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canyonwalkerAlaska Travelog #18
Kenai Fjords National Park - Mon, 17 Jun 2024, 4pm
Today we've hiked the trail toward Exit Glacier and the Harding Ice Field in Kenai Fjords National Park. After starting out easily from the visitors center the trail forks in various directions. We took the fork that goes up, up, up.
The climb was... well, I don't want to say tough but it sure wasn't easy. We've climbed about 1,300 vertical feet over the course of 2 miles. That's far from the toughest we've ever done, especially because there's no altitude acclimation challenge here. And the beautiful views in all directions helped us keep focused on the reason for the hike rather than the drudgery of it.
As we climbed ever higher the views opened up more and more. And the sky was so clear. We could see there was still fog hanging over Resurrection Bay in the distance. But out here it was sunny and even warm. I'd stripped off my heavy sweater after 10 minutes of hiking. The little thermometer I clipped on my pack reads 72°. And yes, in the photo above that's a patch of snow in the small trees below us.
Speaking of snow, there'd be more to come.
As we approached Marmot Meadow, which a ranger at the visitors center below advised us is as far as we should go, we crossed a few larger patches of snow.
Marmot Meadow is where we were advised to turn around as going farther involves entering areas with increased snow/ice hazards and danger of avalanches. Indeed we'd already seen a small avalanche happen high up on the snowy cliffs an hour earlier. Such warnings didn't stop a lot of hikers who'd gotten this far. Even we pressed on just a bit further, as long as the trail was dry and clear.
This was the view at our turnaround point. From here the trail drops down the side of the cliff to meet the side of the glacier. We didn't feel like going down only to have to come back up. 😅 But like I said, some other hikers up here did exactly that. Some of them even had the appropriate gear for it. (Our not having crampons and ice axes was one reason we planned not to go further than this.) Indeed, in the photo above you can see a small group of hikers on the glacier. They're just above the crevasse near the bottom center of the picture.
Up next: Coming back down from Exit Glacier
Kenai Fjords National Park - Mon, 17 Jun 2024, 4pm
Today we've hiked the trail toward Exit Glacier and the Harding Ice Field in Kenai Fjords National Park. After starting out easily from the visitors center the trail forks in various directions. We took the fork that goes up, up, up.
The climb was... well, I don't want to say tough but it sure wasn't easy. We've climbed about 1,300 vertical feet over the course of 2 miles. That's far from the toughest we've ever done, especially because there's no altitude acclimation challenge here. And the beautiful views in all directions helped us keep focused on the reason for the hike rather than the drudgery of it.
As we climbed ever higher the views opened up more and more. And the sky was so clear. We could see there was still fog hanging over Resurrection Bay in the distance. But out here it was sunny and even warm. I'd stripped off my heavy sweater after 10 minutes of hiking. The little thermometer I clipped on my pack reads 72°. And yes, in the photo above that's a patch of snow in the small trees below us.
Speaking of snow, there'd be more to come.
As we approached Marmot Meadow, which a ranger at the visitors center below advised us is as far as we should go, we crossed a few larger patches of snow.
Marmot Meadow is where we were advised to turn around as going farther involves entering areas with increased snow/ice hazards and danger of avalanches. Indeed we'd already seen a small avalanche happen high up on the snowy cliffs an hour earlier. Such warnings didn't stop a lot of hikers who'd gotten this far. Even we pressed on just a bit further, as long as the trail was dry and clear.
This was the view at our turnaround point. From here the trail drops down the side of the cliff to meet the side of the glacier. We didn't feel like going down only to have to come back up. 😅 But like I said, some other hikers up here did exactly that. Some of them even had the appropriate gear for it. (Our not having crampons and ice axes was one reason we planned not to go further than this.) Indeed, in the photo above you can see a small group of hikers on the glacier. They're just above the crevasse near the bottom center of the picture.
Up next: Coming back down from Exit Glacier
