Endicott Arm-Dawes Glacier & Fjord’s Terror Wilderness
On this our last day of exploring Southeast Alaska the National Geographic Sea Lion and its compliment of travelers would take one last close up look at the force of nature that shaped this entire landscape. As dawn broke we crossed the bar of the Endicott Arm situated some 28 miles at the opening of this most impressive gouge in the bedrock spine of North America. Thousands of years of grinding and crushing by the once massive ice sheets that blanketed the northern latitudes have left this region riddled with fjords we call The Inside Passage. Glacial ice and its seemingly timeless agenda has retreated far back into the narrower axillary arms of the larger more commonly navigated bodies of water. Evidence of their passing is literally scribed on the sheer rock faces of Endicott and Tracy Arm.
This morning, in a fitting conclusion to our expedition, we travelled up the fjord towards the present day terminus of The Dawes glacier. Now a mere shadow of its former grandeur at 20 miles in length The Dawes Glacier is one of many glaciers spilling from the Stikine Ice Field, a massive catchment basin high in the coastal range. Already from the bow of the ship the half mile long face of the glacier and a portion of its lower reaches were dominating the horizon. By Zodiac boat our Naturalist staff and guests set out to get an up close and personal look at this surreal environment. Immediately our gaze was fixed on the bedrock and the clear evidence left by glacial ice. But the glacier and its workings were not all that were to be wondered upon. Pulling up to a waterfall and a short stream over the outwash we spotted Harlequin ducks at rest in the boiling mix of fresh melt water and the blue-green waters of the fjord. Soon a nesting pair of Glaucous-winged gulls just above the high-tide line let us appreciate their room with a view. All the while the occasional head of a harbor seal would surface to get a glimpse of us, always keeping a safe distance from these strangely clad orange-vested travellers.
Upon approach to the glacier and after weaving through the various sized bergs and growlers a unique behavior of tidewater glaciers was observed with awe and respect, a shooter. Shooters are a chunk of ice that bursts through the water column to surface in a dramatic manner, broken off from the tongue of the glacier that extends out from the glaciers face well below the water surface. This particular shooter was impressive in both its size and manner at which it surfaced. The glacier also gave us a good show on the surface occasional sloughing off, or calving, ice into the water below with the characteristic ‘white-thunder’ reaching the observer some seconds later.
Our afternoon brought us to the unique side fjord of Tracy Arm called Ford’s Terror. Named accurately from an historic account in which a vessel was caught in the bore tide created by the narrow winding constriction at opening of the fjord, when incoming flooding tides meet out going tides creating a standing wave of varying degrees. Today’s tidal data showed it wouldn’t be of any danger to our well-equipped Zodiacs. The fjord’s sculpted towering walls have waterfalls cascading off nearly every ridge, some in deeply carved fissures in the rock revealing their presence only to the curious eye. To conclude our experience here in Southeast Alaska at this magical place was most fitting. Hopefully leaving an impression on our adventurers as lasting as the glaciers have on this landscape.
