Portage Glacier Cruise

I love glaciers. I'm not too proud to admit that... And I'll jump at any chance to get close to one. So this last weekend we headed to down to Portage Lake to cruise aboard the MV Ptarmigan to the face of Portage Glacier.
The cruise is just an hour long. You can do much longer glacier cruises out of nearby Whittier, but this one much less expensive and fits better into a full day of other activities.
The boat is set up nice with an indoor seating or an outdoor viewing area, bathrooms, and an on-board naturalist from the USFS.

The 15 minute cruise out to the glacier takes you past multiple water falls. Portage Lake is very deep and has steep sides so the boat can maneuver quite close to the edge.
The size and strength of the waterfalls vary based on snow pack and weather. Today they were all flowing pretty strong.

But, we weren't here to see waterfalls... We were here to see a glacier. The Portage Glacier. The big, blue river of ice. The ice crystals in a glacier are composed of super compressed snow. They are so densely packed that they actually filter the other colors in the light spectrum, so they appear to be blue.
We spent a little over 30 minutes at the face of the glacier, just 300 yards away.

Portage Glacier is not the only glacier in Portage Valley. You can hike up to Byron Glacier. Burns Glacier also overlooks Portage Lake, but does not reach it. But the water that melts off the glacier cascades down in a glorious waterfall.

I'm told that the width of the creek at that waterfall is over 40 feet. Which means the height of the fall must be around 100 feet.

Since the cruise was only an hour long we decided to do some Geocaching. The Portage Valley has several well developed trails that take you to some really nice spots.
We found a cache up under a small bridge over a clear, beautiful stream. The next cache was just 500 feet down a side trail that ran between two ponds. We started down that way and got may 100 feet when a gull flew right over our heads, shrieking loudly. It startled us both, but we kept going. And then it buzzed us again, even closer. And then again... And then again. Suddenly we realized it's chicks were in the road just ahead of us and it was trying to run us off. We back pedaled quickly as the bird did one final run over our heads. Once we backed off enough for it to be happy, we stood and watched it for a while. At one point an eagle was flying overhead and the gull went up and was harassing the eagle to run it off.
I managed to get a few seconds of video from one of it's attacks:

Another Trip to the Matanuska Glacier

When we stayed at the State Park cabin up at the Matanuska Glacier back in April, it was still more winter than spring or summer. So we decided to give it another shot. This time around we enjoyed some of the best June weather that Alaska has ever seen.

 I don't know of any other location in Alaska that has the view that you get off the front deck of the cabin. This time around it was warm enough for us to eat our dinner out on the deck and take in the magnificent view.

And this time we remembered to grab the camera and were able to get some much better photos of the glacier. All of Alaska is beautiful, but for some reason I find glaciers to be particularly fascinating.

It's not just their immense size and composition of densely packed snowfall... But their ability to grind and carve the land scape they cover. Eons after they are gone, the evidence of their passing still lingers.

As the glaciers grind over the land, they pulverize the rocks into a fine powder, which is carried away in the rivers which flow from the glaciers. This silty water is a luminous gray and cold.

But not all rivers come from glaciers. Mountains with a southern exposure do not build glaciers and their snow packs melt off during the spring and summer, producing pristine, clear water. Granite Creek just north of Sutton is an beautiful example of this, flowing down from the Talkeetna Mountains.

We weren't the only ones out enjoying the almost twenty hours of sunlight on the Summer Solstice weekend. I just barely managed to snap a photo of this classic car as it zoomed down the highway past us.

We couldn't let the opportunity to do some geocaching pass us by. Our favorite one of the day involved the most work. We had to scramble a hundred feet up a very steep embankment. The GPS led us to ground zero, but all we could see was more rocks... But all was not as it seemed. We flipped a few over and came up with what we were seeking.

In our search for another cache we came upon this old bridge. It once spanned the Chickaloon River and allowed coal trains to haul their cargo to market. The Sutton & Chickaloon area was originally sourced by the U.S. Navy as a strategic supply of coal before they converted the fleet to diesel.

The metal roof was not an original part of the structure. It was added at some time to slow the decay of the old bridge.... But I think it was added too late. The massive wood beams were showing their age.

And while the old bridge slowly rots away, Castle Mountain stands as it has for untold generations.

We turned back south and headed for home just before entering the pass at Eureka Summit. I love the high alpine areas in Alaska. Broad Pass south of Cantwell is my favorite, but this area is a close second.
The weather was perfect, the views were perfect and we got to do some geocaching. It doesn't get much better than that...

The Cabin at the Matanuska Glacier

The hidden gems of the Alaska State Park system are it's public use cabins. These small cabins are scattered around the state and are pretty affordable for a stay. You can see more here...

We made plans to stay at the cabin at the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Area at mile 101 of the Glenn Highway. We made our reservations back in February and assumed we'd get to enjoy some spring-like weather. Mother nature had other plans though and the weather was more like late winter.

The view from the cabin was amazing... Spread out before you is the massive Matanuska Glacier. The pictures we took do not do it justice. We somehow left the good camera at home on the table... So all we had were our older iPhone 4's. So just imagine everything being much clearer and sharper.

At sunset the mountains and ice were all lit up with brilliant pinks and oranges. I got up during the night and the full moon was sitting right over the glacier. With a good camera and tripod you could get some amazing pictures. And I bet the fall colors would be breath taking.

The parking side of the cabin has the covered front porch seen in the first picture. The glacier side of the cabin has a large deck looking out over the Matanuska Glacier and Matanuska River. In decent weather you could easily spend your entire time on the deck soaking in the view.

 Just a few short steps from the cabin is the deluxe outhouse. And by deluxe I mean a concrete floor and locking door. Some big city folk might be put off by such rustic facilities, but when ya gotta go, ya gotta go. It's a "any port in a storm" type of deal.

Outside was a fire pit and a picnic table. Winter has lingered well into Spring in Alaska this year, so we didn't get a chance to enjoy these amenities. If you have kids though, you'll want to be cautious. Ten feet in front of the cabin there's 40 foot drop off. They have it roped off though.

Most of the public use cabins do not have electricity. This cabin was originally built to be used by a park ranger so it's wired with lights, a microwave and a small fridge. The counter made a convenient place for preparing meals. We brought a portable grill for cooking but some how managed to forget the meat at home.

The little wood stove did a great job of keeping the cabin nice and toasty. You do have to bring your own wood though. There was a couple of trees I cut up last fall, so we had plenty of wood to take up.

Rounding out the furnishings were a few plastic chairs, a small table, a king size bed and a double bed. You have to bring your own linens, but the beds were comfortable.
The windows were great for the views, but in the land of the midnight sun it makes it hard to sleep. Luckily I had some tarps in my truck that we rigged up as curtains.

The cabin is a perfect place to relax. If you don't feel like cooking, the Long Rifle Lodge is just a mile up the road. If you are looking for a thrill, Glacier View Adventures offers a zipline or jet boat rides. MICA Guides offers glacier hikes if you want to get up close and personal with some blue ice. Just the drive up to the area is stunning. The Glenn Highway has been designated a National Scenic Byway.