Fantasy Caravan Day 35, part 2 - Seward, Alaska

We got into the KOA in Seward about 2pm on Friday afternoon. It was relatively sunny, and we knew that the next days were predicted to be rainy, so we decided to head out to see Exit Glacier in the afternoon.

We just drove a short distance from our campground to a viewpoint of Exit Glacier...

... picture with Jeep in view for scale.

We got to the visitor's center and decided to do the 1 hour ~1 mile Glacier View loop...

The ranger had indicated that we would have great views (because of the sunny skies) of Paradise Glacier on the trail too...

This was the view of Exit Glacier from the trail.

At the point where the more challenging trail split off from the Glacier View Trail, we decided to go on up to the glacier -- we were feeling energetic, we hadn't gotten a lot of walking in the past few days, and other folks on our tour had indicated that they were heading up. We made the trek up to the overlook...

... and had better views of the glacier.

You might notice the markings on the glacier that look like someone has driven up there... the ranger assured us that was not the case (and said it is a common question), but rather that is material that the glacier is dragging down the mountain with it. She said that she would like to see someone try to drive up there; Carl thought that might be a personal challenge for him to try it... but decided to leave it for another time!

Some of our friends took our picture at the top.

Starting down

One of the very interesting things about this glacier (and, in fact, many glaciers in this area) is the rate of retreat -- the lines on this picture illustrate where the Exit Glacier has been on specific years in the past 200 years.

Along the trail, there were signs that indicated where the glacier had been on previous years -- we looked for a sign for either of our birth years but didn't find them -- this was the closest we found, and it was pretty close to the visitor center.

When we got back to the campground, we were working on a couple of things on the Jeep when our wagon masters walked by and asked if we'd like to join them and another couple for dinner in town... we decided that the Jeep could be worked on later and headed into town with them for dinner...

Carl had cod fish and chips...

... and I had delicious Tuscan Salmon.

We enjoyed our "sunny half day" in Seward!