Yesterday was my birthday and I did not take one picture. We were staying at the Black Spruce Travel Camp at Fort Richardson in Anchorage on our way back from Valdez. It is a joint military base with Elmendorf AFB which is where we stayed in their FamCamp, when we were in Anchorage before. We thought we would try the Army’s camp this time and it was a very nice camp as well. I know that I haven’t filled you in on many of our previous days of travel and excursions, but I will eventually cover our whole vacation before I’m done. Anyway, the whole purpose of our two night, one day stop over at the base was to resupply and do laundry. It just happened to be on my birthday. We did go out to dinner, though. We ended up at the Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewery because the restaurant where we had wanted to go had a 1 1/2 hour wait. Since it was already almost 8 PM and we were hungry, we went to this restaurant. I had a delicious grilled salmon served on top of seasoned rice with broccoli and topped with a peach flavored salsa. Earl had fish tacos and seafood chowder. Everything was very tasty. It doesn’t sound like a very interesting way to spend a birthday, but I am seeing and doing so much fun stuff on this trip that it is almost like a birthday present every day, so a nice dinner out is enough.
Today was a travel day, but we didn’t have far to go, only 65.5 miles. When we came into the Turnagain Arm of the fjord, we began to see glaciers on the mountains.
Now we are staying at the U.S. Forest Service Williwaw Campground near Portage Glacier. It is very nice with a large site and lots of trees. We can see some snow covered mountains and a waterfall through the trees, but they are difficult to capture in a photo, from our campsite. The mountain behind us also has some clouds behind it as well as the snow, so it looks like more snow than there really is. Our picnic area has a unique triangular fire pit. Even the grill or grate that goes on top is triangular. It fits quite nicely into the corner of the area that has been prepared for this campsite.
Since we didn’t have a long drive today, there was some time to visit the National Forest Service’s Begich – Boggs Visitor Center, which is just about one mile from our campground. Bumble had a wonderful time at the visitors center. The first things that she noticed were the icebergs in the Portage Lake, just outside of the visitors center. These icebergs had calved off of the Portage Glacier and drifted down the river into the lake. At one time, long ago, the glacier filled the area between the two mountains at the right of the second picture, as well as the area where the lake is. It was connected to the other glaciers in the photo, as they were also much larger then. It would have been one huge glacier until things started to warm up and the different branches of the glacier began to retreat. It carved that valley and now has retreated back up the mountain with the clouds on top. The whole glacier can no longer be seen from the visitors center. Tomorrow we will go to another spot where it can be seen better.
Bumble got so excited to see Smoky Bear, inside the building, that she flew up onto his shoulder. He didn’t seem to mind a bit.
The mother moose and her baby had fun with bumble, too.
There was a kayak, in the visitors center, that anyone could sit in and get a picture taken, so of course, Bumble wanted to try it out. The cute little sea lion came up for a look and to say “Hi”. Then Bumble got a little tired from all of the activities that she had participated in that she decided to rest on a log in the forest display.
We watched a movie about the Chugach Mountains and the glaciers, then we had to leave for our next adventure for the day, seeing a bore tide. Usually the tides ebb and flow at a gradual rate so that you may not notice that it is happening unless you see the mud flats or look to see which way the water is flowing. A bore tide happens after an extremely low tide around the full or new moon. It turned out that yesterday, today and tomorrow are supposed to have some of those extremely low tides. When the tide comes back in, the water doesn’t flow back in, but comes back with such force that it forms a wave or mini tsunami.it is almost as if there was one wave that just keeps rolling in, not like one wave after another. A bore tide can be any where from 6 inches to 6 feet in height.
This is what the mud flats looked like when we reached the point where we planned to experience the bore tide. The mudflats aren’t flat at all here. Most of the water has left and the sand has been sculpted to look almost like a topographical map. Some running water has even carved out a small gully that can be seen in the picture on the right.
We watched through our binoculars and waited for something to happen. Then, way off in the distance, we could see it coming. I zoomed in as far as my camera would go for the first picture, then it came closer for the next one. It didn’t look like a nice smooth wave, but more like a roiling, bubbling line in the water. It is difficult to describe as well as to determine how big it is.
Fortunately, some hardy souls were out at the front of the bore tide on paddle boards, which gave some perspective. I would guess that the tide was around 2 1/2 to 3 feet. Not the biggest, but definitely something that we don’t usually see!
Then, as the tide progressed around and over the sand, it changed shape. The surfers just continued along wherever the bore tide took them.
Oh, and that little area of sand that I showed at the beginning… The tide began to fill it in as well and quite rapidly.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the greenish rock at the left of the first picture, this is what was happening.
We didn’t stay around for the tide to come all of the way in, that would have taken about 6 hours. We saw the exciting part, though.
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