What is the largest glacier in the United States?

What is the largest glacier in the United States? The answer is Bering Glacier. Located in southeastern Alaska, Bering Glacier flows toward Vitus Lake near the Gulf of Alaska. It is commonly described as the largest glacier in the United States and, when considered together with the Bagley Icefield that supplies it with snow, the largest glacier system in North America.

The glacier is named after Vitus Bering, the Danish explorer who led the Russian expedition that reached Alaska in 1741. Bering Glacier is part of a vast landscape of icefields and mountain valleys near Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Its terminus has changed substantially over time, and the glacier has retreated as its ice thinned.

This question can cause confusion because Alaska contains several enormous ice masses. Malaspina Glacier is famous for its broad piedmont shape, Hubbard Glacier is a major tidewater glacier, and Muir Glacier is historically important for documenting retreat. They are impressive, but Bering Glacier is the standard answer to the U.S.-largest-glacier question.