Endicott Arm Dawes Glacier

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Hope you enjoy the photos. We were also greeted by a lot of icebergs. The guys happily retrieved some great martini ice off of these.

The next day we headed for Endicott Arm after hearing that Tracy Arm was clogged up with icebergs at the S-curves. So we took off on the journey of 30 miles to the end of Endicott Arm to find an actual glacier. Gill’s had seen one - we hadn’t, so they led the way, going in and around a whole lot of giant ice cubes, a few of them easily as big as the boat. However, what was at the end of the Arm was unbelievable - a giant glacier, apparently not one of the big ones, but to us it was HUGE. A great big monstrous chunk of ice flowing out of the mountains. When a piece of ice falls off it’s called “calving” and a small one fell when we were there. Cruise ships used to come up to these glaciers and honk their horns to get them to “calve” for the entertainment of their travelers, but officials have put an end to that. Got a good Photo of Spirit in front of Dawes Glacier and a nice waterfall in the Arm. Also caught a black bear photo on the way out. Glad we were able to see the glacier and all of it’s little “berg bits.” It was a challenge to mane ver around all of them and quite an adventure. We went back to the cosiness of anchorage at Tracy Arm Cove for the evening but the grizzlies weren’t there this time.

Tracy Arm to Juneau

The trip to Juneau was uneventful with the exception of too much fog. Probably would have been pretty otherwise. We came across a few humpbacks grazing on the way up but none of them wanted to get up and play so we only saw one tail. Once moored at Aurora Basin, we explored a little bit of Juneau. The city was filled with 5 cruise ships and the streets were filled with every one of the people from those cruise ships. WOW what a crowd!! Managed to find a good restaurant for dinner and called it a night.

Trip to Skagway

One of our main reasons for coming to Juneau was to fly to Skagway and take the 3-hour train ride through the mountains. So early Tuesday morning we flew to Skagway (sure glad we didn’t take the boat - it’s 100 miles). Fortunately for us, all fog lifted and we had a wonderful clear 40 minute ride. We flew into Skagway only to find another 4 cruise ships docked. And all of the people from those cruise ships were walking around this tiny, little town of Skagway. It’s what keeps these little towns going. We had breakfast, walked around the town for a while and fortunately got on one of the last trains that wasn’t completely full so we each had our own seat. All I can say about the trip is that everyone has to do this at least once in their lifetime. It was fantastic! AWESOME!! The scenery is to die for; just like you’d expect to see in Alaska; steep cliffs, lots of wonderful waterfalls, heavy snow capped mountains, beautiful trees, two pitch-black tunnels to go through in the train, old trestles where you look straight down 2000 feet or more. The trip was exactly what we had wanted and a dream come true. Jim had a smile on his face the whole time while taking lots of pictures.

Our flight back to Juneau was beautiful. The pilot took us through the heart of the snow-capped mountains, where all we saw were the mountains and nothing else - except for a few more glaciers. An exceptional ride. Came back to the Gill’s for a wonderful dinner and called it a night.

Wednesday we’re playing tourist around Juneau.