Rich Greene Photography

Death Valley Sunset...
somewhere along West Side Road.

A couple of days after seeing the incredible beauty of Tracy Arm Fjord, we were able to spend the day in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska, home to eleven tidewater glaciers, including the Margerie Glacier, named for French Geographer and Geologist Emmanuel de Margerie and one of the most active and most visited in the park, which can be visited only by boat or plane.

And what a welcome Margerie gave us -- literally calving right on cue!!! Luckily, earlier I had staked out a space right on the bow of the ship, and had a front row view to catch a couple of images of the calving.

The sound that followed from a half-mile away was incredible.

We didn't see near as much wildlife in Glacier Bay as we did in Tracy Arm Fjord, but our time there was also nothing short of spectacular.

Later viewing the glacier from the comfort of our balcony, I was left to imagine what John Muir saw in 1879 when Tlingit guides led him into Glacier Bay for the first time.

"To the lover of pure wildness Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world." ..."it seems as if surely we must at length reach the very paradise of the poets, the abode of the blessed."
- John Muir, Travels in Alaska

One of -- no, that doesn't adequately describe it.

THIS IS without a doubt, the absolutely most stunning spectacle I've ever had the pleasure to lay my eyes on upon during my six plus decades on this earth.

The South Sawyer Glacier at the end of Tracy Arm Fjord, (named for Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Tracy who served during the administration of Benjamin Harrison from 1889-1893) is about 50 miles south of the most unique state capital in the US, Juneau, Alaska, which is only accessible by sea and air.

To call it this excursion amazing is the understatement of all understatements.

On our journey we saw playful young orcas and humpbacks breaching, black bears and mountain goats foraging for food on the rocky cliffs, harbor seals lounging on the ice floes, various bird species including eagles, countless 1000-foot waterfalls emptying into the turquoise waters of the fjord, jaw-dropping mountains covered by clouds and ancient glaciers, innumerable sculptured icebergs, and the glacier itself, the beauty of which, is beyond compare.

Alaska truly is "The Last Frontier."

In this photo, you can see maybe a tenth of the entire glacier, which is about a half mile wide. The rest is around the bend, which we saw by navigating slowly through the icefield.

I was fortunate to capture the tour boat in the foreground for scale, because it just gives you a sense of just how immense this glacier is.

There are more famous glaciers in Alaska including the Mendenhall, which is just a quick 12-mile jaunt from Juneau, and thusly, much more crowded, but the trip to this one was well worth the extra time it took to get here.

The larger cruise ships aren't able to get as close to this glacier because of the floating ice which ranges from hand-sized to pieces to those that dwarf the vessel in front of us.

On our trip, a crew member took a long net and hauled in a small chunk of floating iceberg -- which the passengers got to hold -- and later sample in the delicious "Glacieritas" upon which we toasted our good fortune on the trip back to Juneau.