Exit Glacier

The Exit Glacier is shown here as it slopes down off of the Harding ice field. The trees in the foreground are willows with their Spring growth coming in.

If you look carefully at the bottom of Exit Glacier, you can see tiny people. That gives some idea of the immensity of the glacier. Exit Glacier is apparently retreating, leaving the large valley of ground rock in its former path.

Under the glacier, there is a mirraculous world of power blue water from the melting ice. The ice is blue due to the tremendous weight applied to the snow which changes the structure of the snow crystals. The water itself is opaque due to the suspended minerals (called glacial flour) from eons of glacial movement against the suspended rocks and debris.

The glacial flour can also be seen here in this powder blue pool at the base of a stream etched into the rock hilside.

The Harding Ice Field encompasses most of the Kenai Fjords National Park. Exit Glacier is seen to the far right center of the picture just North of Seward. Bear Glacier is on the lower right, just north of the Harding Gateway.

The lichens are the first life to colonize the rocks eventually followed by moss, then ferns and trees.

This was our faithful ranger guide. She actually spends her Winters with her husband in Florida. They both spend their Summers in Alaska in a trailer to be close to the grandkids. She volunteers as a tour guide at Exit Glacier.

There are lots of moose at Exit Glacier but they are apparently quite shy, especially in May/June as the mother moose are very protective of their young. There was, however, moose poop everywhere as evidence of their presence. Ranger Jane told us that Moose are actually close relatives of deer (basically big deer) and that they shed their antlers every Winter and regrow them (painfully) in the Spring.

The Rangers occasionally recover the Moose antlers although they told us that the moose actually loose them one at a time so you don't normally get a pair.

It was drizzling lightly causing the path to reflect the sun in an quiet, peaceful sort of way. It was early in the morning with not a lot of people around yet so you could almost imagine that the path went on silently forever.

The willows were blooming (catkins) and they were surprisingly colorful and festive, adding some nice color to the otherwise drizzly, Alaskan weather.

This place is a beaver's smorgasborg. Those are willows as far as the eye can see, filling out the valley.

The glacial rivers were cold and an opaque white-blue color, showing off the glacial flour (finely suspended ground rock and minerals). The streams formed by snow melt, on the other hand, were crystal clear. The oceans nearby retained some of that odd whitish color although we were told that the salt combines with the suspended minerals and ions, causing them to precipitate out faster than they would in fresh water.

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