Day 74 of our summer trip.
Yesterday, we went to the Begich – Boggs Visitor Center near the Portage Glacier. The glacier has receded so far that the whole glacier can no longer be seen from the visitor center. So, today we thought we would try to get a view of the entire glacier from another spot. First, we tried driving down to the dock where the tour boats that cruise the Portage Lake are. We didn’t have to go the whole way before we had a really nice view of the glacier (left). We went back to the visitor center and took this picture (right) of another big glacier directly across the lake.
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Next we drove through a tunnel that leads to the railroad/highway tunnel that goes to Whittier. That tunnel has a fee schedule posted that gives all of the different rates, depending on what you are driving. We had been through this combo tunnel when we had taken a Princess Cruisetour to Alaska few years ago. The tunnel to Whittier is a combination tunnel used by both cars and trains. There is a traffic signal and line up procedure to access the tunnel for the road traffic on each end of the tunnel. The railroad track runs down the middle of the tunnel road, so the train and automobile traffic alternate turns to use the tunnel. We had wanted to drive down to watch the action, but there was a guard house before we could get close enough to see anything.
Even though we couldn’t see the tunnel to Whittier, we did get some good views of the Portage Glacier. As we looked across Portage Lake, we could see where the glacier was melting into some waterfalls. The blue ice is quite obvious in the cracks and is such a pretty shade of blue.
We also had better views of some of the surrounding glaciers in the area.
When we were in Anchorage earlier, we purchased an Alaska Tour Saver, a 2 for 1 coupon book. We used one of the coupons to ride the Alyeska Tram Ride in Girdwood, AK. You can see where we are headed in the first picture. One of the tram cars is pictured next. I took the photo while I watched it come up to drop off passengers and pick up others to take back down the mountain. That is why it is at a funny angle. They are very colorfully decorated.
After we had gotten into the tram, a bride and her attendants got on for the ride to the top with us. It turned out that they were having their wedding photo shoot at the top of the tram.
Here are the bride and groom. The wedding party and photographers. The town of Girdwood and the Turnagain Arm are at the bottom of the mountain. That was something different and the group was turning the eyes of almost everyone else who was there at the time.
Here are some of the views from the tram. The trees on the right have been bent and misshapen by the snow and ice and avalanches that have moved through the area over time.
When we were walking around at the top of the tram, we came across an interesting sign on the stairway. I don’t think I will be hiking here right now!
Bumble wasn’t allowed to be out at the top of the tram because it was so windy that she might have just rolled down the mountain. She did, however, find a new friend in the resort gift shop area. The grounds of the resort were beautifully landscaped with all sorts of wildflowers.
We went back to the trailer and took a hike that went behind the campground. It is a very nice trail with boardwalks and gravel base to walk on. We were able to find and photograph the glacier and waterfalls that we can see, through the trees, from our campsite.
This evening, there was another very low tide with another bore tide predicted. The wind is a lot calmer tonight compared with last night. That plus the fact that we went to Bird Point to view the tide, a different location from last night, gave us a few more interesting views of the bore tide. Hover over the photos to get an explanation of what we saw.
If you enlarge the first photo by clicking on it, you will be able to more easily see the helicopter and mountains reflecting in the calm water as the bore tide is coming. We think that the helicopter was taking movies of the paddle boarder.
Because of the calm water before it, the bore tide is very delineated. It appears that it must be about 2 feet high as it surges forward into the calmer water.
This was a very busy day with lots of photos that needed to be edited. I am writing this post a week after it happened, but it is fun to review some of the things we have done.
Monday, Days 72 and 73 of our summer trip. Seward Highway
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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