It's easy to imagine that the largest state in the Union holds the largest national forest. The Alaskan panhandle's Tongass covers 17 million acres and surrounds the capitol city, Juneau. The Tongass National Forest is considered a temperate rain forest. It is covered with western hemlock, Sitka spruce, yellow and red cedar, and shore pine. The rugged territory also includes over a dozen wilderness areas. The 1964 Wilderness Act assures that wilderness areas remain. Besides abundant vegetation, the forest is home to countless eagles, deer, and bear.
Pictured here is the Mendenhall Glacier, encircled by the Tongass forestland. The ice flow creeps forward a rate of two feet per day, dumping tons of ice into Mendenhall Lake, every day.