Rocks, fjords and water: six days of Alaska

We got on a big boat for six days for the most pampered sea-going ever, along the Inside Passage by Southeast Alaska.  Two weeks later, my inner ears still think they are on the ship.

The biggest surprise of this trip was waking up early Thursday morning, July 30, to a teal-colored sea with ice chunks in the water, and cliffs on all sides, filled with untouched wilderness.  Specifically, part of Tongass National Forest.  

We were in Endicott Arm, a fjord near Juneau, approaching Dawes Glacier. 

A magical experience.  In 1980, back when Congress did some useful things,

it declared this a protected wilderness. 

This sort of trick photo is a panorama
of the surrounding mountains as we approach
Dawes Glacier

Dawes Glacier in the early morning.

We did not get close to the glacier.
This is the best I could do with my 200 mm lens.

Fun fact: if you search for “songs about fjords” you will get some references to Viking Ancestral songs.   I guess “Arm” is the much less exotic English word for fjord.  If we added a “j” it would seem more vikingish.  Arjm. But I am here to tell you that the Vikings do not have a monopoly on fjords.

I think geologists might have fun in this place.  The only thing I learned about the rock formations is that glaciers are actually moving and grinding against the rock, which creates gravel, seen when the ice melts.

An interesting geological line across the rock face.
No idea what it means.

Different sort of bubbly cliff face

Gravel.  Left by a glacier at an earlier time?

The place was replete with waterfalls.

huge chunk of ice, as we leave Endicott Arm

While Endicott Arm was perhaps the most visually stunning scene, there was so much more.  A few days earlier, our first stop was Ketchikan, the rainiest city in the U.S.  We doubled down and went to a rainforest sanctuary.  Eerily beautiful, and extremely damp. (More on the flora and fauna of that place in a later post)

Rocky stream below, zipliners in the tree above,
and rich foliage everywhere.

another glacier, on our way to Juneau

After leaving Endicott Arm/ Dawes Glacier, we saw several more glaciers along the way.  Docking at Juneau, we went on a photo safari trip, starting with a walk on the “Trail of Time” through the forest toward Mendenhall Glacier.  There were markers to show where the limit of the glacier was in earlier years – it was many hundreds of feet or maybe miles larger.  

The limit of Mendenhall Glacier in 1916.

stream below a foot bridge

The Common Household Husband
photographs Mendenhall Glacier
(just look at the pleasant sky!)

closeup of Mendenhall Glacier

In the early 2000s, my parents went to Alaska.  For their entire lives, my father was always

egging on my mother to do things she felt were dangerous, such as careening along in a

little Toyota on a one-lane road in the Karakoram mountains, with no guard

rail (not shown here).  Or taking a helicopter to the top of a glacier.  I was not

as brave as my mother.  I was quite content to view the glacier from afar.

My parents, on the TOP of Mendenhall Glacier

This.  This, folks, was the scenery for whale watching
 near Juneau.  More on that later.

Icy Strait Point (near Hoonah) is a destination created by the cruise lines.  It

may be mainly tourist shops, but had areas of quiet calm. 

Pier supports and reflections

Icy Strait Point pebbly beach

When on the ship, we had plenty of time to relax and read.  I was reading Chasing Alaska: A Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now, by C.B. Bernard, which opens this way:

Southeast Alaskans call it a sucker hole when a patch of blue opens in the clouds and suckers you into thinking the sky is clearing. Tourists fall for them regularly.

This might be one such sucker hole.

Sucker hole in the clouds

In truth, the weather was stunning the whole time - fog and rain in Ketchikan, blue skies over Endicott Arm, steely gray skies (just like home!) in Icy Strait Point, and a glorious mix of sun and clouds while in Juneau.  

There was endless water, in all forms: ocean, fog, clouds, rainforest, waterfalls, snow, ice.

Bottled water, Tlingit style

Sunset and bits of snow on the mountain top

At sea.  Water, water everywhere.

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Posts in this series:

Alaska: culture and commerce

Alaska: flora and fauna

Seattle: West Coast whirlwind