On Wednesday, September 14, 2022 we cruised into the 30-mile long Endicott Arm Fjord within the Tongass National Forest. This Fjord has soaring cliffs, cascading waterfalls, and we had two wild animal sightings. Our Cruise Ship got us as close as it could to the Dawes Glacier, until the icebergs got too big and numerous! We had picked up a local Cruise Ship Pilot earlier in the day to navigate our ship down this narrow Fjord.
The tidewater Dawes Glacier is over 600 feet tall and around one mile wide.
The Fjord is located about 60 miles southeast of Juneau, AK within the Inside Passage. This tidewater glacier carved this Forjd over the thousands of years.
Technically, most of the small hunks of ice we encountered are classified as “Growlers” and “Berg Bits,” not Icebergs. They’re too small to be classified as Icebergs. I use the term Icebergs, because I like the name!
For our “Port Excursion” in the Fjord we took a small (78-foot, 140-person) catamaran boat, to get us much closer to the Dawes Glacier. Two catamarans come down from Juneau for the day our Cruise Ship was in the Fjord. For those that did not take the “Port Excursion,” our ship did a full turn in the Fjord, allowing all guests on all sides of our Cruise Ship the opportunity to see the glacier.
Today Its icebergs provide breeding and whelping grounds Harbor Seals. We witness two ice calving, which is when heavyweight chunks of ice fall off and shed into the seawater, creating icebergs.
Due to strict environmental restrictions, cruise ships visiting the area have specific times of the day that they’re allowed to venture through the Endicott Arm Fjord. Our Cruise Ship had a naturalist narrating the voyage through the Fjord, pointing out factoids about the Fjord. However, due to strict sound pollution rules, there were portions of the journey when the naturalist had to stop speaking through the ships P.A. system.
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