Glacier Bay National Park of Alaska.

When was the last time you saw an ice-cube that was larger than life? Well, you can see this and more when you come and visit Glacier Bay National Park.

Glacier Bay National Park is located in the southeastern part of Alaska, established 1925, re-designated as a national park in 1980. The park, located in the Saint Elias Mountains on Glacier Bay, is noted for its great tidewater glaciers and lofty peaks, the highest of which is Mount Fairweather which is 15,299 ft high.

Among the park’s glaciers, which rise 200 ft above the water’s edge, is Muir Glacier. The park is important for scientific research on the formation and movement of glaciers and on the conditions existing after glacial retreat. The landscape ranges from rocky ice-swept terrain to lush forests of spruce and hemlock. Wildlife includes the black and brown bear, mountain goat, seal, sea lion, whale, puffin, eagle, and cormorant.

The park has snow-capped mountain ranges rising to over 15,000 feet, coastal beaches with protected coves, deep fjords, tidewater glaciers, coastal and estuarine waters, and freshwater lakes. These diverse land and seascapes host a mosaic of plant communities ranging from pioneer species in areas recently exposed by receding glaciers, to climax communities in older coastal and alpine ecosystems. Diverse habitats support a variety of marine and terrestrial wildlife, with opportunities for viewing and research that allow us to learn more about the natural world.

The marine wilderness of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve provides opportunities for adventure, a living laboratory for observing the ebb and flow of glaciers, and a chance to study life as it returns in the wake of retreating ice. Amidst majestic scenery, Glacier Bay offers us now, and for all time, a connection to a powerful and wild landscape.

Muir Glacier, large glacier, southeastern Alaska. It is named for the American explorer and naturalist John Muir, who sighted it in 1879. The ice stream flows down the slopes of Mount Fairweather and enters Glacier Bay as a palisade of ice nearly two miles long and from 135 to 210 ft high. It forms a barrier across the head of the bay and reaches 760 ft below sea level.