Sheer granite walls. Snow-caked summits. Clinging streamers of alder. Contorted metamorphic rock faces. Clambering rainforest. Plummeting waterfalls. Surreal blue icebergs. Emerald green waters. Concave hanging valleys. Majestic calving tidewater glaciers. And in the infinity of this vast Alaskan scenery, a black bear forages in the intertidal zone between the glacial milk and rainforest.

We traversed Tracy Arm today, a twenty-five mile serpentine canyon carved by glacial architecture. Azure blue skies reigned. We observed harbor seal mothers and pups swimming cautiously between floating ice platforms. Thundering collapsing ice off the face of the Sawyer Glacier created localized swells, rocking flotillas of icebergs and the Zodiacs touring the glacial paradise. And as we slalomed through the fjord's causeway we found black bears in the exposed intertidal.

The bears were found singly, feeding on mussels, barnacles and algae at the water's edge engrossed in their meals. We were able to approach quietly and quite close in the steeply carved fjord. We found a total of six black bears during the day. Two of the bears wore brownish coats to confuse identification matters -- beautiful cinnamon black bears.

At "evening recap" for the captain's farewell party, we all sang "Waltzing With Bears." That melody and memories of bears ran through our heads long into the night.