Cloud Peak Glacier

{{Short description|Glacier in Wyoming, USA}}

{{Infobox glacier

| name = Cloud Peak Glacier

| photo = Cloud Peak Glacier WY.jpg

| photo_caption = Cloud Peak Glacier viewed from the summit of Cloud Peak

| type = Mountain glacier

| location = Johnson County, Wyoming, USA (Bighorn Mountains)

| map = USA Wyoming

| label_position = right

| map_size = 225

| coordinates = {{coord|44|23|11|N|107|10|06|W|region:US-WY|format=dms|display=inline,title}}

| coordinates_ref ={{cite gnis|id=1586783|name=Cloud Peak|accessdate=2012-08-12}}

| area = {{convert|55|acre|abbr=on}}

| length = {{convert|.30|mi|abbr=on}}

| width = {{convert|.30|mi|abbr=on}}

| thickness =

| terminus = Scree, Proglacial lake

| status = Retreating

}}

Cloud Peak Glacier is in the Bighorn Mountains in the northcentral section of the U.S. state of Wyoming.{{Cite map|publisher=TopoQwest (United States Geological Survey Maps)|title=Cloud Peak, WY|url=http://www.topoquest.com/map.php?lat=44.38536&lon=-107.16844&datum=nad83&zoom=4&map=auto&coord=d&mode=pan&size=m|accessdate=2012-08-12}} Centered within the Cloud Peak Wilderness of Bighorn National Forest, Cloud Peak Glacier is the only active glacier in the Bighorn Mountains.{{cite journal|last=Rahn|first=Perry H.|author2=Charles Michael Ray |author3=Michael W. Rahn |title=The Last Glacier in the Bighorns|journal=The Professional Geologist|volume=43|issue=2|pages=43–46|publisher=American Institute of Professional Geologists|date=March–April 2006}} The glacier is in a deep cirque immediately northeast of Cloud Peak, the highest peak in the Bighorn Mountains. Cloud Peak Glacier lies at approximately {{convert|11800|ft}} above sea level.

Cloud Peak Glacier is retreating rapidly and is expected to disappear entirely sometime between the years 2020 and 2034. Photographs taken in 1905 and again in 2005 demonstrated an obvious reduction in the area the glacier, and more ominously, a huge loss of thickness. Between 1905 and 2005, the glacier has been reduced in size from an estimated {{convert|506000000|ft3}} to {{convert|78000000|ft3}}.