The morning’s opening scene was framed by steep, granitic walls with a soft, misty quiet. As we traveled further up Endicott Arm, the water’s color changed to a creamier green. We discovered why when Dawes Glacier came into view. As this tidewater glacier carves its way down the u-shaped valley, it grinds the bedrock into silt, then drops it off when it gets to the sea. The hazy light brought out every color of blue and green imaginable in the water, the rock and the vegetation all around us.
After putting on many layers of warm, dry clothing, we loaded up our smaller boats to carefully weave our way around the massive icebergs and the bergie bits towards the face of the glacier. In the distance, we could see the occasional round, gray head of a harbor seal. Eyes were mostly trained on the face of the glacier, hoping to see calving in action. We were greatly rewarded when a piece of ice the size of an office building broke away from the glacier, plunging into the saltwater, and rocketing back up to the surface with its super buoyancy.
After intermission, the day’s second act took place in Ford’s Terror, where granite cliffs rise straight out of the water and disappear into the clouds. The morning’s rain had filled the rivers above and we were surrounded by waterfalls; pouring, pulsing, and falling over the cliff faces. Familiar alders, ferns, and wildflowers clung to nooks and crannies on the rock. As the scene closed, we motored back out into Stephens Passage, ready for our next adventure.
