood, lined up on the edge of the boat, cameras poised, just in case it happened again... because who wouldn't want to digitally capture such a fantastic event?

Sawyer Glacier - from about 1/4 mile away. It's much
cooler in real life. (It's not calving in this pic, so don't look for it.)

Sawyer Glacier was pretty awesome, but South Sawyer Glacier was even neater. For one thing, more icebergs. A few years ago (maybe 2004?) the glacier receded almost a foot, which is unnaturally far for a single year. Maybe that's why there are more icebergs.

South Sawyer Glacier

You can also see the striations where the glacier carved away the rock.

South Sawyer Glacier

We also saw two other neat-o things: a rocking iceberg (I was hoping it would turn while we were watching, but alas, it did not) and harbor seals! This was the best picture I could get of the seals, despite there being a few dozen of them hanging around.

Harbor seals!

Needless to say, it was super awesome and totally worth it, and as a result I have no recollection of what I did that evening - although by the time we got back on the cruise ship, I was tired, so it was likely nothing of importance. Relatively speaking.

Looking at all this reminded me of the scripture in Alma, when he testifies "all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it ... do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." (Alma 30:44) He made it all for us! Isn't that simply amazing?