United States
Glacier Bay
Glacier Bay, Alaska: A UNESCO Wilderness Viewed Entirely from the Deck
Glacier Bay National Park lies in Southeast Alaska, west of Juneau, and takes its name from its glaciers, more than a thousand of them, a few of which still reach the sea. Your ship will stop for about an hour in front of a tidewater glacier, so find out when and be outside for it, dressed for cold and rain.
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What to Expect on a Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising Day
Cruise ships do not dock anywhere in Glacier Bay National Park, so the whole visit happens from the ship, with Park Service rangers aboard. A typical day in the bay lasts nine to ten hours.
- Rangers come aboard for the day to narrate, give talks, run Junior Ranger activities for children and staff an information desk.
- Ranger boarding times depend on the day, the cruise line and the weather, so check your ship's daily program for when they board and where the desk will be.
- A park map is delivered to your stateroom the evening before you reach the bay.
- The number of ships allowed into the bay each day is limited by regulation, and many Alaska cruises do not include it.
Viewing Tips for Glacier Bay
Glacier Bay days often start early, and the weather is usually cool and wet even in summer. A few simple preparations make the hours on deck more comfortable.
- Where to stand: Outside decks give the clearest sense of the scale of the ice and let you hear it crack and fall, especially near the glacier.
- Weather: The bay gets more than 80 inches of rain a year, Southeast Alaska averages about four sunny days a month, and summer highs are usually 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, so bring rain gear and warm layers.
- Binoculars: Animals on shore look smaller than you expect against mountains this size, and binoculars help with wildlife and with the texture of the ice.
- Which glacier: Ships are allowed into Johns Hopkins Inlet only in late summer, after the harbor seal protections end.
- Ask the rangers: They can help you find wildlife and tell you what you are looking at.
Huna Tlingit Heritage and the National Park
Glacier Bay is the homeland of the Huna Tlingit, whose ancestors lived in the lower bay before the glacier advanced over their villages. Most Huna Tlingit now live across Icy Strait in Hoonah, and the bay remains central to their stories, songs and traditions.
- In Tlingit, the bay before the ice advance was S'e Shuyee, "edge of the glacial silt," and after the retreat it became Sit' Eeti Gheeyi, "the bay in place of the glacier."
- Hoonah, where the clans settled after leaving the bay, is Xunniyaa in Tlingit, meaning "shelter from the north wind."
- Four Huna Tlingit clans traditionally held territories in and around Glacier Bay.
- Xunaa Shuká Hít, the Huna Ancestors' House at Bartlett Cove, is the first permanent clan house in the bay since the villages were destroyed, and it is used for ceremonies, workshops, camps and tribal meetings.
- The Healing Totem Pole, carved from 20 feet of yellow cedar and standing at the head of the public dock in Bartlett Cove, tells of the clans' loss of the bay, the hard years that followed and the later work between the tribe and the Park Service to repair the relationship.
A Brief History
Around 1750 a single glacier filled what is now Glacier Bay, and it has since retreated about 65 miles to the heads of the inlets. The bay's human story runs from Tlingit villages lost to the ice to a national park created in 1980.
- Before the ice: Ancestors of the Huna Tlingit lived in a broad valley in the lower bay, with villages near what are now Rush Point and Bartlett Cove.
- From about 1700: The glacier surged down the valley and overran the villages, and the clans dispersed around Icy Strait, later settling at what is now Hoonah.
- 1794: Joseph Whidbey, of George Vancouver's expedition, found Icy Strait full of ice, with one glacier covering almost all of the bay.
- 1879: John Muir came with Tlingit guides and found the ice far back up the bay, and largely through his writing the bay drew tourists and scientists in the late 1880s and 1890s.
- 1916 to 1925: The botanist William S. Cooper came to study how plants colonize ground left bare by the ice, then campaigned for its protection, and President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed Glacier Bay National Monument on February 26, 1925.
- 1939: The monument was more than doubled in size, making it for a time the largest unit of the National Park System.
- 1980: The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act enlarged the area and created Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, which is also part of a World Heritage Site shared with Canada.
- 2016: The new clan house at Bartlett Cove was dedicated on August 25, in the Park Service's centennial year.
- To learn more: The rangers' desk on board has park books and maps. The park's visitor center is on the second floor of Glacier Bay Lodge, for visitors who arrive by plane or on their own boat.
Glacier Bay with Children and Families
Children can join a Junior Ranger program on board, because the rangers present a special session for young Junior Rangers during the Glacier Bay day. Plan the day around the ranger sessions.
- Younger children: Cruise ship children's centers offer a Junior Ranger program over the course of the cruise, and on the Glacier Bay day the rangers present a special session for young Junior Rangers.
- School age: Give each child binoculars and look for animals together, and ask the rangers for help, since whales, seals and goats are easy to miss at this scale.
- Teenagers: Depending on your cruise, a teen program may be offered.
- For everyone: Dress children in warm, waterproof layers, because much of the day is spent on open decks in cool, wet weather.
Accessibility on a Glacier Bay Day
Because ships do not dock and no one goes ashore, a Glacier Bay day involves no gangway or tender.
- Ranger help is available indoors at the information desk as well as out on deck.
- Contact your cruise line about accessible outdoor viewing areas on your ship before you sail.
The Rangers' Desk on Board
On a Glacier Bay day the rangers' information desk on board sells park books and maps. It is set up in one of the ship's main viewing lounges for the day.
- The desk sells park publications, maps and other keepsakes from the Alaska Geographic bookstore.
- The desk has the National Park Service cancellation stamp for the park.
- Displays and hands-on materials at the desk explain the glaciers and wildlife, and a ranger is there to answer questions.
Wildlife Viewing in Glacier Bay
Wildlife in Glacier Bay is watched from the deck, often at a distance, so patience and binoculars matter. Passengers regularly spot humpback whales, harbor seals, brown bears, bald eagles, mountain goats and sometimes puffins.
- Whales: Humpback numbers rise in mid-June and peak in July and August, and most of these whales make a journey of about 2,500 miles to Hawaii each winter.
- Seals and sea lions: Harbor seals gather in Johns Hopkins Inlet each summer to give birth and rest on the floating ice, and young and non-breeding male Steller sea lions gather at haul-outs such as South Marble Island.
- Sea otters: Sea otters have rebounded in the bay from none to thousands, and they eat, bathe and sleep floating on their backs.
- Birds at the ice: Black-legged kittiwakes feed where meltwater wells up along the face of Johns Hopkins Glacier.
- How to look: Search the water with the naked eye for movement first, and raise the binoculars once you have something to look at.
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