Endicott Arm and Williams Cove
Yesterday we all arrived safely at Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Once only a couple of shacks built by the first gold prospectors, it is now a bustling sea port, where huge liners dwarf the quayside stores and the legendary Red Saloon still survives from the days of thirsty, gold-crazed sourdoughs. We had time to stroll the shop fronts before bedtime.
This morning we awake to a wild Alaskan landscape: soaring granite cliffs with trickling white necklaces of cascading water, their heads swathed in turbans of mist. We are steaming into a narrow fjord, mountains flanking a flooded glacial canyon. The water becomes bluer, there are chips of floating ice and occasional chunky blue icebergs, until we round the corner and see the Dawes glacier itself, a jumbled wall of jagged ice teeth. Our trusty fleet of Zodiacs are soon down and we take to the water; once away from the mother ship we become microscopic water beetles, dwarfed by the huge landscape. The glacier face is 150’ high, and as the cloud base lifts, we are looking at soaring 7000’ peaks. Torrents of water surge down to the sea, where glaucous-winged gulls and spotted sandpipers are feeding. Fifty harbour seals are sprawled on the rafting ice, while above them Arctic Terns search for baitfish. Suddenly there is a booming roar: the famous “white thunder”. We spin in time to see the face of the glacier collapse in blue smoke, driving muddy spray 100’ in the air. We have kept a safe distance, but even so, the surging waves are 6’ from crest to trough as they pass us: a dramatic glacial tsunami which reminds us that the glacier itself filed these mountains down to saw-teeth.
After lunch we move through misty channels and before long there is a cry: “Bears on shore!” As we tumble onto the bow, the ship is creeping quietly in to show us a female Black Bear and her single cub at the water’s edge. Our first sighting of a wild bear and a special insight into the lives of these forest predators, here in relaxed beachcomber mode, foraging for fish and crabs among the lowtide boulders.
Our afternoon destination is Williams Cove, where we kayak along the shore to marvel at thundering cataracts and then take a guided walk into the rainforest. Once among the cathedral quiet of the huge spruce and hemlock trees, we are quickly awed. This is part of the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness area and we are alone in the Great Bear Forest, following bear trails and suddenly very vulnerable. Pausing only to steal ripe blueberries and salmonberries, we creep back out to the shore and speed to the warmth and security of Sea Lion, waiting patiently offshore.
Yesterday we all arrived safely at Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Once only a couple of shacks built by the first gold prospectors, it is now a bustling sea port, where huge liners dwarf the quayside stores and the legendary Red Saloon still survives from the days of thirsty, gold-crazed sourdoughs. We had time to stroll the shop fronts before bedtime.
This morning we awake to a wild Alaskan landscape: soaring granite cliffs with trickling white necklaces of cascading water, their heads swathed in turbans of mist. We are steaming into a narrow fjord, mountains flanking a flooded glacial canyon. The water becomes bluer, there are chips of floating ice and occasional chunky blue icebergs, until we round the corner and see the Dawes glacier itself, a jumbled wall of jagged ice teeth. Our trusty fleet of Zodiacs are soon down and we take to the water; once away from the mother ship we become microscopic water beetles, dwarfed by the huge landscape. The glacier face is 150’ high, and as the cloud base lifts, we are looking at soaring 7000’ peaks. Torrents of water surge down to the sea, where glaucous-winged gulls and spotted sandpipers are feeding. Fifty harbour seals are sprawled on the rafting ice, while above them Arctic Terns search for baitfish. Suddenly there is a booming roar: the famous “white thunder”. We spin in time to see the face of the glacier collapse in blue smoke, driving muddy spray 100’ in the air. We have kept a safe distance, but even so, the surging waves are 6’ from crest to trough as they pass us: a dramatic glacial tsunami which reminds us that the glacier itself filed these mountains down to saw-teeth.
After lunch we move through misty channels and before long there is a cry: “Bears on shore!” As we tumble onto the bow, the ship is creeping quietly in to show us a female Black Bear and her single cub at the water’s edge. Our first sighting of a wild bear and a special insight into the lives of these forest predators, here in relaxed beachcomber mode, foraging for fish and crabs among the lowtide boulders.
Our afternoon destination is Williams Cove, where we kayak along the shore to marvel at thundering cataracts and then take a guided walk into the rainforest. Once among the cathedral quiet of the huge spruce and hemlock trees, we are quickly awed. This is part of the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness area and we are alone in the Great Bear Forest, following bear trails and suddenly very vulnerable. Pausing only to steal ripe blueberries and salmonberries, we creep back out to the shore and speed to the warmth and security of Sea Lion, waiting patiently offshore.
