And so I arrived in Glacier Bay Park, a paradise for photographers,a land reborn, a world returning to life, an inspiration place.
Glacier Bay National Park is a highlight of Alaska's Inside Passage and part of a 25-million acre World Heritage Site-one of the world’s largest international protected areas and is covering 3.3 million acres of rugged mountains, dynamic glaciers, temperate rain forest, wild coastlines, and deep sheltered fjords. Glacier Bay became part of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, was inscribed as a Biosphere Reserve in 1986 and in 1994 undertook an obligation to work with Hoonah and Tlingit Native American organizations in the management of the protected area.
Sailing through Glacier Bay today, you travel along shorelines and among islands that were completely covered by ice just over 200 years ago. A massive river of ice occupied the entire bay. In 1794 what we now call Glacier Bay was described as just a small five-mile indent in a gigantic glacier that stretched off to the horizon. That massive glacier was more than 4,000 feet thick in places, up to 20 miles wide, and extended more than 100 miles to the St. Elias mountain range.By 1879, the ice had retreated more than 30 miles forming an actual bay. By 1916, the Grand Pacific Glacier – the main glacier credited with carving the bay – had melted back 60 miles to the head of what is now Tarr Inlet. Today, fewer than a dozen smaller tidewater glaciers remain.
A journey through Glacier Bay is a journey through time, from ice age to modern age. You pass through hundreds of bold changes and subtle transitions where plants and animals pioneer new ground and surprise even the most seasoned observers of nature.
As its name implies, much of Glacier Bay National Park is water. Most of the land within the park is mountainous, covered with dense rain forest or alder thickets, and without roads or trails. While a few hardy travelers hike, raft, or climb the mountains, the vast majority of visitors travel by salt water. Glacier Bay is a natural waterway from Alaska's Inside Passage to the tidewater glaciers that are the park's main attraction. Its numerous branches, inlets, lagoons, islands, and passages offer virtually limitless opportunities for exploration.
No roads lead to the park and it is most easily reached by air travel. During some summers there are ferries to the small community of Gustavus or directly to the marina at Bartlett Cove. Despite the lack of roads, there are over 400,000 visitors each year most of whom arrive via cruise ship, but the number of ships that may arrive each day is limited by regulation. Other travelers come on white-water rafting trips.
Glaciers fed by heavy snow extend to the sea and calve icebergs from their face. Sediments may accumulate at the face of tidewater glacier, providing a protective shoal from the seawater, allowing the ice to advance into deeper water.
If a glacier loses its shoal, retreat begins. If conditions become favorable, the cycle may begin again with the advance of glaciers.
