Humpback whales converge on the rich feeding grounds in Glacier Bay in the summer, but in the winter range elsewhere to breed and give birth. The salmon, a sustaining pillar of this ecosystem, return each year to the place of their birth to spawn, die, and dispense valuable proteins and other nutrients. Many species follow this pattern, disappearing from Glacier Bay during the winter, only to return or re-emerge in the spring. Long days in the summer become markedly brief in the winter, as the earth’s axis slants away from the sun. The tides swell and recede dramatically twice a day, oftentimes by as much as twenty vertical feet. It is a place renowned and protected for its diversity, constant change, and opportunity for study.ĭramatic change and the ebb and flow of nature occur at every scale: within centuries, seasons, and hours. Here, it is almost as if the span of time has been condensed and then neatly unfurled across this landscape. Even the land itself is rising as the colossal weight of the ice eases off of it. Glaciers have sculpted this landscape, from the sharp brows of its mountain peaks to the deep troughs of its fjords. The Wilderness of Glacier Bay National Park is forged from dynamic change in the wake of powerful seismic forces and dramatic glacial movements. Lituya Bay in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.
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