Day 17 – Exit Glacier, The Hills Are Alive, Alyeska Ski Resort

The rain stopped this morning. Although there was no real sunshine, things seemed brighter and warmer. I know the mosquitoes liked it, since they were ready to greet us as soon as we stepped outside. We packed up and drove up the road a couple of miles to do some hiking near Exit Glacier, which is within the Kenai Fjords National Park.

When we entered the park boundary, we started to see signs stating ‘1897’, 1917’, and so on. We figured out that these markers showed where the terminus of Exit Glacier had been in those years. It’s hard to believe that just over one hundred years ago, the paths we were walking on through the lush forest were covered by hundreds of feet of ice.

And this was a long time ago, too!

 

Karen and I hiked up to an overlook to see where the glacier stands as of today.

Later, I hiked up along the glacial stream to the nose of the glacier, where water was roaring out of an ice cave. The temperature there was quite a bit cooler, due to the ‘katabatic’ wind that flowed down from the upper reaches of the glacier, bringing with it dense cool air.

After our morning hike, we swung by the Seward Safeway and got some picnic lunch supplies. Our trip north up the Seward Highway was much more clear than when we’d driven down south through the rain a few days ago.

We found a great place to have lunch beside the highway.

We thought we heard Julie Andrews singing off in the distance when we stopped for some photos.

In the late afternoon, we rolled into the Alyeska Ski Resort and checked into the Hotel Alyeska. There was still plenty of daylight, so I took a little walk up to the tramway near the top of the mountain. The trail is relatively short – just over three miles – but it gains about 2000’ of vertical elevation in that distance. Up on the mountain, there are great views of Turnagain Arm.

The payoff for a motivated hiker is that you get to ride the tram down from the mountain at no charge.

Tonight is our last night in Alaska (although we’ll be flying all night tomorrow), so we topped off our dinner with the resort’s signature dessert, Baked Alyeska.

Next: Anchorage, then red-eye flight home