Afternoon ride to Portage Glacier

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Gnomad

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Due to some obvious oversight by the weather kings, today was actually sunny-ish, on a day off, no less, so I decided to spend a chunk of Gnomad's summer vacation on a long overdue blast down to Portage Glacier. Portage Glacier is one of those Alaska "must sees", since it's only an hour or so from Anchorage a lot of tourists make the trip.

Getting there involves a trip on the Seward Highway, offically a Scenic Byway, on a nice today the scenery is astounding. I mostly gripped it and ripped it, I made my first stop at Bird Point, just a few miles north of Girdwood, where one finds the world famous Alyeska resort, where everbody goes skiing here in AK. This is looking south along Turnagain Arm.

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Looking north, back towards Anchorage.

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Alyeska Resort is one the right side of the valley, goes up the mountain to the top. I don't downhill ski, more of a cross-country guy myself, but the resort is still an interesting place. That Alyeska Prince hotel is one fancy place.

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Along the Portage River, as seen from the park road.

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Geologically speaking, this area was covered in ice just an eyeblink ago, during the last ice age. Glaciers and icefields still cling subbornly to the sides of the mountains, like here, for example.

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And this one, at the main parking lot at Portage Lake.


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Portage lake, with Portage and Byron glaciers in the background. Earlier in the season, the lake is filled with icebergs. There is a tour boat operating on the lake taking tourists right up to the glaciers edge, or you can bring your own kayak if you feel adventurous.

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The road back out, the mountains that surround the lake are very picturesque.


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There is a salmon viewing area. These are Chum salmon, they get get very colorful as they swin upstream, unfortunately once they start to turn color it means that eating them is out of the question, the flesh gets mushy and nasty. These are good size fish, say about 4 KGs or so.

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I have more, but fotothing only lets me load 10 pictures per day. More later if you want. 8)
 
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