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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Byron Glacier

The first day of September was fantastic!
It was so nice to get to spend Labor Day with my hubby. Usually he is laboring away but this year he got the day off! Score!
 
We drove out to Girdwood and did a bit of exploring before heading a bit farther down the Seward Highway to see Byron Glacier.
 
This was a dirt road we followed up into the mountains around Girdwood. It got narrower and narrower as it wound along higher in the mountains and I was praying we wouldn't meet a car coming the other direction! Geoff has great talent in driving in reverse but I was hoping praying we wouldn't have to put those skills to the test in the big truck we were driving.
 
It was worth the risk though since we found a lovely place to hike and a creek to explore.



 
 





 
Byron Glacier was a lot smaller than what I was expecting. The hike to the glacier was an easy walk and didn't take too long which was good because by the time we got there is was already late afternoon.
 
The small water fall down the mountain side had created an ice cave in the glacier.
 

But in order to get over to that ice cave we had to cross this icy river! Ok, it was more of a creek. But it felt never ending when you had to cross it. :) 
 

 This is me very carefully picking my way across in bare feet so i wouldn't get my shoes wet. It wasn't so bad at first.... but the longer you're in the icy glacier water the more it hurt!
 
 
 
 Geoff and Ethan went inside the ice cave.
You can see the different layers of snow from different years.



Here is another smaller but wet and drippy ice cave.






On our drive home we noticed lots of cars pulled off to the side of the Seward Highway and people looking at something in the water of Cook Inlet.. We pulled over too and got to see our first beluga whale sighting! It was so cool!

I didn't get any pictures but later that day on an Alaska facebook page I saw someone had shared a video of them! So you get to see what we saw! Just turn your head, they loaded the video sideways. Enjoy!

1 comment:

Deanna Rabe - Creekside Cottage Blog said...

Such beauty! Uncle Tim and I really need to come to visit you. Maybe we can save up and come in a few years! The kids all want to come too!

Deanna