Today, National Geographic Venture entered Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. When captain George Vancouver made charts of Southeast Alaska in 1795, nearly the entire bay was filled by the Grand Pacific Glacier. When famed naturalist John Muir came to Glacier Bay in 1879, the glacier had already retreated 45 miles up the bay. Today, we traveled 65 miles through the bay to reach the tidewater glaciers. This relatively rapid retreat has uncovered a rugged and beautiful landscape, and as the ice melted plants and animals returned to the bay. This is a land that has been reborn from under the ice.