Day 41
Monday, July 18
Exit Glacier, Seward, Alaska

After a rainy night we awoke to sunshine and warm (65 degree) temperatures. Everyone was happy to see the sunshine and wished that we could have had more of it yesterday. Several in our group had a charter arranged to take them Salmon fishing. Most others were content to sleep a little later, visit with others from the caravan, and plan their free day. Most decided to go to Exit Glacier which is on the other side of the Harding Ice Field from Bear Glacier that we visited yesterday. Exit Glacier is 8 miles northwest of Seward and is easily accessible.

  

Robert and Bet once again joined us for the trip to Exit Glacier. The drive out was on a winding road through the Kenai Mountains. Fireweed and Cow's Parsnip was blooming profusely along the way. When we arrived at the parking lot for the visitor center we were attacked by swarms of flies. I don't know why they were so thick and the ranger didn't have an explanation either. We all started walking down the pathway that led to the glacier viewing point. It was about 1/2 mile down a rather level gravel path. Just as we arrived at the viewing point we noticed two moose cows leisurely grazing in the river basin below.   The seemed totally oblivious to us. These were the first two moose that we have had more than a glance of. We have seen several others but we were driving 50-60 mph when we saw them and couldn't get a good look. We did see a moose cow and two babies while we were in Anchorage, but they were in a hurry to get across the road, so we didn't get a real good look.

Jenna and Bet stayed behind at this point and Robert and I proceeded to climb to the midpoint of the glacier. Our climb started out as a meandring pathway for about 1/4 mile.
   Then it started to rise rather abruptly with several switchbacks.

 
  After we had gone about 3/4 of a mile the pathway gave way to granite slabs that had been ground down by the glacier. When we drove into the national park area we noticed signs saying 1815,1845,1870,etc. At the time we didn't know what those were. It turned out that each sign showed where they glacier was at that year. Each sign showed just how much the glacier had receded. We finally came to a sign that showed that the glacier was at that point in 1998. From this point the glacier has receded another 1500 ft. I looks as if in another 10-15 years the Exit Glacier will cease to exist; it will have receded clear back to the Harding Ice Field.   We finally made it to the highest point you can go and had the obligatory pictures made. The hike back down was certainly easier that the climb up. We noted the striations on the rock as we went back down. It was interesting to see how the glacier had cut the rock.  

We returned to Seward and visited the Visitor Center for the Kenai Fjord National Park, had lunch at a maritime Mexican restaurant, hit a couple of gift shops looking for a sticker, and returned to the RV Park. We went out to the river and watch some of our guys fish for Salmon. They were somewhat successful. Altogether they caught 9 fish - all salmon except for 1 small halibut.

 

Their trip earlier today was cancelled because the only way to start the boat was with a screwdriver. No one wanted to chance going out into the bay to fish without a more assured way of returning.

On our way back to the park we stopped by a place where bears have been seen the last two nights. No bears but a very beautiful spot.

 

 

The stream was filled with salmon and a small fish ladder was across the road. Salmon were jumping to try to get up, but none was successful while we watched. A Salmon's life really sucks! All that hard work to get upstream and then they die. What a bummer!!

Tomorrow we set out for Palmer - about 160 miles. I'll let you know about that leg of the trip tomorrow. Till then - Happy Trails!!