Day Twenty-Two - Seward, AK

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Another cloudy morning, but we rose early (relatively speaking) and drove eleven miles to the Exit Glacier Nature Center. The parking lot is somewhat small and I'm glad I heeded the warning posted on the National Parks Service website about their busiest time being between 10:30 and 3:30. We arrived at 9:45 and found plenty of parking still available.

Our first stop was the Nature Center. It's a small building showing the history of the glacier as it's receded over time. Along the highway and within the park are wooden signs with a year routered into them. The signs mark where the toe of the glacier was at that point in time.

There are a few different paths you can follow, some have a higher elevation gain and are more strenuous than others. The easiest trail is a relatively level, packed gravel one-mile loop starting and ending at the Nature Center and parking lot. At the far end of the loop the trail forks and another, more strenuous trail takes you up and closer to the glacier with a better view of it. If you're looking for a day hike, there's an eight-hour option. We didn't opt.

Following the packed gray path, we caught up to a ranger-led walk. The ranger was explaining why the water was so murky. She said the cloudiness is caused by rocks grinding against one another creating what is referred to as "rock flour." There are no fish in this kind of water for obvious reasons. Farther downriver, after more silt has settled to the river bottom and more mountain streams have added clean water to the mix, fish are able to survive and thrive.

Onward and upward to Glacier View, the trail that will take us up to the viewpoint. This trail, like the lower, accessible trial, has a loop incorporated into it. Up, up, up we go over bedrock striped with striations of glacial activity of long ago. We dare not stop long. The black flies outnumber visitors 100 to 1 and no amount of DEET will keep them away. Your best defense is to keep moving. As people descending the trail passed, they promised the flies were less invasive once we reached the viewing area.

They were right. The flies didn't disappear altogether, but they were significantly fewer in number.

The glacier, striped with the brown of dirt and rocks, is a fraction of its former self. It dropped from the ridge, between massive walls of stone disappearing behind an outcrop to reappear to the left looking like the midway dip, rise and fall of a water slide frozen in time.

Mike spoke with a ranger and learned that it's unknown if the two, apparently separate, ice masses are related. the lower mass is too dangerous for scientists or park staff to get samples to study.

While we were there, we heard a faraway BOOM! I looked up to see rocks and dust sliding down the rockface on the left side of the ravine. One more reason to stay on the marked trails.

I want to stop here for a minute and warn my family they may need a tissue before continuing. I'll wait while you get one.



Ready? Okay, read on:

There were several other visitors at the lookout while we were there, among them a man and his son-in-law. The older gentleman asked if I would mind taking a picture of him with the glacier in the background. I happily obliged. He warned me that I'd need to stand back because the long lens on his camera was a telephoto lens. I stepped back from him, looked through the eyepiece and had to step back much farther. The man spoke with a strong East Coast accent so naturally Mike asked where he was from. Another one from Boston. Scituate to be precise. They asked if we'd been to Denali yet. We told them of our experience and compared it to Mount Rainier. When the mountain is out, it's a beautiful sight to behold. The son-in-law said he was familiar with fickle Rainier. He worked for Ocean Spray and spent some time at the plant in Aberdeen. I didn't know Aberdeen had an Ocean Spray plant.

I brought Dad's binoculars with us today and was happy I did. Mike carried them, slung across his torso, up the trail. I pulled them from their gently worn, leather-clad case and smelled the familiar scent of the old leather neck strap as I held them to my eyes. I was able to see the glacier in so much more detail. I could even see the group of people who, I'm sure, paid good money to traverse it. A large ice cave had formed partway down on the right side and there were huge crevasses above it. I wish there was a way to take pictures through binoculars! I guess I'm gonna need a bigger lens. We each took turns looking through them. As I gently put them back in their protective case I looked up and saw a tall, slender man standing nearby who had a striking resemblance to Dad. From his nose up he had many similar features: the eyes behind large glasses; the dark hair sprinkled with gray; the darker complexion; and the cheekbones all resembled my dad as a slightly younger man. Even this man's narrower jaw and chin looked a bit like my dad's in the picture of my parents on their wedding day.

I told you to get a tissue. If you didn't, and the neck of your shirt is wet or your sleeve is full of snot it's not my fault. You were warned.

Heading back down the trail, I had to stop at a bench and take a moment or several before continuing. We took the other halves of the two loops we walked on the way up. We were about a quarter mile from the Nature Center when a woman with a small dog and trekking poles walked briskly past repeating, "Bear. Bear. Bear." We turned to look and sure enough, there was a black bear on the trail. It was soon joined by one cub, then another. They didn't stay long. Mama probably saw the number of people on the trail in either direction and took the babies back into the bushes and further into the woods. Nearer the Nature Center we encountered rangers heading toward the bears, stopping long enough to get more information as to where and in what direction the three bears had gone. I'm sure they weren't out for a walk in the woods while their porridge cooled. Maybe they were. Finally having seen a black bear somewhat up close and personal (as close and personal as I'd like to get in the wild) I now believe the bears we'd seen early in our travels were more likely adult adults, not young adults. They're not a large bear. I would say if I stood next to the one we saw on the path it would have only come to my hip. Still big enough to want to keep a very safe distance.

On the way back to camp we stopped at a viewpoint and took a few last shots of Exit Glacier. The angle was head-on which was different than in the park.

Back at camp I had the added fun of doing laundry while Mike took the truck into town and topped off the tank. Tomorrow will be another long drive.

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