When Capt. George Vancouver sailed the Alaska coast in 1794, Glacier Bay did not exist. It lay beneath a sheet of glacial ice several miles wide and thousands of feet thick. Since then, in one of the fastest glacial retreats on record, the ice has shrunk back 65 miles to unveil new land and a new bay, now returning to life after a long winter's sleep.
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Scientists call Glacier Bay a living laboratory for the grand processes of glacial retreat, plant succession, and animal dynamics. It is an open book on the last ice age. At the southern end, where the ice departed 200 years ago, a spruce-hemlock rain forest has taken root. Farther north, the more recently deglaciated land becomes rugged and thinly vegetated.
The bay branches into two major arms, the west arm and Muir Inlet, which themselves branch into smaller inlets. There, on slopes deglaciated 50 to 100 years ago, alder and willow grow, while mosses, mountain avens, and dwarf fireweed pioneer areas exposed within 30 years.
The new vegetation creates habitats for wolves, moose, mountain goats, black bears, brown bears, ptarmigan, and other wildlife, and the sea supports a food chain that includes salmon, bald eagles, harbor seals, harbor porpoises, humpback whales, and killer whales—all in an environment less than 200 years old.
Glacier Bay is home to nine tidewater glaciers that calve. In part because of variations in snow accumulations, most glaciers in the eastern and southwestern areas of the bay are receding, while several on its west side are advancing.
The glaciers calve icebergs that hit the water with a sound like cannon shot. "White thunder," the Tlingit called it, the awesome voice of glacial ice. An iceberg's color often reveals its makeup; dense bergs are blue, while those filled with trapped air bubbles are white.
How to Get There
By boat or plane only. From Juneau, take a scheduled flight 53 miles to Gustavus. Catch the bus to Glacier Bay Lodge and Bartlett Cove Campground, 10 miles away at the park's southern end. Charter flights also service Gustavus from Juneau, Skagway, Haines, and Hoonah. Contact Park headquarters or Glacier Bay Lodge about passenger (only) ferries from Juneau to Bartlett Cove. Private boats can enter the bay with permits (required June to August) obtained by phone, by mail from headquarters at Bartlett Cove, or online (www.nps.gov/glba).
When to Go
Late May to mid-September. Summer days are long and temperatures cool. May and June have the most sunshine, but the upper inlets can be thick with icebergs then and the tidewater glaciers less approachable. September is often rainy and windy.
How to Visit
Glacier Bay is a marine highway. Most visitors experience the park from the deck of a cruise ship, or a tour boat, or from waterline in a sea kayak. Many of the large cruise ships that travel southeastern Alaska's Inside Passage go into Glacier Bay. Other tours offer accommodations at Glacier Bay Lodge (the park's center of activity) and a 1-day trip to the glaciers and back. Campers and kayakers can take the boat and be dropped off at one of two sites up the bay, either to be picked up at a later date or to paddle back to Bartlett Cove.
