Glacier View, Alaska

Good morning, my friends. It's a rainy morning here in Glacier View, Alaska. Recently, I read an atmospheric river was on its way, and I believe it has "orrived," as our nav unit likes to say. We figure our nav unit must be Irish or something. So anyway...here we are. 

It was a short drive yesterday. We hung out at the previous RV park until the bitter end, and then headed out when we thought we could be fashionably early at this park in Glacier View. Today will be the same. We have until noon to check out, then a 2:00 check-in at the next place in Glenallen. It's only about an hour's drive, so you can see the problem there. So far, no one has denied us entry when we arrive early like that.

For the past week or so, we've been back-tracking over roads we've already traveled. Yesterday's drive took us into new territory. Our first glimpse of something new was dead ahead:  Pinnacle Mountain.

Here's what our Milepost tells us about this:

Shortly after that, we drove through the tiny town of Sutton-Alpine. This was one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it kinds of places.

Here's what our Milepost tells us about Sutton-Alpine:

The next mountain of note was this one: Kings Mountain.

From there, we drove through another tiny town. Chickaloon.

There might have been two buildings here. Shown below is the General Store.

Here's what our Milepost tells us about Chickaloon:

From there, we crossed over the bridge at Hicks Creek.

Milepost says:

That was just before this cut through solid rock.

Imagine the work that went into this effort to build the highway.

And this was an impressive highway. It reminded us of some areas we've seen in Colorado where the highway has been blasted through mountainsides and then shored up underneath the pavement.

You can see the bridge over Caribou Creek.

There's the creek.

Looking back in the direction from whence we came, you can see it is shored up there too.

Okay, but the real gem of the day was Matanuska Glacier. It's the largest glacier in Alaska that can be seen by car.

It stretches 27 miles.

The RV park was just a few miles past the state recreation site where we could get a good look at the glacier. We decided to drive on, check-in, and then come back. We had our lunch, took our naps, and then headed about seven miles back to the access point. Sorry about the blur below. Bumpy roads.

We knew there was a short and easy trail here. This little speedster met us at the trailhead.

Here's a little information about the trail.

When we read the steepness of the grade in some areas, Mike was kind enough to return to the Jeep to retrieve my hiking pole. I don't like using it very much, but it does give me something akin to a portable handrail on the downhill portions. I didn't really need it for this trail, though. It was an easy path without too many stumbling roots or rocks.

Here was a new wildflower I hadn't seen up to now. It was growing in abundance along the trail. My phone tells me this is Poison Camas.

Here's some other helpful information from my phone:

Okay, and we saw more lupine along this trail. We've seen less of it since leaving the coastal areas...or maybe it's just bloomed out by now. We've seen lots more fireweed.

Here's some information about the Matanuska Glacier.

This shot was taken from one of the overlooks along the trail.

Here's some more information about the power of glaciers. Be sure to note the size of the vegetables mentioned at the bottom of the image below.

Now watch yourselves here. Stay on the trail, and no climbing over the barriers.

From another overlook, you can see how the glacier turns a corner and heads back into the mountains.

Here's another look at the path of the glacier through the mountains. This was taken as we drove back to the RV park.

Here's another image giving a good representation of its length.

We passed by this gigantic mushroom. I put the toe of my shoe there for scale.

We were walking through an aspen forest.

The mosquitos were eating us alive, and so we didn't linger long on this one-mile trail. We headed back to the RV and then resumed our usual evening activities.

Today we'll head to Glenallen. It's another short drive. I haven't yet perused the Milepost to see what's along the way, but I will when I finish here. With rain coming down, it's probably going to be a wet drive without a lot of pictures. The forecast looks better in Glenallen. We'll have one night there before heading to Valdez. Since we're hanging out here until around noon, I'll have some time for slow-stitching this morning, and that's where I'm heading next.