Endicott Arm
“Good morning. Good morning on National Geographic Sea Lion. If you haven’t been outside yet I highly recommend you come out on deck before breakfast. We are heading up Endicott Arm towards Dawes Glacier, the sun is shining, with a brilliant blue sky, and 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Welcome to some of the best that Southeast Alaska has to offer…” Thus began Day 1 of our expedition.
We spent the morning in Zodiacs, exploring the spectacular fjord this glacier carved out. High rounded cliff walls engraved with beautiful etchings drawn by ice and rock. Melting snow hurled itself from high above, following the U-shaped valleys from previously retreated glacial arms, and emptying into the sea around us. Curious yet shy harbor seals poked their heads above water. And of course the ice – a huge iceberg greeted us by rolling over to show us its blue underbelly. We pushed through bergie bits and growlers, on our way to get closer to the ¾-mile wide face of Dawes Glacier. I closed my eyes, feeling both the cool breeze off the glacier and the warmth of the sun on my face. Every so often there was the CRAACK of white thunder as ice fell hundreds of feet from the glacier to the sea. In the later morning, there were some tremendous calvings that produced huge splashes and rocked those onboard the ship.
In the afternoon we made our way up another small fjord called Ford’s Terror. We had to time our Zodiac excursions around slack tide, as the narrow opening produces currents and standing waves that are impossible to navigate through at any other time. Once through, we were treated to a gorgeous scene of high fjord walls decorated with greens of Sitka spruce, alders, mosses and ferns, and beautiful flowers of red, yellow, white, purple and blue. I yearned to climb up one of the ephemeral waterfalls for a different vantage. What lies over the crest of that peak? Where is the source of the waterfall? These questions and many more will go unanswered for me today. And I love that – the adventure, the mystery, the unknown and uncharted and unnamed places that are abundant here in Southeast Alaska.
