Rainbow at Ford’s Terror
Today we travelled in some of Southeast Alaska’s most intensely glaciated country. Of course, all of Southeast Alaska has been sculpted by ice, and every salty waterway is a fjord. But deep within the Coast Range the rocks are hardest, and have been carved into the region’s most spectacular scenery.
Soaring peaks rose around us as we travelled Endicott Arm. The seawater, carrying glacial silt, was a beautiful jade green. Icebergs appeared, scattered at first, but with increasing regularity. Many were frosty, but some were a luminous-looking sapphire. These were sure signs that we were approaching a tidewater glacier, and at last we saw it – the mighty Dawes Glacier.
We boarded Zodiacs for a closer look at the ice. We got intimate views of all sorts of icebergs, some colossal, some small. Approaching the Dawes Glacier, we found a wall of ice more than two hundred feet high. We came in hopes of seeing calving, when icebergs are born with a rumble and splash. And we were not disappointed. We saw several massive icefalls, and the waves they made rocked our boats. In a landscape so huge, it is hard to get a sense of scale, but not a sense of wonder. Rounded hills, jagged ice and roaring waterfalls were deeply impressive.
In the afternoon, we stopped at Ford’s Terror. This fjord, like many on the Northwest Coast, has a very shallow entrance. At changes of tide, fierce currents create standing waves, making a “saltchuck” or river of ocean water. We visited at slack tide, but still the current was notable, with waves and whirlpools that turned our boats. Once inside, a grand landscape emerged. The granite walls of Ford’s Terror are precipitous. Towering domes were deeply striated, and rent by bow-shaped exfoliated slabs. And all were laced together by hundreds of frothy falls, some threadlike, some mighty and thunderous. The rain was regular, but some we rewarded by a stunning rainbow.
Scattered rainfall continued, so it was a good time to stay inside where it was dry. Well, not too dry. Wine tasting polished off the afternoon.
Southeast Alaska is glaciated country. All that we will see rests on an icy foundation. Today’s experiences were a fine introduction to the richness that we discover in our travels in Alaska.
