From Skagway, Alaska, we took a catamaran down the Lynn Channel, passing by tremendous roaring waterfalls cascading down the steep fjords. Sawmill Falls was particularly stunning, falling hundreds of feet to the deep waters of the channel.

We landed on the beach of a remote spot called Glacier Point. Wildflowers covered the beach, from purple lupine to strawberries and tall, waving grasses. From there we hiked through the new forest to our canoe. Until very recently, the Davidson Glacier spilled out into the Lynn Channel itself. But now the glacier has receded more than a mile inland. This new forest has grown in the receding ice's wake.

Inside the canoe, we paddled out in the icy waters to the chilly, windy base of the massive glacier. Huge blue crevasses yawned wide and the glacier extended up into the tremendous Juneau Icefield above us.

Icebergs floated in the water around us, and as we craned our necks upward, we could see the jagged peaks of the snowy Chilkat Mountains before us, and the equally stunning snowy peaks of the Chilkoot Mountains behind us, which actually lie in Canada.