Glacier Bay National Park

About this place

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve covers about 13,045 square kilometres of mountains, glaciers and fjords in Southeast Alaska, west of Juneau. Its headquarters at Bartlett Cove lies about 10 km in a straight line north-west of the small town of Gustavus and about 87 km west of Juneau. The area was proclaimed a national monument in 1925 and became a national park and preserve in 1980. Since 1979 it has formed part of a cross-border UNESCO World Heritage Site with neighbouring parks in Canada and Alaska, and the Park Service works with the Hoonah and Yakutat Tlingit, whose ancestral lands include the bay, in managing the area. When the explorer George Vancouver passed in 1794, the bay was almost entirely filled with ice; since then the glaciers have retreated about 100 km. Today the bay reaches far inland between steep mountains and ends at tidewater glaciers whose blue-white walls rise straight from the water and calve ice with a roar. Seals rest on floating ice, seabirds such as kittiwakes gather on icebergs, and around Bartlett Cove there are forest trails and stony beaches. Few roads reach the park: most visitors see the bay from a cruise ship or on a day boat tour from Bartlett Cove, and Gustavus is reached by plane or ferry from Juneau. There is no entrance fee, and the weather is cool and wet even in summer, so bring warm, waterproof layers.