Russell Fjord Wilderness Area in Tongass National Forest is a land of superlatives. The region embraces North America's largest glaciers, the world's tallest coastal mountains, and the world's biggest wilderness. This is simply big country.

The mightiest of glaciers, Hubbard Glacier flows down 76 miles from its origins in the vast St. Elias Range, reaching the sea as a seven-mile wide, 300-ft. high wall of blue ice in Disenchantment Bay and Russell Fjord. Nearly blocking the mouth of the fjord, ice calves almost continuously from the face of the glacier. There isn't a more exhilarating tidewater glacier in Alaska.

In 1986, Hubbard made a sudden surge and closed off the fjord, creating the largest glacier-dammed lake in the world. The water rose to 92 feet above sea level, and four months later the ice dam burst. We were there to record it, documented in January 1987 National Geographic.

During the summer of 2002, the fjord again closed off, as the glacier resolutely advanced. Glaciologists predict, however, that the glacier will advance again, making Russell Fjord a lake once more. No one can predict what we will encounter by the time we set out on our kayaking expedition-an ocean ecosystem entrapped behind a wall of ice, or the awe-inspiring tidal exchange of house-sized icebergs, as the tide moves into and out of the 34-mile-long fjord. One thing is for sure. This is a place of monumental geological change, and surely the most spectacular tidewater glacier in North America, and the domain of the rare glacier bear. Mountains, deep blue ice, towering peaks, wildlife, and dramatic tidal currents combine in a setting of spectacular beauty. , Paddle to the largest, most active tidewater glacier in North America. Here's a great photo gallery.