Information About

Glacier Bay National Park

Glacier Bay National Park

Quick Facts
Region:
  • Hoonah-Angoon (CA)
Nearest City:
Elevation:
  • 1906 ft (580.95 m)
About

Incomplete record

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is a 3.3 million acre land and seascape which includes tidewater glaciers, snow-capped mountain ranges, ocean coastlines, deep fjords, and freshwater rivers and lakes. It supports a wide variety of flora and fauna and an astounding adaptability of nature as life returns to areas that magnificent glaciers have only recently surrendered. Marine waters make up nearly one fifth of the Park, and with no point of land more than 30 miles from the coast, the land and marine environments are closely intertwined.

Land and Wildlife

Over 200 species of fish swim in Park waters, including all 5 species of Pacific salmon. Dungeness, king and Tanner crab as well as clams, scallops and shrimp have been harvested by the people of this region for centuries. Commercial fishers come to find Pacific halibut, rockfish, lingcod, Pacific cod, sablefish, and pollock. Small schooling fishes include capelin, sandlance, herring, juvenile walleye pollock, juvenile salmonids, and lanternfish.

Glacier Bay is an important foraging ground for marine mammals including the endangered humpback whale and the threatened Steller sea lion. Thousands of harbor seals take to the floating ice to breed and nurture their pups. Minke and killer whales as well as harbor and Dall's porpoises feed in the park's productive, near-shore waters. Sea otters have colonized the bay as well as Park waters in Icy Strait and Cross Sound. Many of these marine mammals ply the more turbulent gulf coast waters as well, where they mingle with gray whales, the occasional beluga whale, or others less common to the region.

This National Park is home to a mosaic of plant life. Mosses, lichens, dryas, horsetail and fireweed are among the first plants to appear near the end point of the retreating glaciers. As soil accumulates these areas develop into dense thickets of alder and cottonwood. The lowlands are cloaked in spruce and hemlock rain forest and lush, spongy tracts of muskeg. In the surrounding mountains, the alpine hills and meadows are carpeted with thick mats of flowers and heath. All of these communities support expanding populations of animals, birds and insects.

About 220 bird species have been recorded in the Park. A great variety including thousands of seabirds, molting or migrating geese and sea ducks, arctic breeders such as arctic tern and parasitic jaeger, bald eagles, nesting songbirds, and a migratory stopover for many species as well.

The Park hosts healthy populations of land mammals such as mountain goat, brown bear, coyote, moose, wolf, black bear, the rare blue or glacier bear, lynx, snowshoe hare, beaver, river otter, marten, mink and weasel, wolverine, marmot, porcupine and several species of voles, shrews and mice.

Getting To Glacier Bay National Park

Most people get to Glacier Bay aboard a cruise ship. Other popular methods involve flights from Juneau, Haines, and Skagway.

History of Glacier Bay National Park

Established on 26 February 1925.

Glacier Bay National Park Gallery

Pictures of, from, or near Glacier Bay National Park.

Birds Sighted Here

Sorted by Most Common to Least Common Viewings

Black-legged Kittiwake, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Red-necked Phalarope, Marbled Murrelet, Long-tailed Duck, Surfbird, Pelagic Cormorant, Kittlitz's Murrelet, Glaucous-winged Gull, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Sandhill Crane, Common Gull, Sooty Shearwater, Black Oystercatcher, Harlequin Duck, Pacific Loon, Snow Goose, Tufted Puffin, Arctic Tern, American Crow, Aleutian Cackling Goose, Long-tailed Jaeger, Herring Gull, Fork-tailed Storm-petrel, Bonaparte's Gull, Canada Goose, Sabine's Gull, Caspian tern, Common Merganser, Bald Eagle, Barn Swallow, Black Turnstone, Red-breasted Merganser, Red-throated Loon, Northern Pintail, Greater Scaup, Common Loon, Northern Shoveler, Black Scoter, Tree Swallow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Mallard, Green-winged Teal, Great Blue Heron, Whimbrel, Parasitic Jaeger, Ancient Murrelet, Savannah Sparrow, Common Eider, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Rock Sandpiper, Horned Puffin, Fox Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler, Rhinoceros Auklet, Barrow's Goldeneye, Pine Siskin, Aleutian Tern, Common Raven, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Dark-eyed Junco, Wilson's Warbler, Horned Grebe, Yellow-billed Loon, Snow Bunting, Red-necked Grebe, Lincoln's Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Greater White-fronted Goose, Lesser Scaup, Semipalmated Plover, American Wigeon, Common Goldeneye, Pomarine Jaeger, Bufflehead, Iceland Gull, Leach's Storm-petrel, Belted Kingfisher, Brown Creeper, American Robin, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Trumpeter Swan, Rufous Hummingbird, Red-necked Stint, Cassin's Auklet, California Gull, Double-crested Cormorant, American Three-toed Woodpecker, Violet-green Swallow, Song Sparrow, Least Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs, Northern Fulmar, Peregrine Falcon, Bank Swallow, Pacific Wren, Varied Thrush, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Emperor Goose, King Eider, Eurasian Collared Dove, Ruddy Turnstone, Lesser Yellowlegs, Short-tailed Shearwater, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Say's Phoebe, Steller's Jay, Black-billed Magpie, Mountain Bluebird, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Townsend's Warbler, Cackling Goose, Canvasback, Willow Ptarmigan, Rock Ptarmigan, Pied-billed Grebe, Common Nighthawk, Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer, Marbled Godwit, Red Knot, Wandering Tattler, Thick-billed Murre, Parakeet Auklet, Ivory Gull, Franklin's Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Glaucous Gull, Black Tern, Black-footed Albatross, Golden Eagle, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Pygmy-owl, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Hairy Woodpecker, American Kestrel, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Clark's Nutcracker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Townsend's Solitaire, Swainson's Thrush, Bohemian Waxwing, Buff-bellied Pipit, Lapland Longspur, White-crowned Sparrow, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Redstart, Blackpoll Warbler, Western Tanager