Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, is today, an awakening land. What was once a mile-thick sheet of ice, extending into the ocean waters of the northern Pacific some 250 years ago when the likes of Captain James Cook were sailing off its coast, is now a 65-mile-deep bay due to the most rapid retreat of a glacial mass of this size on record.
The land uncovered by this massive glacial retreat is essentially “new land”, and with new land comes new growth and rapidly evolving ecosystems that unfold before our eyes. This park showcases such birth and provides ample opportunity to explore layers of newly exposed terra and its evolution.
Guide to Glacier Bay
Glacier Bay National Park
From the bay’s mouth at the Pacific, forests of spruce and western hemlocks have formed what is now a mature temperate rainforest over the past 250 years since rapid retreat of the glaciers began.
Moving further into Glacier Bay, areas deglaciated 50-100 years ago, allow for the thick growth of alders, cottonwoods and willows while newly exposed lands of 20-30 years provide habitat for mosses, avens and fireweed. More recently exposed land will become host to lichens, which begin the process of creating soil on land by excreting acids that dissolve rock and effectively create soil for the lichen to begin life.
The park is home to an array of wildlife that make the most of the new land. New vegetation attracts moose, black and brown bear, mountain goats, wolves and soaring bald eagles, while the waters are filled with salmon, porpoises, sea lions, and minke as well as humpback and killer whales.
Although most visitors to Glacier Bay spend their time on cruise ships or tour boats, many recreational pursuits are available in this vast wilderness of 3.2 million acres. From walks and hikes near Barlett Cove or kayaking and camping along the shores of the massive icy bay, to rare scalings of the 15,000 foot Mt Fairweather, which is oddly, despite its mundane name, one of the snowiest places on earth and notorious for voracious storms any time of year.
Whatever your desired pursuit in this diverse Alaskan land, a visit to Glacier Bay requires either boat or plane passage as no roadways enter the park from the outside world. Many large cruise ships enter the park while cruising along the coast, adding greatly to the number of guests the park receives annually. Many who visit with recreational pursuits in mind come into Gustavus, near the park visitor center and lodge, via ferry from Juneau.
This park is unlike any other and continues to provide scientists with a living laboratory in which to examine plant succession and animal inhabitation of new lands, offering clues to the beginnings of life on this planet. Recreational visitors to Glacier Bay will undoubtedly make discoveries here too. What will you find?
See ya there…
Guide to Glacier Bay
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