Exit Glacier and The Harding Icefield

As promised, today I'm reliving our experience at the Exit Glacier near Seward Alaska.  We were in the part of Kenai Fjords National Park that is accessible by car, just a short drive from Seward.   Nearly 40 glaciers flow from the Harding Icefield in the National Park.  We had planned to kayak to the other side of the Icefield where the glaciers flow into the Fjords, but that wasn't to be on this trip.   Gale force winds and 10 foot seas are not idea conditions for kayaking among the glaciers.

These photos were actually taken on two different days.  The first day we only explored the lower part of the Exit Glacier.

Exit Glacier

It is one of the most accessible valley glaciers in Alaska and is a visible indicator of glacial recession due to climate change.   Exit Glacier retreated approximately 187 feet from 2013 to 2014 and the recession continues to accelerate. We'll not get into the cause here.

It received its name because it served as the exit for the first recorded crossing of the Harding Icefield in 1968.

Glacier was here in 2005

There are a number of hiking trails that start at the Visitor Center.  Most people do the short hikes to where you can see the glacier up close and see how far it has retreated.   It's easily accessible by most anyone.

Sometimes it's possible to walk right up to the glacier.  We were not able to get to it because the runoff was too high to cross.   We weren't about to wade across knee deep freezing water that was rushing around the rocks.

Glacier Melt Runoff

Glacial ice is a different color from regular ice. It is so blue because the ice is very dense from years of being compressed by the weight of snow and ice.  The dense ice of the glacier absorbs every other color of the spectrum except blue - so blue is what we see!

Blue Ice

The next day we went back to try the Harding Icefields Hike.  When we got to the Visitors Center it was cold!   The wind was blowing across the icefield and down the glacier right into the parking lot.  Knowing we were going to climb several thousand feet and we expected to be in extreme cold conditions.  We bundled up and headed up the trail.

At one point we had a pretty good view of the Exit Glacier from the side.   We could see a guided group walking on the glacier.   It looked like fun and maybe we'll do that next time.

You can't get an appreciation of the size of the glacier in the photo above.  Can you find the people in the photo below?  They are there.

It turned out to be a lot warmer than we anticipated.   After a while a lot of our clothes were in our packs.   At the 1.4 mile mark, after climbing about 1,000 feet we reached Marmot Meadows.  Up to this point we had been hiking in trees or brush.  The meadows were open and covered with lush green foliage.  This was a nice place for a snack break.

Marmot Meadows

There was a group of Mountain Goats there also taking a snack break.  They were concentrating on eating and didn't pay any attention to us.

Billy or Nanny?

Both male (Billy) and female (Nanny) mountain goats have beards, short tails, and long black horns.   They are right at home on the steep cliffs, negotiating hill sides with a 60 degree slant!

A Little Head Butting

Little Kid

After a while the goats moved on and it was time to start the more strenuous part of the climb.   It is 4.1 miles and 3.300 foot elevation gain from the trail head to the end of the trail.  We still had a ways to go.   Very soon it was getting cold and we had all our layers of hiking clothes back on.

When we reached the icefield the views were spectacular!  Ice as far as you can see with the tops of mountains peaking out of the ice.

Harding Icefield 

It was a beautiful day with blue blue skies and white clouds.  It was also very windy.  Those gale force winds down at sea level were really strong up here at the mountain top.   There were places where we almost turned back because the trail was narrow on a steep grade and the wind was trying to blow us off the mountain.

Standing Against The Wind

 We persevered and reached the "End Of The Trail" at mile 4.1.   The elevation here was 3,842 feet above sea level.

The terrain in this area looked like Mordor in the Lord of The Rings.   Nothing grows up here except some mosses in the rocks.   The ground is covered with glacial moraine and snow.  Moraines are accumulations of dirt and rocks that have fallen onto the glacier surface or have been pushed along by the glacier as it moves. At one time all this land was covered by glaciers and this moraine was left by the glaciers as they retreated.

It was time to head back down the mountain.  Here's our view as we started back.   Can you see the hiker on the trail?

The Long Trail Back

When we got back to the Visitors Center around 5:30 in the afternoon we saw the following sign posted at the trail head.

The park was closing at midnight and everyone, including back country campers, had to be out.   Recall what happened in Alaska on September 1?   President Obama visited the park and hiked up to the Exit Glacier overlook the next day.  We noticed there were porta-potties near the trail head that weren't there earlier in the day.  I guess those were for the Secret Service Agents that had to stay out there all night.

This hike was one of the highlights of our trip.   I can recommend it for anyone who is fit enough to do the strenuous hike.   Plan to spend a day.  It will take 6 - 8 hours.

The Calendar Chronicles - December 2013

The photo for December 2013 was not taken in the middle of winter but in September 2012 just a few days after the November calendar photo and is also from Glacier National Park.   I choose this photo for December because it is a very peaceful scene, perfect for the Luke 2:14 verse.  People have told me that they would love to be sitting in those chairs.  I can't blame them.

"Glory to God in the highest, and or earth peace to men on whom his favor rests"

This is the deck of the Many Glacier Hotel on Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park.  This beautiful hotel sits right on the lake with view of the Grinnell Glacier off in the distance.  This morning was one of the few times there wasn't white caps on the lake. 

Here's the front of this hotel to give you some perspective.

Many Glacier Hotel

The Many Glacier Hotel was completed in 1915 by the Great Northern Railway as part of a series of hotels and back country chalets in the park. The locations were carefully chosen so the distances between hotels was a days ride by horseback.  The foundation of this historic hotel is made of stone, with a wood superstructure. The four-story lobby is surrounded by balconies, whose railings are patterned after Swiss designs.  The massive pillars holding up the roof over the lobby are tree trunks.

Lobby of The Many Glacier Hotel

The photo above was taken around sunrise before most people were up.  Normally the lobby is full of people with laptops and tablets because it was the only place you could get a wifi signal and internet service.

The calendar photo was taken shortly after sunrise and the sun was just lighting up Grinnell Point across the lake.  The night before I had gone out on this same deck to try and get some pictures of the star filled night sky.  The wind was so fierce that those chairs blew across the deck and about knocked me down. 

As with most of my photographs this shot was taken with my camera mounted on a sturdy tripod.   The aperture was a tiny f/22 which allowed me to have the chairs and mountains all in focus.  This meant I had a long shutter speed of 3.2 seconds.  I also used a wide angle 17mm lens to be able to take it all in and emphasize the chairs.

After a hearty breakfast we took off and hiked the six miles to Grinnell Glacier.  Seeing a glacier up close is a special experience.  It's unfortunate that all the glaciers in Glacier National Park may be gone as early as 2030. You can see the glacier in the center of the photo just to the right of Grinnell Point.  It took us all day to hike to the glacier and back.  For some reason it takes us 4 times as long to get anywhere when I have my camera with me.  There must be some correlation there.

The photo of the Joy Boat on the back of the 2013 calendar was taken on our way back to the hotel that afternoon.

I am enjoying reliving the times when the calendar photos were taken.  I hope you are enjoying the photos and maybe getting something out of the stories and descriptions.

Calendar Chronicles - November 2013

According to the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language a chronicle is

1. an extended account in prose or verse of historical events, sometimes including legendary material, presented in chronological order and without authorial interpretation or comment.

2. A detailed narrative record or report.

 Now that I am in the process of distributing my 2014 calendars I thought it might be fun to revisit each photo each month, give some details about how I took the photo, the place or subject and any stories that might go along with each.   I'm going to try and do this at the beginning of each month.  

Although it's now November 24, I'm going to start out with the November 2013 photo.  Here goes.

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming.  One day the skies with His glories will shine"  Glorious Day by Casting Crowns

Sunrise From Sun Point

Glacier National Park, Montana

This was taken on September 5, 2012 while on a vacation to Glacier National Park.   This day was extra special to June and I because 30 years ago to the day we were married in Aulander North Carolina.  We were blessed with a beautiful sunrise to celebrate our first 30 years together.  We spent the rest of our anniversary hiking to waterfalls, taking boat rides across beautiful mountain lakes, and enjoying Huckleberry Pie and Ice Cream.

Sun Point is a point of land sticking out into Lake Saint Mary just off the Going To The Sun Road.  A short 0.7 mile trail from the parking lot brought us to this point where we were the only people there to witness the sunrise.  When we got there the sun was not yet up but it was light enough to find our way to this high point above the lake looking east across the lake.   We were both excited about the possibility of a spectacular sunrise, however the excitement started to fade as we waited.  It was very cold and very windy up there.  Both of us had jumped out of the car too quickly and left our warmest clothes behind.  We were getting colder and colder waiting on the light to appear.   I had my photography to take my mind off the cold but June really wanted to go back down to the car and get some warmer clothes.  Because there were no other people around and there was a good chance of running into a bear I convinced her to stay with me.  How many wives would spend their 30th freezing to death before the sun came up.  I'm so blessed!

This photo is one of a 94 I took that morning before getting back to the car and cranking up the heat.   Yes, 94!   With the bright sunrise and dark mountains it was difficult to get a good exposure.  I was shooting multiple exposures using a feature called bracketing where the camera would take multiple shots under and over the exposure the camera calculated was correct.   That automatically gives me three times the number of images.   This photo was created by combining three exposures - 0.125, 0.3, and 0.6 seconds with an aperture of f/22, ISO 100 and a fairly wide focal length of 28mm.  Even with the bracketed exposures the mountains and gnarled tree branches appear almost black.

What I like about this photo is the cool cloud wisps that mirror the tree branches and the rich color contrast between the blue sky and orange clouds.   

I thought the lyrics from the Casting Crowns song really fit with this sunrise.  I can just imagine God coming on the clouds in a blaze of glory just like this.  What a great day!

A larger version of this photo is available on my gallery site by clicking here.   All photos are available as prints in a variety of sizes and material.