Port of Call Information

Port of Call Information

Glacier Bay, Alaska


Average Yearly High Temperature in Fahrenheit (&degF)
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
22 27 34 42 52 58 64 36 53 43 31 24

Overview

Glacier Bay is a bay in south-eastern Alaska, United States. It runs north northwest to south south-east for about 65 miles between two pinchets of Alaska. It ranges from 3-20 miles wide. Glacier Bay and the surrounding land is the site of the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The area is a popular cruise ship destination, with several ships leaving Seattle each week during the summer with Glacier Bay as the end destination. The explorer Captain George Vancouver found Icy Strait, at the south end of Glacier Bay, choked with ice in 1794. Glacier Bay itself was almost entirely iced over.

Things to Do

Plants progressively moved in as the glacier retreated, so a 200-year-old spruce and hemlock forest presently exists at the entrance, grading up to more primitive plants such as mosses and lichens at the head of the bay. Because of current local climate change due to global warming, some glaciers are now retreating at a rate of up to a quarter of a mile per year.

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