Cruising Fords Terror, Alaksa

Ford’s Terror, located 60 miles southeast of Juneau in Alaska’s Inside Passage, is a tremendously steep and narrow fjord. The Tracy Arm-Terror Ford’s Wilderness is where you’ll find it. Off Holkham Bay and near Stephens Passage in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, it is about 45 miles south of Juneau and 70 miles north of Petersburg. The Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness was established by the United States Congress in 1980, and Tracy Arm is its beating heart.

Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm, both narrow and deep and more than 30 miles long, are the highlights of this wilderness, which is bounded on the east by Canada. The tidewater glaciers at the heads of both fjords calve into the sea on a regular basis, making it risky for boats to approach their faces. Both of these inlets are amazing representations of the impact glaciers have had and continue to have on this area. Ford’s Terror exemplifies the severe gouging that glaciers are capable of, whereas Endicott Arm, with its calm beach and gently rounded ridges, demonstrates the smoothing impacts of glacial action. Harbor seals can be seen sunning themselves on the icebergs that dot the fjords’ icy waters. Both humpback and killer whales can frequently be spotted here.