Fords Terror is a smallish fjord attached to Endicott Arm. The entrance is on a fairly sharp corner, relatively narrow at about 100ft (30m) wide. As soon as you have entered, there is a sharp right turn into the first section of the fjord. At low tide, there are rapids visible in the entrance and the water flows out rapidly. Its is impossible to pass through the entrance at low tide. In fact it is only possible to enter at high tide slack, that is, when the water stops flowing in and prepares to start flowing out. While the tide is rising, the water rages in through the narrow pass, hits the cliff wall and gushes out into the basin. It is noisy and intimidating and should not be underestimated. Once you are inside, the cliff walls rise about 4000ft on the port side. The sheer granite walls are scoured and carved by ice and a few trees have managed to get purchase and perch precariously on the cliff face. It is impressive.

Near the top of the basin there is a crevice in the sheer cliff and a waterfall cascades down, you can take the dinghy right up the the base of the waterfall. It’s a fun thing to do. Across on the other cliff face is a big waterfall that you can see from the peak all the way down to the water. You then round the corner down a narrow short passage into another basin where the anchorage is. Again, the cliffs are very high and very sheer. On the West side there is yet another waterfall running in numerous streams down the cliff face. At the head of the basin at low tide, there are drying mud flats. These could catch an unaware boater if they anchored too close. A stream which originates high up on the mountainside, runs down into the water in the middle of these drying flats. It is a truly beautiful place to spend a night or two. Many people have said this is the most beautiful anchorage in the WORLD! I am not sure how big their world is but we have to agree, the anchorage is spectacular.

There is yet another basin on the East side which has a narrow entrance that also dries and shows rocks at low tide. When the tide is coming in, some fairly serious rapids form. Again, we had a fun dinghy ride over the rapids. There are numerous waterfalls in the East arm and at the head of the arm is another stream. At high tide we took the dinghy up the stream until we reached some rapids which we could not traverse. We also passed under a huge overhanging granite rock. Beautiful. And a bit unnerving. We did a dinghy drift back downstream into the basin. With each tide, things seem a little different inside Fords Terror.

The name Fords Terror originated when HL Ford, as part of a naval surveying team, rowed a little boat in through the entrance in 1889. The tide changed and started rising while he was inside and he was trapped by this raging torrent of water for 6 hours.

I know this blog is littered with adjectives but I don’t how else to convey the vision from our eyes to your vision. It is an amazing place.

It left us gobsmakcked.