Bear Glacier Lagoon

Bear Glacier Lagoon is a proglacial lake, formed between Bear Glacier and its moraine about 12 miles southwest of Seward. It’s known for trips among giant floating icebergs, with the glacier and steep mountain walls around the basin. This is a destination for a deliberate backcountry trip, not a quick roadside stop. A foreground iceberg or kayak against the glacier and mountain walls gives a photo a sense of the place’s scale.

Many bergs are building-sized and mostly underwater. They can roll or break without warning, and glacier calving can send large waves across the water. Keep at least half a mile from the glacier face and stay at least twice an iceberg’s height or width away from it. Camp at least two miles from the glacier.

Bear Glacier covered this basin before 1950. A small lake appeared by 1961 and had doubled in size by 1984 as the glacier pulled back. Another glacier-dammed lake, several miles up-glacier, periodically drains under Bear Glacier into the lagoon. During a monitored 2018 outburst, lagoon water rose about 6.5 feet in 96 hours before breaching the moraine. These floods can change water levels and the outlet quickly, so old reports of a particular landing or channel aren’t a reliable route plan.

This is a backcountry trip, not a serviced campground. There are no bear boxes and few places to hang food, so use a bear-resistant container; coastal campers on the park side must pack out human waste. The lagoon crosses federal park and Alaska state land, so know which side you’re on and which rules apply to your landing and camp.