INTRODUCTION
As always, you can view the photographic narrative for this story below. What is a photographic narrative?
If you’re coming from the previous post, you’ll know how this adventure began. Our first full day in Seward was a sort of blank canvas with no set agenda and only some loose ideas of what we might want to explore. Having explored everything on that list before the early afternoon, we were left with some pleasantly unexpected free time before we eventually got dinner and turned in for the night. When planning our trip, I’d read online that the road to the iconic Exit Glacier isn’t plowed during the winter, and that it wasn’t scheduled to be made clear of snow until a couple of weeks after we left. As such, I’d essentially written off a visit on this trip. However, with nothing else planned, we decided to simply drive down the road to Exit Glacier until we could go no further.
We’d expected to have to stop due to snow accumulation at some point, turn around, and simply enjoy the views along the road. But to our surprise, the pavement brought us all the way to the parking lot of the Exit Glacier Nature Center and Trailhead. The lot was full of cars, and people dressed in varying degrees of outdoor attire were both beginning and ending hikes. Excited that we’d at least be able to explore on foot for a bit, we got out and hit the trail.
I hadn’t exactly prepared myself for a hike today, with no hiking boots, backpack, or extra layers to speak of. So, we set out knowing that we might not get very far. As we continued further and further away from the parking lot, the trail simply continued along flat ground in a man-made clearing between some trees. Eventually, we came to a point where we could continue to the right to go up into the mountains along the Harding Ice Field Trail (unfortunately not an option in my current state of preparedness), or to the left along a small trail between the trees toward the valley floor. We went left.
After about fifty yards of hiking on damp ground, the trees stopped and we emerged on the valley floor. From this point there were no trails, leaving us to freely explore on foot over the snow dusted black rocks that covered the ground. To our right, we saw the very top of the Exit Glacier filling a ravine between two mountains. We hiked along the base of the closest mountain until we rounded a bend in the rock face and were standing in the valley which had been carved by the glacier for the past millennia. A sign off to our right denoted a point past which we couldn’t go for the risk of break ups and flash floods. So we stood as close as we could and admired the strikingly blue chunk of ice that filled our views ahead.
After about an hour or so moseying about along the valley floor, enjoying being in the presence of such an amazing natural spectacle, we turned back to the car and eventually drove out of the park.
On our way back to town, we passed Exit Glacier Salmon Bake. Noting this restaurant for the future, we continued on to Ray’s Waterfront which we’d spotted earlier that day. Dinner consisted of halibut as it had for most nights on this trip. After dinner, a flight of beers at Seward Brewing Company brought our night to an end.
A STORY IN PHOTOGRAPHS
