Portage Valley/Whittier

 

We made reservations in the only RV park that had elec. We lovingly refer to it as The Gravel Pit. For $40 a night you get electric, porta-potties and free showers in a beautiful area surrounded by glaciers. You also get mega Mosquitos, and gravel trucks at 7 am. The poor dog was afraid to go outside to pee.

The first day was fine. We went to the Wildlife Conservation Center. Here are a few shots from that day.

The second day we went to Whittier for a glacier cruise that was superb . We saw numerous glaciers and two of them came down to the tide water. They were spectacular! There are over 1000,000 glaciers in Alaska and only 6 of them are growing. The rest are receding. The ranger told us that they move approximately one foot per day and that is down hill! The rate at which they recede is dependent on how much snow they get in the winter to build them back up and how much melting takes place in the summer. The blue ice results from the intense compacting of the ice causing just blue to be reflected back to us.

The day was the best. . . bright blue, no clouds, just like most Colorado mornings. The Ranger told us that they get maybe 5-7 days like this during the summer. Well, we loved it.

Close up shots, while showing beautiful, blue crevices, do not show the size of the glacier. One shot includes a cruise boat to better see the size. These 2 glaciers had huge waterfalls coming off of them. So, they not only lose ice to calving, but also to these waterfalls. The amount of water coming off one of these glaciers is staggering.

There is a one-way train tunnel on the way to Whittier. Autos are allowed through every hour unless a train interferes. We had to drive on the tracks going through. Once in Whittier we were sorely disappointed. It is strictly a harbor for boats, no town. Workers live in a high-rise apt. Building leftover from WWII when the military occupied the port. There is also an abandoned high-rise that is dilapidated and unusable due to asbestos. Really an ugly blight on the surrounding landscape.

Back at The Pit that evening we took the dogs for a long walk (trucks were gone), sat on a log and chatted. We were lamenting our bad luck on the trip, all of my Casita repairs and non-repairs (hole in gray water line, leak in water line to toilet, leak under sink, fried battery, fried water pump and pummeled light reflector on the front of Casita). I didn't know that when I turned the frig off the next morning that the knob would come off in my hand! Carol and I were laughing and joking about everything. . . I said if we get into a line at the grocery store it would surely end up being the slowest! Chuckle, chuckle. Then I casually glanced down and noticed that my foot was resting in a large pile of fresh dog poop!