Matanuska Glacier

This day was mostly devoted to driving. We said goodbye to the Kenai Peninsula, drove back through Anchorage (stopping at a Border’s bookstore to pay some bills using their free wireless internet access), and then headed east toward our next stop, Valdez. We would not make it all the way to Valdez but would instead end the day at another location that I had really been looking forward to seeing.

Matanuska Glacier, the largest highway-accessible glacier in Alaska, was different than every other glacier I had ever encountered in one important respect: it was privately held (or at least privately controlled). This meant that the folks who provided access to the glacier could charge whatever they wanted – in this case $15 per person – and also that one could get up close and personal with the glacier with relative ease…after signing a liability waiver.

The weather was beautiful this evening, misty and atmospheric. It was cold on the glacier but not uncomfortably so. The toe of the glacier was covered with silt and rubble so it wasn’t obvious we had climbed up onto the ice until we noticed the tiny little streamlets flowing across its surface. We could see the cool blue ice through the melt off.

A series of red cones led us through the mud and the rubble, then out onto the glacier. Once we were past the mud, we had to be somewhat careful of our footing. The light mist left a coat of water on top of the ice. No one fell – but The Boy came close.

Darla posed The Boy and me for this image. It’s one of my favorites.

The Boy eventually did get cold so he and The Mom headed back to the camper leaving me to play on the glacier by myself.

I had spent two hours on the ice by the time I headed back. Had we arrived earlier I would have spent even more time out on the glacier. As things stood now, it was already 9:30 and we still had to find a place to park for the evening. I arrived back at the camper to find Lewis and Darla eating dinner. I had a quick bite too; then we headed back to the highway.

Slide Mountain RV Park

We ended up finding a really nice pull off where we parked for the evening. It had a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside. When we awoke the next morning we had a quick bite of breakfast and then set off to find my parents, who were staying at the Slide Mountain RV Park.

Mom and Dad had elected to bypass Matanuska Glacier in order to continue down the road a little farther. Dad wanted to stay in an RV park with hook ups. While I was sorry that they didn’t get to see the glacier, it was probably good that they didn’t try. The road from the highway down to the “entrance station” was a steep muddy mess and crossed a questionable-looking bridge. They could have parked their rig up at the highway and come with us but we had no way of knowing this at the time since it isn’t possible to see the road without committing oneself to go down it.

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