Alaska Glacier Directory

This 12-mile glac­i­er is part of Ton­gass Nation­al For­est and its vis­i­tors’ cen­ter is just a half mile from the glacier’s face. Once dubbed the Auk Glac­i­er by John Muir (after a mem­ber of the Tlin­git tribe), 

This very active glac­i­er forms a wall along the fabled Cop­per Riv­er near a his­toric rail­road route that once ser­viced the world’s largest cop­per mine. NOTE: A bridge at Mile 36 of the Cop­per Riv­er High­way is cur­rent­ly (2020) impass­able, with repairs not expect­ed for sev­er­al years. Child’s Glac­i­er is not cur­rent­ly acces­si­ble by road. Con­tact Cor­do­va Ranger Dis­trict for cur­rent venders pro­vid­ing trans­porta­tion options to the far side.  ...more

You can hike right up to Seward’s Exit Glac­i­er and feel the dense blue ice while lis­ten­ing to it crack­le. Walk the low­er trail to get a good pho­to in front of the glac­i­er face. Or, choose the more chal­leng­ing 7‑mile round-trip Hard­ing Ice­field Trail. There is a short ranger-led walk dai­ly at 11am and 3pm, from Memo­r­i­al Day through Labor Day. 

Some 15,000 years ago, this glac­i­er reached anoth­er 50 miles west to the Palmer area. It now has a four-mile wide tow­er­ing face that you can walk right up to and touch. Keep an eye out for sum­mer­time ice-climbers at this most impres­sive road­side glac­i­er. Direc­tions: Head north from Anchor­age on the Glenn High­way. At mile 102, you can dri­ve down to Glac­i­er Park (888−253−4480), then hike 15 – 20 min­utes to the face of glacier.Distance: 102 miles  ...more

This short day hike — with an eas­i­ly acces­si­ble trail­head a few hun­dred meters from the Begich Bog­gs Vis­i­tor Cen­ter — offers you big views of the Byron Glacier.

One of the most vis­it­ed nat­ur­al attrac­tions along the Richard­son High­way, this four-mile-long glac­i­er descends almost to pave­ment and is easy to approach on foot. The state recre­ation site fea­tures park­ing, pit toi­lets, and a cov­ered pavil­ion with a mod­el of the glac­i­er and inter­pre­tive signs, all close to small lake.

These gleam­ing val­ley glac­i­ers perch in the moun­tains above Portage Val­ley, easy to view from high­way pull­outs. They feed the near­by stream sys­tems that har­bor many species of salmon and trout. Tan­gle Pond and Tan­gle Creek are favorite fish­ing spots for locals, and there are lots of places to camp in Portage Val­ley itself.

13-mile glac­i­er in the Kenai Mountains.

This white rib­bon of ice merges with the much larg­er Ken­ni­cott Glac­i­er only a mile or so north­west of the his­toric mill town of Ken­necott in Wrangell St. Elias Nation­al Park. One of the most acces­si­ble glac­i­ers in Alas­ka, it can be reached by hik­ing a few miles up a rel­a­tive­ly easy trail.

The 700-square-mile Hard­ing Ice­field, one of four major ice caps in the Unit­ed States, crowns Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park. The ice­field may be a rem­nant of the Pleis­tocene ice mass­es once cov­er­ing half of Alas­ka. The mag­nif­i­cent coast­line of Kenai Fjords is steep val­leys that were carved by glac­i­ers in retreat. Active glac­i­ers still calve and crash into the sea as vis­i­tors watch from tour boats here. Sea stacks, islets, and tagged shoreline…  ...more

This glac­i­er dom­i­nates all views west of the his­toric mill town site of Ken­necott (basi­cal­ly locat­ed ​“across the street” from the Ken­ni­cott Glac­i­er Lodge) in the heart of Wrangell-St. Elias Nation­al Park. Although Ken­ni­cott Glac­i­er has been reced­ing from its ter­mi­nus for years, its immen­si­ty and rugged­ness remains a mag­nif­i­cent sight, fill­ing the four-mile-wide val­ley like a mighty river.

You can find a great over­look that shows off most of the glac­i­er near the 3,880-foot Crow Pass, about three miles from the Crow Pass trail­head in Gird­wood. Anoth­er mile past the pass, and you can approach the edges or toe of the glac­i­er itself, for a more inti­mate expe­ri­ence of its tex­ture, col­ors and gnarled shape.

Locat­ed in Wrangell-St. Elias Nation­al Park, this 4.4‑mile trail takes hik­ers through a rugged land­scape of ice, rock, and streams. It’s a mod­er­ate­ly chal­leng­ing hike that offers stun­ning views of the glac­i­er and sur­round­ing mountains.

Locat­ed in the Hatch­er Pass area of the Tal­keet­na Moun­tains north­west of Palmer, the Mint Glac­i­er area is a pop­u­lar day-hike, sum­mer back­pack­ing and ski moun­taineer­ing des­ti­na­tion. Inter­mit­tent views of the glac­i­er from the Gold Mint Trail will only get bet­ter the fur­ther you hike up the valley.

To see the glac­i­er, you have to trav­el into the gorge, a 26-mile round-trip from the trail­head over a most­ly flat mul­ti-use trail. (It opens to ATV use on cer­tain days.) Once you enter the canyon, you will see the rugged, boul­der-choked ter­mi­nus with flut­ed ice above. This some­what stren­u­ous day-trip over a grav­el ATV route takes you deep into the back­coun­try in just a few hours, with great pho­tog­ra­phy and a chance to see the rav­ages of climate  ...more

Gor­geous Portage Glac­i­er lies just 48 miles south of Anchor­age. Explore the glac­i­er, vis­it the muse­um, and go for a boat ride.

Grand Pacif­ic Glac­i­er can actu­al­ly be found in two coun­tries. Part of the tide­wa­ter glac­i­er is locat­ed in Reid Inlet with­in Glac­i­er Bay Nation­al Park in Alas­ka, while the oth­er side can be found in the Grand Pacif­ic Pass in British Colum­bia, Cana­da. Back in the 1700s, Grand Pacif­ic Glac­i­er filled the entire bay, and reached all they way to the Icy Strait.

Gor­geous tide­wa­ter glacier.

Nat­u­ral­ist and author John Muir first made his way to Alas­ka in 1879, where he went to explore Glac­i­er Bay. Lat­er, a val­ley glac­i­er in Glac­i­er Bay Nation­al Park was named after him. Just under 90 miles from Juneau, Muir Glac­i­er was a pop­u­lar stop for many tourists in the late 19^th cen­tu­ry, and still is today. Be sure to catch Muir on your cruise through Glac­i­er Bay!

From May to late August, you may see loons, mer­gansers, gold­en eyes, and arc­tic terns fly­ing through here on their migra­tion routes. This is also a good van­tage point to look back up Bar­ry and Coxe Glacier.

Named after Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty in Bal­ti­more, Mary­land, this is one of Alaska’s most pic­turesque glac­i­ers. It’s 12 miles long, locat­ed in Glac­i­er Bay Nation­al Park and has been con­firmed to be one of few glac­i­ers that is still advanc­ing rather than shrink­ing. The only access to the face of the glac­i­er is by cruis­ing up the Johns Hop­kins Inlet.

The 2000 pho­to­graph doc­u­ments the con­tin­u­ing advance of Har­vard Glac­i­er, which has com­plete­ly obscured the view of Rad­cliff Glac­i­er. Bal­ti­more Glac­i­er has con­tin­ued to retreat and thin. Alder has become estab­lished on the hill slopes, but is dif­fi­cult to see from the pho­to loca­tion. Har­vard Glac­i­er has advanced more than 1.25 kilo­me­ters (0.78 miles) since 1909. (USGS Pho­to­graph by Bruce F. Molnia).

Lam­plugh is about 96 miles north­west of Juneau, and is often a stop on cruis­es going through Glac­i­er Bay Nation­al Park. If you’re want­i­ng a more adven­tur­ous vis­it, go sea kayak­ing in Glac­i­er Bay and make Lam­plugh Glac­i­er a stop on your route.

The last two aer­i­al pho­tographs in this group of five doc­u­ment changes that occurred dur­ing the 69 years between June 1937 and July 28, 2006. Both pho­tographs are tak­en towards the north and show the retreat­ing, calv­ing, tide­wa­ter ter­mi­nus of Yale Glac­i­er, locat­ed at the head of Yale Arm, Col­lege Fiord, Prince William Sound, Alas­ka. In 1937, Yale Glacier’s ter­mi­nus was locat­ed at about the same posi­tion that it occu­pied when it was vis­it­ed by…  ...more

One of few glac­i­ers that are actu­al­ly advanc­ing, Marg­erie Glac­i­er is about 21 miles long and 250 feet high (with a base 100 feet below sea lev­el). The tide­wa­ter glac­i­er has been grow­ing rough­ly 30 feet per year for the last few decades, and has joined and sep­a­rat­ed from Grand Pacif­ic Glac­i­er over the past twen­ty-five years.

This is the most active tide­wa­ter glac­i­er in Prince William Sound and the best place to see glac­i­ers calv­ing. Sur­prise also seems to cre­ate its own weath­er; it can be clear around here even when it’s cloudy every­where else in the area.

Aia­lik Glac­i­er is the largest glac­i­er in Aia­lik Bay, locat­ed in Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park. While fair­ly sta­ble, the glac­i­er calves most active­ly in May and June. The glac­i­er is very acces­si­ble on a kayak tour or day cruise from Seward. 

The famous sur­vey­or Menden­hall named this glac­i­er for a min­er who was car­ry­ing mail from Cook Inlet to Whit­ti­er in 1896, dis­ap­peared in a snow­storm, and was nev­er seen again. His broth­er Willard (who gives his name to the near­by island) searched for him but found only the mail pack­et atop the glac­i­er which now bears his name.

In this series of pho­tos from June of 2002, Bruce Mol­nia of the USGS doc­u­ment­ed the advanc­ing ter­mi­nus of Hub­bard Glac­i­er and the chan­nel cut into the top of its push moraine that blocked the mouth of Rus­sell Fiord. A push moraine is sed­i­ment that, in this case, has been bull­dozed from the floor of Rus­sell Fiord by the advanc­ing ice. In a few views, some of this sed­i­ment can be seen in con­tact with the bedrock on the wall of the fjord.

Colum­bia glac­i­er is locat­ed in Prince William Sound. At over 550 meters thick at some points and cov­er­ing an area of 400 square miles, this glac­i­er is a sight to behold, whether from a boat or the sky. It snakes its way 32 miles through the Chugach Moun­tains before dump­ing into the Colum­bia Bay, about 40 miles by boat from Valdez.

Hol­gate Glac­i­er, found in Hol­gate Arm in Aia­lik Bay, with­in Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park, is a tide­wa­ter and moun­tain glac­i­er. While it is one of the small­er glac­i­ers in Aia­lik Bay, Hol­gate Glac­i­er is still a pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion to see calv­ing glac­i­ers. And it is actu­al­ly advanc­ing! Hol­gate Arm is often filled with ice, but on a good day you can get to a close and safe dis­tance from the glac­i­er. Catch a cruise from Seward, or go kayaking!

Like its name implies, Cas­cade twists steeply down a moun­tain­side into the west side of Bar­ry Arm. The divid­ing line between Cas­cade and Bar­ry Glac­i­er is some­times hard to dis­tin­guish, because they con­verge into each oth­er. Cas­cade is in rapid retreat. The large rock behind the kayak­er in this pho­to was under ice only five years ago. Today, the rock is not only exposed, but the glac­i­er has pulled back away from it anoth­er sev­er­al hun­dred feet.  ...more

This glac­i­er, named after North­west­ern Uni­ver­si­ty in 1909, can be found at the head of North­west­ern Fjord in Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park, just under 30 miles south­west of Seward. By the sec­ond half of the 20^th cen­tu­ry, North­west­ern Glac­i­er’s reces­sion revealed a num­ber of islands in the Fjord that had pre­vi­ous­ly been cov­ered in ice. Take a cruise from Seward and envi­sion the entire­ty of of North­west­ern Fjord filled with ice, as you make your way  ...more

20 miles west of Valdez, this short glac­i­er fea­tures a very steep dropoff from ice to ocean!

The Knik Glac­i­er snakes out of the Chugach Moun­tains, tum­bling into an ice­berg-stud­ded lake that feeds the Knik Riv­er. Expe­ri­ence the glac­i­er up close on an ATV tour from Palmer, or a flight­see­ing trip (with option­al land­ings on or near the glac­i­er) from Anchor­age or Palmer. Flights are as short as 90 min­utes round-trip, mak­ing it one of the most acces­si­ble and impres­sive glac­i­ers from Anchorage. 

Car­roll Glac­i­er, found in Glac­i­er Bay, is a ter­res­tri­al glac­i­er. Although it reced­ed through­out much of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry, Car­roll Glac­i­er expe­ri­enced a surge in the 1980s. 

Bar­ry Glac­i­er actu­al­ly flows behind Col­lege Fjord and par­al­lel to it for a dozen miles before plung­ing into the head of Bar­ry Arm. On many days, it spawns enough ice into the Arm to pre­vent boats from get­ting close. It all depends on the tide, winds, and calv­ing activ­i­ty. Some­times, a bay clear of ice can fill up in less than an hour.

A few hun­dred feet above the boat, you’ll see North­land Glac­i­er perched atop sheer rock. This glac­i­er calves a lot. The ice blocks ric­o­chet and shat­ter down the rock face before explod­ing into the water below. It’s an excit­ing spec­ta­cle. Also, a steady water­fall drains down; to the side, you’ll see a kit­ti­wake rookery.

Beloit Glac­i­er fluc­tu­ates betwen 125 and 250 feet high at water’s edge depend­ing on recent calv­ing activ­i­ty. Calv­ing dimin­ish­es the face but it builds back up again quick­ly as the glac­i­er descends to sea. Nonethe­less, the glac­i­er is in rapid retreat; you can spot bedrock becom­ing exposed at the base of the glac­i­er. It was named after the Wis­con­sin col­lege, as were most of the oth­er glac­i­ers in Black­stone Bay (Lawrence, Mar­quette, Concordia,…  ...more

Coxe Glac­i­er forms a dra­mat­ic and noisy back­drop to Black Sand Beach. It’s not as active as either Cas­cade or Bar­ry, but it packs enough punch to awak­en even the deep­est sleep­er when it cracks and thun­ders just a quar­ter mile away from camp. There are sev­er­al decent camp­sites with head-on views of the glacier.

Look down Col­lege Fjord to Har­vard and Yale Glac­i­ers, 20 miles away. Col­lege Fjord gash­es into the heart of the Chugach Moun­tains. Har­ri­man named the glac­i­ers along the left of the fjord after East Coast Ivy League wom­en’s col­leges and those on the right after men’s colleges.

A pair of south­west-look­ing pho­tographs, both tak­en from the same loca­tion adja­cent to Lam­plugh Glac­i­er, show the changes which have occurred at the low­er end of Lamplugh’s inlet dur­ing the 62 years between August 1941 and Sep­tem­ber 8, 2003. The 1941 pho­to­graph by William O. Field shows the calv­ing ter­mi­nus of Lam­plugh Glac­i­er extend­ing to with­in 0.5 miles of the pho­to point.

Icy Bay lives up to its name with an active tide­wa­ter glac­i­er often clog­ging the fjord with ice­bergs. This remote fjord in Prince William Sound is a spe­cial spot for pad­dlers look­ing for spec­tu­lar views of Tiger and Chene­ga Glac­i­er descend­ing into the sea. Beware of tight ice con­di­tions chang­ing with the tide and strong cold kata­bat­ic winds off of the Sar­gent Icefeild.

One of two tide­wa­ter glac­i­ers at the head of Tra­cy Arm, South Sawyer Glac­i­er extends deep under­wa­ter and makes for a very blue ice­berg. It is the larg­er of the two glac­i­ers, and if con­di­tions are good you can come with­in ¹⁄₂ mile of the face. Check for moun­tain goats at the base of the glac­i­er. Just fifty miles south­east of Juneau, this glac­i­er is not one to miss!

Bear Glac­i­er, found in Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park, is a tide­wa­ter glac­i­er and a pop­u­lar spot for kayak­ers, but you can eas­i­ly see it on a cruise from Seward. With mas­sive ice­bergs and blue waters, see­ing the glac­i­er up close is a thrilling expe­ri­ence. Many peo­ple camp on the out­er beach near Bear Glac­i­er, and enjoy the glac­i­er views in the back­ground. This is also a great area to check for whales, sea otters, puffins, and oth­er wildlife.

Ped­er­sen Glac­i­er, locat­ed in Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park, reced­ed through­out the 20^th cen­tu­ry expos­ing Ped­er­sen Spit and Ped­er­sen Lagoon. In the 1980s, the lagoon was des­ig­nat­ed as the Ped­er­sen Lagoon Wildlife Sanc­tu­ary, a 1,700-acre sanc­tu­ary meant to pre­serve and pro­tect the area’s wildlife and land. Take a cruise from Seward to see Ped­er­sen Glac­i­er, and the beau­ti­ful habi­tat sur­round­ing it just under 20 miles away.

Both of these pho­tographs were tak­en from the same loca­tion in Nuka Pas­sage, about 6 kilo­me­ters (3.7 miles) south of the posi­tion of the 1909 ter­mi­nus of the glac­i­er. The first pho­to­graph by D.F. Hig­gins, is an August 6, 1909 view of the then retreat­ing north­ern part of the ter­mi­nus. The absence of any ice­bergs indi­cates that by 1909, the glac­i­er was no longer tide­wa­ter. When pho­tographed, Yalik Glac­i­er had a gen­tly slop­ing ter­mi­nus with…  ...more

Billings Glac­i­er is named for British Com­modore Joseph Billings who com­mand­ed a Russ­ian explor­ing and sur­vey­ing expe­di­tion in 1791 and ​’92. He pub­lished no known account of his voyage.

Look­ing beyond the penin­su­la you can see snow­capped moun­tains. Here you have a glimpse into the edge of the Hard­ing Ice­field. This ice­field is the main fea­ture of the Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park. Formed dur­ing the ice age some 20,000 years ago, the Hard­ing Ice­field is 30 miles wide by 50 miles long and in places pre­sumed to be 3000 – 5000 feet thick. There are at least 38 rivers of ice or glac­i­ers that flow out of the Hard­ing Ice­field. From here…  ...more

A pop­u­lar place for cruis­es and kayak­ing. You can stop along the shore, pitch a tent and enjoy the soli­tude and scenic views for a day or two.

Around a hun­dred years ago, Black­stone Glac­i­er extend­ed all the way out to here. You see rock ridges deposit­ed every­where by the glac­i­er before it retreat­ed 4 miles to its cur­rent location.

Look for three alpine glac­i­ers back in Thumb Cove. Alpine glac­i­ers keep their ice in the alpine region of a moun­tain and don’t descend to a val­ley floor or the tide­wa­ter’s edge. From the left the three are Prospect, Spoon and Por­cu­pine glac­i­ers. Notice the love­ly cab­in on the edge of Thumb Cove. The land of the Res­ur­rec­tion Penin­su­la is divid­ed between state park, nation­al for­est and pri­vate in-hold­ings. You will see sev­er­al pri­vate cabins.…  ...more

This is your vir­tu­al class­room in glacia­tion. From this van­tage point, you can see the three types of Alas­ka glac­i­ers: pied­mont, hang­ing, and tidewater.

Three north-look­ing pho­tographs, all tak­en from about the same off­shore loca­tion, about 0.5 kilo­me­ters (0.3 miles) north of Tobog­gan Glac­i­er, doc­u­ment sig­nif­i­cant changes that have occurred dur­ing the 103 years between August 20, 1905 and August 22, 2008. An inter­me­di­ate age pho­to­graph shows the glac­i­er on Sep­tem­ber 4, 2000. The 1905 pho­to­graph shows that Tobog­gan Glac­i­er was thin­ning and retreat­ing and was sur­round­ed by a large bedrock barren…  ...more

Spencer Glac­i­er ris­es 3,500 feet in a stun­ning, nat­ur­al ramp from a lake of roy­al-blue ice­bergs in the Chugach Nation­al For­est just 60 miles south of Anchor­age. It’s a fam­i­ly-friend­ly recre­ation des­ti­na­tion fea­tur­ing camp­ing, hik­ing, glac­i­er explo­ration, nature walks, pad­dling and sight­see­ing. Maybe best of all: You have to take a train to get there!

The Knik Glac­i­er snakes out of the Chugach Moun­tains, tum­bling into an ice­berg-stud­ded lake that feeds the Knik Riv­er. Expe­ri­ence the glac­i­er up close on an ATV tour from Palmer, or a flight­see­ing trip (with option­al land­ings on or near the glac­i­er) from Anchor­age or Palmer. Flights are as short as 90 min­utes round-trip, mak­ing it one of the most acces­si­ble and impres­sive glac­i­ers from Anchorage. 

Three north-look­ing pho­tographs, all tak­en from about the same off­shore loca­tion, about 0.5 kilo­me­ters (0.3 miles) north of Tobog­gan Glac­i­er, doc­u­ment sig­nif­i­cant changes that have occurred dur­ing the 103 years between August 20, 1905 and August 22, 2008. An inter­me­di­ate age pho­to­graph shows the glac­i­er on Sep­tem­ber 4, 2000. The 1905 pho­to­graph shows that Tobog­gan Glac­i­er was thin­ning and retreat­ing and was sur­round­ed by a large bedrock barren…  ...more

The two includ­ed pho­tographs were tak­en on the north­east side of Wachusett Inlet, Saint Elias Moun­tains, Alas­ka. The Sep­tem­ber 9, 1961 pho­to­graph shows the low­er reach­es of Plateau Glac­i­er, then a tide­wa­ter calv­ing val­ley glac­i­er with parts of its ter­mi­nus being land based on either side of the fiord. The cen­tral part of the ter­mi­nus is capped with séracs and ris­es about 35 meters (115 feet) above tide­wa­ter. The ter­mi­nus has a large…  ...more

Cross the Tokosit­na Riv­er which marks the south­east cor­ner of Denali Nation­al Park. Look for tents or rafts next to the riv­er. While dif­fi­cult to access — even by bush plane — this area is a prime place for camp­ing, explor­ing, and to begin a raft trip down the Tokosit­na Riv­er to Tal­keet­na. Out the left win­dow, you can look south to the Peters & Dutch Hills, an active gold-min­ing area since the ear­ly 1900s. A win­ter wag­on road from Talkeetna…  ...more

The Kahilt­na Glac­i­er is the longest in the Alas­ka Range — a 45-mile long riv­er of ice! You’ll cross it 35 miles up it, at an ele­va­tion of 5500 feet above sea lev­el. See any dark specs on the sur­face of the glac­i­er? Those are the climbers and tents of Denali (Mt. McKin­ley) base­camp! Most climb­ing expe­di­tions begin here. A base camp man­ag­er coor­di­nates com­mu­ni­ca­tions between climbers and air taxis. Dur­ing the busy climb­ing sea­son, there can be…  ...more

You enter the Shel­don Amphithe­atre, named after a bush pilot who built a view­ing hut here on the glac­i­er before it became a nation­al park. You can stay here for $100 a night. It has a wood stove and bunks 6. If you opt for a glac­i­er land­ing, this is where you’ll like­ly land. You’ll step out of the plane and onto an ice sheet near­ly a mile thick. The scale of the Amphithe­atre is hard to fath­om. You’ll feel like you can reach and out touch the…  ...more

Tebenkof Glac­i­er is named for Mikhail Demitrievich Tebenkof. He gov­erned Alas­ka from 1845 through 1850 and was the first car­tog­ra­ph­er to pub­lish charts of the waters of the North Pacif­ic all the way from the West­ern Aleu­tians down to Fort Ross, California.

You enter the Great Gorge of the Ruth Glac­i­er — the world’s deep­est. The ice is 3700 feet deep, some of it more than a thou­sand years old. The sur­round­ing walls soar 4000 – 5000 feet above. Were the ice to melt tomor­row, you would wit­ness a spec­ta­cle twice as awe­some as the Grand Canyon — a gorge a mile wide and near­ly two miles high. Watch for climb­ing camps…These may be the world’s most impres­sive gran­ite mono­liths. You’ll stare in dis­be­lief at…  ...more

These three pho­tographs show the sig­nif­i­cant changes that Tazli­na Glac­i­er has under­gone in recent years. Read their respec­tive cap­tions for more information.

What you’re able to see of the Muldrow Glac­i­er from the park road is actu­al­ly just the tip of a 32 mile long riv­er of frozen ice. The Muldrow Glac­i­er is the park’s longest and it is a great exam­ple of the pow­er these behe­moth ice mass­es have on the land­scape. Much of the low­er reach­es of the ice are cov­ered in dirt and rocks that have been scoured off of the neigh­bor­ing moun­tains on the slow jour­ney from Denal­i’s (Mt. McKin­ley’s) flank.…  ...more

Stephens Glac­i­er is one of many Alaskan glac­i­ers that is rapid­ly shrink­ing. In the pho­to you can see the retreat­ing ter­mi­nus of Stephens Glac­i­er with sev­er­al of its retreat­ing unnamed val­ley glac­i­er trib­u­taries. The east­ern­most for­mer trib­u­tary lost con­tact with Stephens Glac­i­er dur­ing the lat­er part of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. Note the fresh moraine deposits on the val­ley floor. Pho­to­graph tak­en by Bruce F. Mol­nia, USGS.

Fly­ing down the medi­al moraine of the Ruth Glac­i­er is mes­mer­iz­ing. This 25 – 50 foot high ridge of rock debris looks like an exca­va­tion pit that extends for miles down the cen­ter of the glac­i­er. Keep on the look­out for deep blue pools of ice melt. Look for lat­er­al moraines on the sides of the glac­i­er and the ter­mi­nal moraine at the toe of the glac­i­er… You’ll know the ter­mi­nus of the Ruth when you see it: the con­tor­tions of earth and ice resemble…  ...more

While not the most spec­tac­u­lar glac­i­er, it nonethe­less deserves note because one of the cre­ators of The Alas­ka App went to Amherst Col­lege. We shall say no more. Except one thing: When the Har­ri­man Expe­di­tion named the glac­i­ers in Col­lege Fjord, they had no idea the insult that would be felt more than a cen­tu­ry by Amherst alums cruis­ing Prince William Sound only to dis­cov­er their alma mater’s name­sake glac­i­er is some­what of a runt. 

Look for the his­tor­i­cal sign describ­ing the rapid advance of Black Rapids Glac­i­er. Dur­ing the win­ter of 1936, this mile-wide, 300-foot-high riv­er of ice advanced an aver­age of 115 feet a day, or over 4 miles, to with­in a half-mile of the high­way. It was dubbed the Gal­lop­ing Glac­i­er and has been reced­ing ever since.

This is your vir­tu­al class­room in glacia­tion. From this van­tage point, you can see the three types of Alas­ka glac­i­ers: pied­mont, hang­ing, and tidewater.

One hun­dred and fifty years ago the val­ley now occu­pied by the ship facil­i­ty and cor­rec­tion­al cen­ter was filled with the ice of God­win Glac­i­er. If you look just below the 4 moun­tain peaks to the left side of the val­ley you can see the ice of God­win glac­i­er. In the year 1850 this glac­i­er calved ice­bergs into Res­ur­rec­tion Bay waters. Now a days God­win glac­i­er is a val­ley glac­i­er and behind the low hills you see in the fore­ground God­win glacier…  ...more

To the east is anoth­er Ice Age crea­ture known as a rock glac­i­er. Orig­i­nat­ing in a bowl, or cirque, of the moun­tain, this undu­lat­ing tongue of rock frag­ments moves much like a glac­i­er. But, unlike a glac­i­er, a rock glac­i­er is com­posed most­ly of rocks and has only a core of ice.