Alaska – Canada Travels 2014, Matanuska Glacier, Worthington Glacier and Valdez, August 2nd to August 4th.

Having a picnic at Matanuska Glacier.

We leave Palmer on the Glennallen Highway and head for Valdez. On the way we see signs for Glacier Park. This is a private business that charges $15 per person to hike onto Matanuska Glacier. What an experience.

Raven wants to know what's for lunch.

We drive a few miles down a gravel road to a picnic area near the toe of the glacier.

 Matanuska Glacier.

Walking on the ice. Gravel carried by the glacier helps us keep our footing.

When we walk onto the ice we stay mainly on a thin layer of gravel that has been carried along by the glacier and keeps us from slipping. This gravel is on top of about 200 meters of ice.

Ice sculpture.

The beauty of the ice.

Water flows

Looking into a blue crevasse that rock have fallen into.

We watch ice climbers on the glacier.

The sound of flowing water is everywhere. It flows in channels and crevasses and into pools at the toe of the glacier before flowing on to become the Matanuska River.

Hiking on the glacier.

Glacier Park also gives guided tours and you get crampons to walk further out onto the ice. We didn’t go on a tour but it would be well worth the price. We overheard a guide talking to her group and she had a lot of interesting things to say about the dynamics of the glacier. If you rent crampons you can walk more freely over the ice.

Hiking to the toe of  Worthington Glacier.

I touch the weeping face of the glacier.

Water pours down the rock from beneath the glacier. It's melting.

Worthington Glacier is on our way to Valdez. It spills in a frozen flow down a craggy slot in the mountain to hang above the valley floor. We walk up to it, touch its weeping face and gather cold dripping water in our hands. The glacier is melting. Water pours over the rock face from unseen places above us. It flows into the lake then into the river on to the sea. all that fresh water going to the ocean.

I leave my heart at the toe of the glacier.

Bridal Veil Falls in Keystone Canyon.

Horsetail Falls in Keystone Canyon.

ff the glacier-carved mountain as the ice melts away. So much water pouring into rivers and into the sea. The lakes below didn't exist in 1959 but now the glacier has receded far up the canyon leaving a gray debris field. I find a rock heart in what's left beThe road to Valdez passes through the narrows of Keystone Canyon, which is adorned with several beautiful falls.

Valdez.

Valdez Harbor.

 

We arrive in Valdez, AK. Love these little port towns. Love seeing boats on the water, waterfalls and sea gulls.

Sea Gulls at the Salmon run.

Here's a pic of gulls bobbing on the stream flowing out of the fish hatchery as the water churns with salmon. The salmon run has been good this year and they gather here in great numbers at their home waters. It’s the end of their amazing lifecycle and the gulls take advantage of the free lunch.

The Fireweed is in full bloom.

A fisherman canoes peacefully by our campsite on Allison Point.

We camp at Allison Point, a small city campground across the bay from Valdez. We can hear the multitudes of salmon rising to the surface along the shore. The campground is only a parking lot but the mountain views are nice and we can hear the gulls and watch boats.

Valdez Harbor.

Watching the tide come in.

Looking across the bay to Valdez from our campsite. Beautiful view.

These are scenes of the Valdez docks and harbor. We spent two days here and it was continuous rain and fog. We decide to leave the coast and head for the Denali Highway.

More glaciers can be seen along the Richardson Highway.

As we drive back up the Richardson Highway from Valdez to Glennallen we can see Mount Drum in the Wrangell Mountains.

Mount Drum in the Wrangell Mountains with it's head in the clouds.

Our next destination is Tangle Lakes along the Denali Highway.

An artistic sidewalk post at Valdez Harbor.

See you down the road.

Jackie

A Stellers Jay visits us at our Allison Point camping site.