Endicott Arm USACruise Port Guide

Endicott Arm is the kind of fjord that redefines a traveler's understanding of scale. Located approximately 45 miles southeast of Juneau within the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness — a 653,179-acre protected wilderness designated in 1980 — the arm stretches 30 miles from its mouth to the face of Dawes Glacier, with walls of polished granite rising in places to more than 3,000 feet on either side. The rock is so smooth, so sheer, and the water so narrow that navigating the arm in a large cruise ship feels like threading a needle. In smaller expedition vessels, the experience is even more intimate, with canyon walls close enough to hear waterfalls and spot mountain goats on near-vertical ledges.

The fjord takes its name from William Endicott, U.S. Secretary of War from 1885 to 1889, while the wilderness area's other arm — Tracy Arm, which runs parallel to the north — ends at the twin Sawyer Glaciers. Both fjords drain from the Stikine Icecap, and the ice that floats through both is often of extraordinary blue clarity, having been compressed for thousands of years before calving into the sea. The floating ice — ranging from fist-sized brash ice to multi-story icebergs called growlers — creates a navigation challenge that large ships handle with caution and smaller vessels navigate like slalom courses.

At Endicott Arm's head, Dawes Glacier presents a face approximately half a mile wide and more than 600 feet tall, remaining one of the most dramatically active tidewater glaciers in Southeast Alaska. Harbor seals haul out on floating ice near the glacier face by the hundreds, using the ice as protected nursery platforms — the combination of seals, blue ice, and calving glacier is one of the most photographically rewarding scenes on the entire Alaska cruise circuit.