Entering Icy Bay
The route out of Yakutat Bay is a wide one, passing anywhere west of Point Manby on the west side. In addition to fishing vessel traffic there is the possibility of encountering a cruise ship that swings into Yakutat Bay to provide its passengers a view of the glaciers. The shore there consists of low hills, frequently fog enshrouded, and the water shallows some distance out so it’s prudent to maintain some sea room since there isn’t much to see anyway.
The nearshore waters along this coastline to just west of the Yahtse River remain largely uncharted.
The next port of refuge and point of interest is 22-mile-long Icy Bay (Chart 16741). The approach from the south is past Point Riou and Riou Spit, a low-lying projection of sand dunes. Breakers parallel the shore hundreds of yards out due to shallows. A remnant terminal moraine deposit comprises an arc of relatively shoal water (less than 10 fathoms) to the west, extending west and north to the Claybluff Hills shore. Current inside the entrance reaches about half a knot both ebb and flood, according to the Coast Pilot.
Approach with caution—small icebergs in Icy Bay
At the approach to the entrance to Icy Bay, which is 5 miles wide at that point, start keeping a sharp watch for icebergs. Many are small, low-floating, and dirty, making them hard to see, yet they are potentially damaging to a moving boat. Farther into the bay more ice is encountered. Local knowledge has it that in spring and early summer ice on the water is minimal but by midsummer so much has sloughed off the glacier faces that boats cannot navigate the upper reaches of the bay. However, glaciologists say that the advance and retreat of the ice rivers is independent of air-water temperature, and that tidewaters such as those in Icy Bay are “indifferent to climate warming” due to the moderating effect of the sea.
Icy Bay Lodge, on Moraine Bay
Vessels seeking refuge inside Icy Bay normally round the spit, remaining at least a half mile off the tip of the spit. Once you are inside the bay there is a choice of entering the broad but shallow and partially foul Riou Bay after passing to the southeast of Moraine Reef, or staying outside the ring of offshore rocks surrounding Moraine Island (a peninsula) and tucking into the smaller Moraine Bay to the east of Moraine Island. Commercial fishing vessels anchor in the outer portion of Riou Bay with local knowledge, but the Coast Pilot cautions that the more sheltered inner bay is studded with rocks and reefs. On the east side of Moraine Bay the brown-painted buildings and anchored boats of the Icy Bay Lodge are clearly visible. A large reef dominates the middle and a smaller reef takes up part of the west side, but several small vessels could comfortably anchor between and around them, in 2 to 4 fathoms. However, vessels in the outer portion of the cove, north of the main reef, may be bothered by ice being pushed down the bay by the prevalent northeast winds. Water is a silty gray and a cold breeze perpetually drafts down to the anchorage from the three-lobed head of the bay. The cove bottom slopes upward gradually to a dense forest of alders and small spruces. Diurnal tide range in the bay is about 10 feet.
Immediately to the north, Gull Island hosts nesting seabirds. It should not be approached due to rocks and mudflats around its eastern perimeter and a reef extending half a mile from its western shore. Another reason to stay away from Gull Island is to avoid disturbing the birds.
To explore the bay it is necessary to avoid the entire southeast side due to extensive shoals and tidal flats that extend west to Gull Island. A separate reef and more shoals lie another mile or so to the west of the island and on the east side north to the silted delta of the glacial stream entering from the east. If those hazards and the ever-moving floating ice can be circumvented, it’s possible to transit the bay north to about the latitude of Kichyatt Point on the western shore in midsummer, or about halfway to the glacier face, before ice closes off passage. Several hundred harbor seals haul out on the ice and give birth to pups there in early summer. Be sensitive to the needs of the new mothers and their offspring and avoid any approach or other activity that could cause disturbance. Ice tends to be denser on the northwest side of the bay. A wilderness guiding operation conducts kayak tours from a seasonal camp on the shore of Taan Fiord, and Kageet Point is reported to have campsites, trails, and an airstrip.
South of Taan Fiord on the east side is a broad outwash plain from a boisterous creek surging out of the forest to the east that drains the west end of Malaspina Glacier. At the south edge of that plain, tucked back in the edge of the forest, is a small pioneer airstrip and a hunting lodge building with surrounding outbuildings. A sign on the door discourages visitors and notes ownership by Chugach Natives Ltd. A meadow of lupines, daisies, river beauties, and cow parsnip provides a colorful counterpoint to the stark blacks, whites, and grays of the viewscape.
Although it has no year-round residents and no facilities of any kind for resupply, Icy Bay is the last rest and reorganization point before the arduous onward voyage to Prince William Sound.
Notes
The most notable feature of the coast between Yakutat Bay and Icy Bay is the 1,000-square-mile Malaspina Glacier, famously known for being bigger than the state of Rhode Island and the largest piedmont glacier in North America. (A piedmont glacier consists of several valley glaciers converging to flow out onto a relatively flat basin where ice movement is minimal.) Recent LIDAR work indicates that since some of the surface of Malaspina is underlain by mountaintops, its volume is less than previously estimated, possibly reducing its place in the world ranking of piedmont glaciers. But its surface area remains greater than that of our smallest state. Of greater interest about the Malaspina, irrespective of ranking, is that it is rapidly shrinking and now ends well back from the coast. Furthermore, much of the outer surface is covered by rock, soil, and forest, such that to the uninformed it may appear little more than a long, low range of hills paralleling the coast above the Sitkagi Bluffs for a distance of 20 miles or so.
Mount St. Elias from Icy Bay
Icy Bay is a three-prong glacial fiord, with its upper reaches dominated by the mighty Guyot Glacier at its head. It is famously reported that when Captain Cook first explored this region Icy Bay did not exist. Instead, a massive tidewater glacier protruded several miles past the current entrance into the ocean. It is awe-inspiring to think of more than 100 square miles of glacial ice having melted away in three centuries. The bay now is defined by the bergs and brash ice that fill mainly its upper reaches, and by the imposing pyramid of Mount St. Elias towering over it all, only a few miles from its head. When cloud cover and fog lift sufficiently to allow views of the mountain the scene is breathtaking. It is easy to understand why UNESCO has designated this part of the coast a World Heritage Site. The uplands on the north and west sides are part of Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve, while most on the east side belong to Chugach Alaska Corporation with a few individual Native allotment inholdings.
Taan Fiord is summering grounds for about 5–18% of the world’s population of the endangered Kittlitz’s murrelet, a tiny seabird that nests only in the rugged exposed soils at the edge of glaciers.
Several primitive airstrips are reported to be at points around the bay in support of logging operations on the northwest side, the wilderness lodge on the southeast side, and possibly for other inholdings or exploration camps. However, none is manned and probably most are reverting to nature for lack of maintenance. The Coast Pilot reports an abandoned log dump camp and pier at Carson Creek, northeast of Claybluff Point. Currently there is no active logging or log booming in or around Icy Bay.