Glacier Bay National Park
Alaska
In the watery wilderness of Glacier Bay National Park, you can witness a landscape at its literal moment of creation. When George Vancouver and his H.M.S. Discovery explored Southeast Alaska's coastline in 1794, Glacier Bay lay buried beneath a mile-thick ice sheet extending all the way to its mouth at Icy Strait. But the ice has beaten a remarkably hasty retreat over the last two centuries, exhuming a raw, misty realm of steep-sided fjords and tidewater glaciers.
Glacier Bay National Park
The Y-shape bay is now 65 miles long. A journey up its arms is a profound regression through the life cycle of a new land, from maturing Sitka-spruce forests replete with grizzlies and wolves to thin-skinned tundra to the algae, lichens, and mosses that gain purchase on land exposed at a glacier's maw, the first beginnings of organic soil.
Glacier Bay stands at farthest possible remove from the tiresome clamor of the modern world. So, at least for a little while, trade in your cell phone's jangle for the pop, crackle, and finally thunderous boom of a building-size berg calving into the sea from a vast river of ice. Swap rivers of commuter traffic for a whitewater ride down North America's wildest rivers, the Tatshenshini and Alsek. Whatever you do here — and choices range from sea kayaking to fishing for mammoth halibut to keeping an eye peeled for ambling bears or breaching humpback whales — you'll be adventuring far beyond the end of the road.
For the most fun in Glacier Bay, try these GORP picks:
Sea Kayak in a Paddler's Mecca
Glacier Bay's waters are arguably the finest sea-kayaking grounds in the world. In the southerly precincts of the bay at spots like the Beardslee Islands, you can paddle zoom-lens close to moose, bald eagles, bears, inquisitive harbor seals, and humpback and killer whales. Head up Muir Inlet to the ice-choked waters at the snout of McBride Glacier and you'll witness the mind-numbing spectacle of a tidewater glacier periodically dumping itself into the sea. Given the intensely wild feel of Glacier Bay, it's a welcome surprise that kayakers of all skill levels can get a deep draught of paddling here; the fractured coastline offers many sheltered quiet-water coves, and the park infrastructure — which includes a number of officially sanctioned outfitters and a concession-run boat that drops paddle-campers off at remote backcountry locations — makes it easy enough to hew deep into the wildest parts of the bay. More on
paddling Glacier Bay National Park
Raft the Tatshenshini and Alsek Rivers
The Tatshenshini and Alsek are twin prongs of a river draining what's perhaps the most impregnably wild mountain country in North America — the St. Elias and Alsek ranges, the heights of which are protected by Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Canada's Kluane National Park. Frequent touted as the most out-there river journey you can make on this continent, either arm pierces a dizzyingly vertical landscape of permanent snowfields; wildlife that includes grizzlies, Dall sheep, mountain goats, and caribou; and waters made turquoise-blue by glacial silt. There's also plenty of whitewater froth — Class III rapids on the Tat, and big, bruising Class V's on the Alsek. Raft these rivers and you'll feel a profound, deepening sense of time traveling, as you move from the infant lands of the headwaters down toward the lush, fully developed temperate rain forest at the rivers' joint mouth in the northern arm of Glacier Bay National Park.
More on
rafting in Glacier Bay National Park
Adventuring around Gustavus
Any community beyond the reach of roads and bordered by 360 degrees of wilderness is a pretty safe bet as a sublime destination. Gustavus, on a spit of land reaching into Glacier Bay, is just such a place, and it's every bit as good as the maps promise. The tiny, quiet hamlet is replete with B&Bs; and inns, and the park's main visitor center is just out of town — in other words, this is a comfortable, slow-paced place to use as a base camp for exploring one of the continent's most special landscapes. And there's plenty to do around Gustavus outside park boundaries: You can take a kayak tour or charter a small craft and nose around Icy Strait among humpbacks and killer whales, or forge out on a fishing expedition for gargantuan halibut.
Soar above the Glaciers
For anyone who's got a taste for getting deep into the nitty gritty of a landscape, flight-seeing tours tend to be something of a bore — all that scenic beauty outside your window might as well be a poster; it's still too far away to touch or truly experience. But this one's an exception. Seeing Glacier Bay's terrain from above allows for a deeper appreciation of its verticality and immense scale. From the window of a Bush seaplane, you'll see the hundreds of cubic miles of ice of the Brady Icefield. Rivers of ice, such as the Lamplugh and Grand Pacific Glaciers, will stretch out below you, serrated ridges clearly hinting at their flow patterns. There will be narrow fjords and bowl-like cirques — and you'll be able to see how those immense ice flows carved them out of rock.
Bears and Whales and Orcas, Oh My!
Whatever you do at Glacier Bay, wildlife watching will be part of your experience. Each summer 15 20 humpback whales regularly feed in park waters, concentrating in the lower part of the bay. The impact of the sight of a humpback breaching clear out of the water only ratchets upward when you trade cruise ship for small tour boat, or tour boat for one-man kayak. The park is roamed by at least 40 species of mammals — grizzlies, moose, wolves — and more than 220 known species of birds; whatever your conveyance, a trip up the bay will offer plenty of sightings along the shorelines. And keep an eye peeled for the blue glacier bear, a rare species of black bear wearing a fashionable blue coat.
Return to  Top
RELATED GORP LINKS
 GORP Parks and Preserves
Alaska Resources
GORPtravel
|
