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Aerial View of the West Arm of Reid Glacier Photo by Albert Highe |
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Glacier Bay is one of the world's natural wonders with a system of glacial fjords stretching sixty miles into the Fairweather mountain range.
A journey up bay follows the glacial recession from mature spruce and hemlock forest at Bartlett Cove to the ice choked fjords at the glacier's face.
Location
Glacier Bay National Park is located across Icy Strait from Chichagof Island, 60 miles northwest of Juneau in southeast Alaska. The bay itself, almost 70 miles long, is surrounded by a horseshoe-rim of mountains which include the Fairweather Range to the west and the St. Elias Mountains to the north.
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Glacier Bay National Park
The Park is said by many to contain the most spectacularly glaciated mountains in the world. Equally impressive is the Park's abundance of wildlife, particularly marine life which includes porpoise, seals, otters, sea lions and three species of whales.
But more than the ice, mountains, or wildlife, Glacier Bay is wild country; undeveloped beyond Bartlett Cove, unyielding to the inexperienced and uncharted where glaciers have changed the topography faster than man can map it.
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The Kahsteen anchored in John Hopkins Inlet photo by Mike Nigro |
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A few Interesting Facts About Glaciers:
- Ten percent of our world is under ice today. That is equal to the same amount of land which is currently being farmed.
- If the world's ice caps thawed, the sea level would rise enough to cover half of the world's cities.
- Alaska is 4 % ice.
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