As I mentioned in post I of this series, we were fortunate to have been able to take our cruise in Alaska during the Autumnal Equinox and to experience incredible weather with brilliant seasonal sunshine. We intentionally booked a cruise that went to Sawyer Glacier via the Tracy Arm, which is an ancient fjord that is one of my all time favorite places on the earth. The last two times we made this trip, the weather was overcast and rainy and was absolutely magical in its elemental beauty and potency. During those two cruises, the ships were able to get close to the Sawyer Glacier as you can see in our video from one of those previous trips at the 3:50 mark as the ships turns in full view of the glacier.

But during our most recent trip, the sun illuminated the Tracy Arm in a way I had never before seen it. This is a picture of some of the towering land that makes up the fjord above the water line reflected in the calm light-filled water. You can also see bits of the Sawyer Glacier that have calved (broken off) and were floating like crystals in the water.

This time the Tracy Arm lit up like the faery land it is. It just couldn’t have been more beautiful with so much illumination of the interplay between the elements. I was elated from so much energy pouring through our moment there. We were grateful for the blessing of witnessing and being part of this dance of energy during one of the most sacred seasonal times in one of the earth’s most ancient and powerful places.

You can see Sawyer Glacier at the end of the Tracy Arm in this photo. The ship’s position is much farther away than was possible in the other trips in which the captains were able to take the ship close to the glacier. Here, because of the warm weather, Sawyer had been calving and those large bergs in the water made it treacherous for the ship to get past Sawyer Island, also visible in the picture. When the captain announced that we could not take the ship any further due to the amount of ice in the water,  I was so disappointed that I cried! However, after a few moments I was just really thankful for the gift of the Tracy Arm that day. And I did get to get up close and personal at the Davidson Glacier that you can check out in Part I. Such an incredible place!