I feel lucky to have witnessed these glaciers. Like many glaciers around the world, Glacier Bay has fallen victim to climate change. Throughout the past 50 years Alaska's annual average temperature has increased twice as much as the rest of the United States.

I found this fact stated on the National Park Service website most interesting:

"Of the more than 100,000 glaciers in the state, 95% are currently thinning, stagnating, or retreating, and most of Glacier Bay's glaciers follow this trend. However, there are a few exceptions. Due to heavy snowfall in the soaring Fairweather Mountains, Glacier Bay remains home to a few healthy and advancing glaciers, a rarity in today's world."

These statistics reminded me of a fascinating documentary I saw a few years ago called Chasing Ice. The film follows National Geographic photographer James Balog as he documents changing glaciers in Alaska, Greenland, and Iceland for a year using specially designed time lapse cameras. The results are astounding. Go check it out!