Harding Icefield and SeaLife Center

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We didn’t spend much time hanging out at the cabin this morning (what else would you expect). I had read about an International Coastal Cleanup Day that was being organized out of the Alaska SeaLife Center. We were ready to help out in exchange for free admission to the Center. We went to the front desk to find out what we could do to help… Not only did no one at the front desk not know about it, but no one on staff knew about it. It was actually pretty comical to hear the staff radioing back and forth trying to figure it out. In the end, they told us that we were comped for admission (wow, a savings of $42) and they didn’t know what else to do for the cleanup… We spent a couple of hours exploring the touch tanks, watching seabirds, harbor seals and sea lions up close, and watching the octopus move around its tank.

After that, we went to…..(you guessed it) hike! We went to the exit glacier to hike to the Harding Icefield. The icefield is a glimpse into the last ice age. It is the birthplace for about 40 named glaciers and countless others. The icefield gets 150 - 200 feet of snow each year. We stopped at the visitor center and got the girls their junior ranger badges (their second of the trip and third this year)!

It is another beautiful day and not far into the hike we had to strip a layer off. We worked our way along the trail and caught glimpses of the Exit Glacier here and there. The highlight of the first part of the hike was the berries! We ate lots and lots of salmon berries and watermelon berries (yes, they really do taste like watermelon!, also called twisted stalk, which we believe we have back home too!). All of the hikers that we passed were really impressed with Gabbi and Jacqui (just as we are every day!) As we got above treeline, we saw some mountain goats way up above us, then saw some incredible views of Exit Glacier and the Harding Icefield! As we came over the ridge, the wind coming off of the icefield was incredible!! The girls stood and leaned into the wind and it held them up… After getting blown around a bit, we headed down. We encouraged Danielle to keep going and convinced her to check out the views from further up the trail. Gabbi, Jacqui, and I headed down and continued our berry eating. Since Danielle had ran up the mountain and ran back down, she caught up with us pretty quickly and we all finished the hike together. We went back into Seward for some delicious Mexican dinner (some great spicy sauce) and drove back to Anchorage. As we headed into Anchorage, we noticed that it was snowing on the higher peaks of the Chugach Mountains….what a beautiful sight!! Another incredible day in Alaska!

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