Alaska’s “Bore” Tide

  • Tuesday, October 23, 2001
  • Tom Crangle

On June 1, 1778 Captain James Cook and his crew aboard the Endeavor landed at Point Possession in what is now called Cook Inlet and just south of the present day Municipality of Anchorage, and “took possession of the land and rivers on behalf of His Majesty George III”. He ordered Lt. William Bligh (yes, of Mutiny on the Bounty) to take a small boat and explore a small inlet in search of the long sought after Northwest Passage. Reaching the end of the inlet of about 40 miles and not finding (again) the Northwest Passage, Lt. Bligh had to turn again to return to the ship. This small, shallow inlet is called Turnagain Arm today.

Cook Inlet boasts of one of the largest tides in the world with a diurnal range of 33 feet, from low tide to high tide. Turnagain Arm is shallow due to glacial silt that has eroded into the water and remains deposited there. Narrow, shallow inlets such as this produce a phenomenon called a “Bore Tide”. This occurs daily after the low tide when water begins rushing back into the inlet. In Turnagain Arm the resulting wave reaches a height of 6 feet—a continuous, crashing wave that moves slowly up the 40 miles of the inlet.

The Milepost publication “Since 1949, the bible of North Country Travel” which wonderfully documents all kinds of sights along the Alaska Highway through Canada and Alaska and roads all over Alaska, says that the tide can be observed from Beluga Point at Milepost 110.4 on the Seward Highway and south to Girdwood.

My wonderful wife, Pamper, and I have found the best place is at a turnout at MP 94, about 30 miles south of Anchorage and 4 miles north of Girdwood, incidentally the home of past Winter Olympics and U. S. Senator Ted Stevens. The bore tide reaches here about 2 ½ hours after the low tide at Anchorage as published in the Anchorage newspaper. There is a 110 foot tall, TVA type steel electrical transmission tower there and the channel is narrow. The tide is 6 feet high here and on an especially good day you may see a human surfer or kayaker riding the wave (brrrrrr), the all white Beluga whales surfacing and diving after salmon right behind the tide, and a Killer whale behind that trying to feed on the Belugas. Unbelievably awesome.

Well, winter came to Anchorage last week with an 11 inch snow and two more snows of about 6 inches each this week. It looks like a winter wonderland here with the wet snow clinging to the trees and covering everything. You’d think people in Alaska would know how to drive in snow, but NOT! Drivers here are pretty much like they are everywhere else during a snow, either driving too slow or too fast.

(Tom Crangle is a Signal Mountain businessman who often visits a land he loves - Alaska.)

Travel
Blue Whales: Return Of The Giants 3D Brings The Planet’s Largest Animal To Chattanooga’s Biggest Screen
  • 2/29/2024

Blue Whales are the largest animal ever to have lived, but just reading that doesn’t quite convey their colossal proportions. They are bigger than the biggest dinosaur and weigh as much as ... more

Dan Fleser: Visiting St. Simons And Jekyll Islands
Dan Fleser: Visiting St. Simons And Jekyll Islands
  • 2/27/2024

After a day on the road last week, yours truly and fellow traveler Mike dropped anchor near the Atlantic Coast in Brunswick, Ga. We were unwinding at a local watering hole when a good Samaritan ... more

Tennessee RiverLine Announces 3 New Communities Enrolled In Tennessee RiverTowns Program
  • 2/23/2024

The Tennessee RiverLine announced Lawrence County, Al.; Calloway County, Ky.; and Dayton, Tn., as the 2024 cohort of the Tennessee RiverTowns Program. Now comprised of 22 enrolled communities, ... more