Dawes Glacier, Endicott Arm, Southeast Alaska
There is a reason that it is called a Rainforest! In the Temperate Zone the prevailing winds – the Temperate Westerlies - blow over the relatively warm Pacific Ocean and the air becomes saturated with moisture. When they strike the mountains of coastal Alaska they are deflected upwards. They cool, and the water vapor becomes liquid: precipitation. At low elevations most of this falls as rain throughout the year. We saw some of that! Higher in the mountains it falls as snow – so much of it that the accumulation of snow in winter is greater than loss to melting in summer. Year by year the snow accumulates. Mountain basins are filled with snow. As the mass builds the snow is compressed, altered, metamorphosed … snow becomes ice.
Year after year ice accumulates until it begins to move under its own mass and the force of gravity. That moving river of ice is a glacier, and Alaska is replete with them. They are one of the attractions that we have come to see, and several of Alaska’s most beautiful glaciers are to be found in Tracy and Endicott Arms, two long, connected fjords that cut into the mainland of Alaska almost to the border with British Columbia. Where a glacier reaches all the way to the sea, pieces large and small fall from the ice face into the water below and float away down the fjord. We saw ample evidence of this as we made our way up Endicott Arm. At Dawes Glacier we boarded Zodiacs to approach the ice face, remaining a respectful distance away. We could hear the internal rumbling and sharp cracks of the glacier, and occasionally we watched as, with a mighty roar and giant splash, tons of ice fell into the water below. The ice face is not at all a monochromatic white, but a palette ranging from white to pale robin’s egg blue to the deepest azure. We saw that the deepest blue ice is the most dense and pure crystalline H20, without air bubbles. Ice with air bubbles appears white.
And there was more. Pieces of ice floating low in the water provide platforms for harbor seals. The females come here to bear their pups, and pairs of seals, one large and one small, were scattered over the ice. The pups grow rapidly, fueled by their mothers’ fat-rich milk, for in a mere four weeks they will be on their own.
We spent our afternoon at Williams Cove. There, many discovered the enjoyment of gliding over the water by kayak, and most took the opportunity for walks and a first introduction to the plants of the Temperate Rainforest – giant trees of Sitka spruce and Western hemlock, Devil’s club adorned with nasty spines, the ever-popular bronze-brown flowers of the chocolate lily, and many, many more. Finally, as we were boarding our Zodiacs to return to our ship, many of us watched a young brown bear walk out onto the beach, prop itself against a rock, and then return to the forest – a reminder that this is, indeed, wild Alaska, where bears are resident and we are visitors … but fortunate visitors, indeed.
There is a reason that it is called a Rainforest! In the Temperate Zone the prevailing winds – the Temperate Westerlies - blow over the relatively warm Pacific Ocean and the air becomes saturated with moisture. When they strike the mountains of coastal Alaska they are deflected upwards. They cool, and the water vapor becomes liquid: precipitation. At low elevations most of this falls as rain throughout the year. We saw some of that! Higher in the mountains it falls as snow – so much of it that the accumulation of snow in winter is greater than loss to melting in summer. Year by year the snow accumulates. Mountain basins are filled with snow. As the mass builds the snow is compressed, altered, metamorphosed … snow becomes ice.
Year after year ice accumulates until it begins to move under its own mass and the force of gravity. That moving river of ice is a glacier, and Alaska is replete with them. They are one of the attractions that we have come to see, and several of Alaska’s most beautiful glaciers are to be found in Tracy and Endicott Arms, two long, connected fjords that cut into the mainland of Alaska almost to the border with British Columbia. Where a glacier reaches all the way to the sea, pieces large and small fall from the ice face into the water below and float away down the fjord. We saw ample evidence of this as we made our way up Endicott Arm. At Dawes Glacier we boarded Zodiacs to approach the ice face, remaining a respectful distance away. We could hear the internal rumbling and sharp cracks of the glacier, and occasionally we watched as, with a mighty roar and giant splash, tons of ice fell into the water below. The ice face is not at all a monochromatic white, but a palette ranging from white to pale robin’s egg blue to the deepest azure. We saw that the deepest blue ice is the most dense and pure crystalline H20, without air bubbles. Ice with air bubbles appears white.
And there was more. Pieces of ice floating low in the water provide platforms for harbor seals. The females come here to bear their pups, and pairs of seals, one large and one small, were scattered over the ice. The pups grow rapidly, fueled by their mothers’ fat-rich milk, for in a mere four weeks they will be on their own.
We spent our afternoon at Williams Cove. There, many discovered the enjoyment of gliding over the water by kayak, and most took the opportunity for walks and a first introduction to the plants of the Temperate Rainforest – giant trees of Sitka spruce and Western hemlock, Devil’s club adorned with nasty spines, the ever-popular bronze-brown flowers of the chocolate lily, and many, many more. Finally, as we were boarding our Zodiacs to return to our ship, many of us watched a young brown bear walk out onto the beach, prop itself against a rock, and then return to the forest – a reminder that this is, indeed, wild Alaska, where bears are resident and we are visitors … but fortunate visitors, indeed.
