~Oh perilous place, spell-bound and un-child-proofed~
With it being the end of the season, the weather in Alaska is starting to play up against us. In order to avoid a potentially hurricane force storm as we traversed the open water to get to Hubbard Glacier this morning, the Captain announced last night that we would be going somewhere else instead. Somewhere sheltered and safe.
And stunning.
Tracy Arm is usually an entirely different itinerary for our fleet. I’d never been there, nor had I expected to be here, unless I got assigned to another Alaska season next summer.
I love Hubbard Glacier, I truly do. But Tracy Arm? Tracy Arm is magical.
It feels like stepping back in time, or into another world altogether. The walls of the fjord are so narrow and so high that it feels like you could reach out from the bow and brush your fingertips across them, and the water is so green and so smooth that it’s difficult to remember that this is Alaska – not Norway – and that it’s September, not June.
Truly, it feels as if you’ve stepped through the wardrobe. Passed through the Wood Between the Worlds. There are photographs (which I will upload as soon as I get my card reader working), but I can’t say that they really do the sensation of the place justice.
Oddly, I would have expected this place to unsettle me, as it’s very similar geographically to Glacier Bay, but just like Hubbard Glacier is different, so is this. I keep expecting to see fantastical creatures materialize out of the greenery to either side of us, in a place like this, you really can believe in the idea of the Lost World (though not necessarily with the dinosaurs), or simply the Other.
Let me know if you want me to pass on a message to Mr. Tumnus for you…
Bright Blessings,
Shaughnessy