Glacier Bay: the best-documented glacial retreat in the world

Glacier Bay is a long fjord with several arms, in south-east Alaska. At the head of each arm, a glacier comes down from the mountains to the sea. From time to time a slab of ice as tall as a building breaks off and crashes into the water, with a noise like cannon fire.

History and origins

When Captain Vancouver passed this way in 1794, there was no bay: only a wall of ice. When the naturalist John Muir arrived in 1879, the ice had retreated 77 km. It has carried on since. It’s the best-documented glacial retreat in the world, and it began well before today’s warming.

The Huna Tlingit lived here before the ice advanced and drove them out. They stayed close by, in Hoonah, and still regard the bay as their homeland. The site was protected in 1925 and became a national park in 1980.

What to do there

• The glaciers: half a dozen of them reach the sea. The most spectacular, Margerie, is a wall of blue ice about 1.5 km wide and 60 metres high above the water.
• The boat tour: from Bartlett Cove, a boat goes up the bay for the day, in nine hours, with a ranger on board. It’s the best way to see it if you aren’t on a cruise.
• The wildlife: humpback whales, orcas, sea lions, sea otters, puffins. On the shores, bears and mountain goats.
• Kayaking: you can be dropped off with your kayak at the head of the bay and camp for several days.
• Bartlett Cove: the only developed spot, with a lodge, a campground, a Tlingit tribal house and a few trails through a mossy forest.

Stories and good to know

• The land freed by the ice is a laboratory: you can see the forest moving back in stage by stage, from lichen to spruce.
• The park has more than a thousand glaciers. Most are up in the mountains, invisible from the bay.
• Relieved of the weight of the ice, the land here is rising by several centimetres a year.

Practical information for your trip

• Getting there: the small village of Gustavus is linked to Juneau by plane, in 30 minutes, and by ferry a few times a week. Bartlett Cove is 16 km from there.
• Clothing: it often rains, and it’s cool on the water, even in July. Bring a waterproof, a hat and gloves.
• Where to stay: at Glacier Bay Lodge, the only hotel in the park, or in the inns of Gustavus.
• Combine it with: Juneau and the other ports of call on the “Inside Passage”, the sea route through south-east Alaska.