Icy Bay is well-named. Created just this century, Icy Bay's massive retreat of ice gives one an idea of what explorer John Muir saw 100 years ago when he first visited nearby Glacier Bay: pristine fjords choked with ice, and growing visibly larger each year -- or even month -- as the glaciers vacate the ocean-filled valleys they have carved. And if Muir had explored this region in his day, he would not have encountered Icy Bay at all, only a massive tongue of ice, lapping at the Pacific Ocean. Icy Bay now stretches 40 miles inland, and varies from four to ten miles wide. Its south shore is protected from the crashing waves of the open Pacific by a long, low neck of sand, the Pt. Riou spit, which marks the last forward advance of the glaciers. At the head of the bay lie three deep fjords and the glaciers that formed them: the Tyndall, Yahtse, and Guyot. In between is 40 miles of unsurpassed wilderness, a paddling and camping paradise.