They say if you’ve not been to Glacier Bay National Park, you’ve really not seen Alaska. We’ve been twice before, but approached the day with as much excitement as the first time, 20 years ago, with our daughters Kathryn and Grace.

Similar to yesterday, we boarded the National Park Service personnel early in the morning. This team of 9, including some new trainees, provided lectures and ongoing commentary throughout the day. The commentary was broadcasted throughout the ship, and into each cabin, allowing passengers to move about and hear what they should be looking at or noticing. The rangers also provided antidotal stories and history about the area. What a fascinating job it must be to be stationed in Alaska, showing the sights of Glacier Bay.

The National Park Service headquarters, and a visitor center, for Glacier Bay NP is located near Gustavus, Alaska. With a population of 655, in the middle of nowhere, most people come and go from Gustavus by plane or ferry. The roads are not reliable, especially in winter, and driving distances are daunting. Yet, Glacier Bay National Park was visited by over 700,000 persons in 2025, most of them by cruise ship. The onboard ranger program is really special.

From the opening of Glacier Bay at Icy Strait, to the top of Tarr Inlet and the Grand Pacific Glacier, it is 65 miles. As recently as 1750, this entire bay was one big glacier, during what is referred to as the Little Ice Age. Since then, the original glacier has retreated, leaving many smaller glaciers including Margerie, Johns Hopkins, Lamplugh, Reid, Rendu and Carroll, among others. Today, there are over 1000 smaller glaciers throughout the 3.3-million-acre park. Just eleven of those are tidewater (reach the sea).

We started by going all the way to the top of Glacier Bay, to view the Grand Pacific and the Margerie glaciers. The Grand Pacific, with its dark moraine sits right at the Canadian border and runs 25 miles long. Named by John Muir in 1879, it is 2 miles across and is retreating at 1 foot per day.

The Margerie Glacier sits to the left of the Grand Pacific and shines a brilliant blue. This tidewater glacier is 21 miles long and just 1 mile wide and it is beautiful. On our way out of the park, we sailed past the Reid Glacier.

Glacier Bay National Park also has the distinction of being the largest UNESCO protected habitat in the world. Designated along with Kluane, Wrangell-St. Elias, and Tatshenshini-Alsek parks, this massive binational site spans the US-Canada border and encompasses 24 million acres. We are grateful to have visited a small amount of this amazing landscape.

Tomorrow: Skagway, Alaska