Saturday, July 30, 2011

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska Tour And Travel | Travel Information

Name        : Glacier Bay National Park
Location   : Alaska
Country    : Alaska
This location is very beautiful and stunning highly inappropriate for a family vacation who want to travel. This location is ideal and will never regret after the visit.

Glacier Bay National Park is a national park in Alaska. The area around Glacier Bay in southeastern Alaska was first proclaimed a U.S. National Monument on February 25, 1925. It was changed to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve on Dec. 2, 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park in the southeastern part of Alaska west of Juneau. The park area was included in an International Biosphere Reserve in 1986 and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park covers 5,130 mi² (13,287 km²). Most of the park is a designated wilderness area which covers 4,164 mi² (10,784 km²) of the park.

No roads lead to the park and it is most easily reached by air travel. During some summers there are ferries to the small community of Gustavus or directly to the marina at Bartlett Cove. Despite the lack of roads, there are over 400,000 visitors per year, most on cruise ships. [1]


Glaciers descending from high snow capped mountains into the bay create spectacular displays of ice and iceberg formation. In the last century, the most dramatic was probably the Muir Glacier. The calving face was nearly 2 mi (3.2 km) wide and about 265 ft (81 m) high. In the 1990s, the Muir Glacier receded to the point that it was no longer a tidewater glacier. Most visitors today see the Margerie and Lamplugh Glaciers.

Joseph Whidbey, master of the Discovery during George Vancouver's 1791-95 expedition, found Icy Strait, at the south end of Glacier Bay, choked with ice in 1794. Glacier Bay itself was almost entirely iced over.[2] In 1879 naturalist John Muir found that the ice had retreated almost all the way up the bay, a distance of around forty-eight miles. By 1916 the Grand Pacific Glacier was at the head of Tarr Inlet about 65 mi (105 km) from Glacier Bay's mouth. This is the fastest documented glacier retreat ever.[citation needed] Scientists are hoping to learn how glacial activity relates to climate changes from the retreat.

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve includes nine tidewater glaciers. Four of these glaciers actively calve icebergs into the bay.

Wildlife in the area includes both grizzly and black bears, moose, sitka blacktail deer, mountain goats, dall sheep, wolves, lynx, sea otters, harbor seals, steller's sea lions, Pacific white-sided dolphins, orcas, humpback whales, bald eagles, gulls, waterfowl, and salmon.

Activities & Adventures

The Gustavus surrounding area and Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska offer visitors a fantastic selection of exciting wilderness adventures and activities to choose from.

Kayakers will enjoy world class kayaking adventures...

Nature and wildlife enthusiasts will be wowed by fantastic whale watching and eco touring experiences...

Fisherman will be blown away by the finest sportfishing charters and opportunities on the planet...

Of course, these are just some of your options. 
Want to just laze around and hang out? Take an awesome charter boat tour up the magical bay and snap pictures till your camera jams- or book a major Alaskan cruiseliner for a fun vacation.
Theres also a wonderful 9 hole golf course in Gustavus that will challenge and awe the most discerning golfers along with fantastic trail and hiking choices, beachcombing, flightseeing and sightseeing, camping...

or just plain hanging out at the Glacier Bay Lodge or casually exploring the community of Gustavus!
Place of Inspiration
Long before there were written records of Glacier Bay, there were stories.
  • Tlingit elders told of an ancestral homeland covered by advancing ice. For the Tlingit, Glacier Bay is woven into the tapestry of their lives.
  • Glacier Bay is a powerful place that also inspires cultural expression in the scientist, the artist, the resident, the traveler, and those who make their livelihood from the sea.
  • Glacier Bay continues to offer inspiration as we each endeavor to explore our connections to this dynamic landscape.

No comments: