Fjords of Blue Ice, Alaska’s Endicott & Tracy Arm
featuring Dawes & Sawyer Glaciers
Tracy Arm, 32 miles long and averaging a mile wide, is surrounded by steep mountain walls rising up to 7,000 feet from sea level. It gains its visual power from the fact that so much is crammed into such a compact space. It is, in its own right, the sort of place that is worth traveling halfway around the world to see, a landscape that reminds us, residents and travelers alike, of why we came to Alaska.
“Our vessel glides inland, away from the sweep of ocean waves, threading between icebergs that shimmer blue and white. On either side of the narrowing passage, walls of sheer granite tower skyward, cut by waterfalls and cascades. Through binoculars, a distant speck above becomes a mountain goat; farther along, seals sunning on a raft of ice regard us with dark, liquid eyes. Carved glacial domes and ragged nunataks a mile above us reflect on the water’s surface, and below our hull, the cold, green depths of the fjord whisper a tidal pulse old as time.”
“Tracy Arm: a rather ordinary name for an extraordinary place, arguably one of the most spectacular glacial fjords in both Alaska and the world. Glacier Bay National Park, roughly 125 miles to the northwest, is far better known, and Misty Fjords, near Ketchikan, is duly celebrated. Yet Tracy Arm, 32 miles long and averaging a mile wide, surrounded by steep mountain walls rising up to 7,000 feet from sea level, surrenders nothing in grandeur or vertical scale to any of these treasures. In fact, it gains its visual power from the fact that so much is crammed into such a compact space. It is, in its own right, the sort of place that it’s worth traveling halfway around the world to see, a landscape that reminds us, residents and travelers alike, of why we came to Alaska.”
• Hardcover • Photos by Mark Kelley • Text written by Nick Jans • Published by Mark Kelley, 2nd edition (March 1, 2005) • ISBN-13: 978-1880865354 • 60 pages • Size: 6.5 x 8.5 inches • 36 color photos • $15.95
Mark Kelley is proud to be printing this book with Friesens Corporation in Altona, Manitoba, Canada. Friesens is a fully certified FSC printer, as well as a member of the Green Press Initiative. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international certification and labeling system for products that come from responsibly managed forests and verified recycled sources. Friesens uses only hydro-generated power and their plant produces no air pollutants, no toxic waste, and contributes 18 to 60 times less greenhouse gases than natural gas or coal-fired plants. Friesens’ inks are vegetable-based and stored in refillable drums leaving no ink cans to discard. Friesens has a long legacy of green!
