A beginners guide to visiting Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

Among North America's best-known national parks, Glacier Bay is a bit of an outlier.Unlike Yellowstone or Yosemite, you can't visit Glacier Bay on a road trip. There are no roads leading into the park, and the only way to reach it is by small plane, boat or ship.There's also little infrastructure within the park. It does have a visitor center and a lodge, located at its very edge. But its biggest attractions — its giant tidewater glaciers — are viewable only from the deck of a vessel. At its essence, Glacier Bay is a giant, fjordlike body of water lined with snowcapped mountains, forests and glaciers, and it's best seen from the water.It is for this reason that a large percentage of Glacier Bay's 700,000-plus visitors a year arrive on a cruise ship. Indeed, you could almost call Glacier Bay a cruise ship park.A cruise ship approaches Margerie Glacier. NATIONAL PARK SERVICEOnly by arriving by cruise vessel (or another boat, including the park tour boat) and traveling up the 65-mile-long waterway to a glacier and back can you fully experience Glacier Bay.Even so, you'll only see a small portion of the park. Established as a national monument in 1925 and elevated to national park stat...