Last day here in Seward and it’s another beautiful one. (Little did I know that it would be followed by 13 days - and counting - of rain. Our first stop was back at Exit Glacier where a Visitor Center for the Kenai Fjord Park is. We wanted to see where we had been walking out on the glacier. Looks like it’s RV day at the Exit Glacier parking lot. Actually most of these are rental RV’s. Sometimes about 1/3 of the RV’s in our campgrounds are rentals. Great plan and we recommend it to others all the time. Rent an RV. Sleep in the same bed every night, eat the food you want when you want to eat it. We also think it’s great family time. Go where you want on your schedule.
The walkway out to the glacier is pretty well used - lots of people head this way - but along the way, the trail is marked with the date that the glacier came out to this place. In 1926, the glacier came out to this point - a long way from where this sign is.
But, in the visitor Center, there was a chart which really laid it all out. Off to the right in the picture is close to where we stood when we were today at the glacier but wa-y-y-y down the forest to the left is where it was in 1815. It has really shrunk and, as you can tell, it is shrinking much faster than it used to. It’s going fast.
Not only did we learn about the retreat of the glacier but we learned about its composition. This poster showed it pretty well.
Most can walk on this path to the glacier. When they put this trail in, they planned for those on it to be able to touch the glacier itself. But, the glacier has receded so much that the trail ends a long ways away from the edge of the glacier. We’re at the place where the park thought people could stand close to the glacier and actually get a close look. Here we are closer to the glacier itself but there are people still closer as you might be able to see in the picture.
When we walked on the glacier, we were up above that big brown bump on the right of the glacier.
Closer to the glacier we can see the blue tones that always shine through in glaciers where the ice is only 10% air.
Looking down the glacier to the braided stream and all the rocks in the moraine that it has left as it receded. But, hey, isn’t it great to look at the mountains silhouetted against the blue sky?
We then walked out to the stream that emanates from the glacier and the rocks that it has deposited as it has moved up the valley.
Sometimes, Gary and I travel so fast that we don’t know where we are.
Next into town to visit the small boat harbor. Looks like this guy is ready for fishing.
We found this hungry otter gnawing on a bit of food as he floated on his back through the boats.
And a seal who seemed to be fighting with some food he had. He was thrashing around something fierce. He would leap out of the water and then disappear for a while. Then leap again only to again disappear. I didn’t see anyone tossing bits of fish to it but you can see in the picture below that he’s going to snatch a tasty little morsel from the air and gobble it down.
But, it’s not just the seals and otters that are playing in the area. I caught this gull soaring overhead.
Time to head back to the RV to get it ready for travel tomorrow.
Hey, look what we found across from our RV in the campground. Something we recognize. We have seen one other RV just like ours but that was in Florida last spring.
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