Today was a nice combination of geology, onshore bushwhacking, wildlife viewing, and a massive glacier.

We started by heading up the Tidal Inlet. This inlet is known for a massive slow-moving slide on one of its steep slopes that has the potential if triggered by an earthquake, large snowfalls, or torrential rains, of collapsing into the water and potentially creating a wave that could travel at speeds of 45-50 m/s (148-164 ft/s) and reach heights up to 76 m (250 ft), running up to 200 m (656 ft) on the opposite shore of the Tidal Inlet. In other words, not a time to be on the water or anywhere near the shoreline. While this has not happened yet in this location, it has happened in other cliff sides in the region.

With that in mind, our skiff took us up to the top of the inlet where we started our first real bushwhacking into the Alaskan forest. While there isn’t a lot of topsoil, there is a lot of rain. And therefore a lot of plants and water (running and pooled). While most of the plant life is non-threatening, a quick lesson is that when you start sliding on the wet ground, look to see what you are grabbing before you grab anything. There is a common plant in this region called Devil’s Club. It is famous for being loaded on all its stems with stiff, small, and very painful spines. If you grab one, you will know it. And then take some time removing all of the small spines. By the way, bears like the berries it produces but they clearly have thicker skin than humans. Our human eyes though only saw the thorny stems - lots of them!

With that said, the bushwhacking was awesome. No trails, slippery ground, standing and running water, all types of mushrooms, and dense forest and ground cover. This was nature in its purest form! Oh yes, the rain boots and rain gear were critical. Even when it wasn’t raining, the vegetation was happy to share its abundant moisture with us.

Once we reboarded our ship, we headed up towards Johns Hopkins Glacier. On the way, we passed Reid Glacier along with a few smaller glaciers poking out from the cliffs above us, ending abruptly without reaching the shore or waterline.

Johns Hopkins Glacier itself is amazing. It runs about 19 km (12 miles) from the source in the Fairweather Mountain peaks. Tributary glaciers feed it with ice and massive rocks. It is most interesting as you can see streaks of dark running down the ice flow, called medial moraines. These carry the debris and rock being fed into this massive glacier.

Where the glacier enters the ocean, it is about 1.6 km (1 mile) wide and can reach 76 m (250 feet) high. The ice extends under the sea level to as deep as 61 m (200 feet). An underwater moraine protects the glacier’s end point under water ice from the warmer ocean currents which decreases the ice melt. The glacier has the typical drainage but in this case, the water flows into the ocean underwater, completely out of sight.

The massive ice wall at the water line is constantly calving (chunks breaking off and falling into the water). You could hear occasionally boom sounds as pices broke off and fell into the water. We did barely catch a glance at one ice chunk as it collapsed, forming new icebergs where it hit the water.

Small icebergs were all around our ship which carefully made its way into the area. We were also allowed the pleasure of viewing several of the local waterborne wildlife. I have included a picture of a harbor seal cruising by, along with a few humpback whales breaching near our ship.