This hanging valley opens onto Tarr Inlet, Alaska, part of Glacier Bay National Park (see more photos from here). There are two main ways of creating a hanging valley. In the first, a glacier excavates a deep valley faster than a tributary glacier can keep up. When the glaciers melt, the smaller valley is left suspended. Yosemite Valley is well known for these. The second way a hanging valley forms is when the sea erodes the coast faster than a stream valley can cut down to grade. In both cases, the hanging valley commonly ends with a waterfall.
This hanging valley is also a cirque.
