Seward Exit Glacier

August 2, 2015

Arrived in Seward, AK yesterday afternoon. We are camped at the Seward Resort, which is a Military Recreation Facility with a lodge, RV Park and other amenities for the many Military personnel stationed up here.

Of course, one of the first signs we see warns us about seeing wildlife. Not that we really expected to see any!!


Our first full day in Seward was a free day, so Tom and Sandy, Phil and I decided to go see the Exit Glacier.








 I was not particularly excited about hiking through the bush to get to it, but, good sport that I am, I went along. By dating the surrounding rock and soil, scientist can tell where the glacier was. This picture shows the sign for where the glacier was in 1917.

 This is rock that was scraped and grooved by the glacier as it receded.

 This bench is as far and Sandy and I got. The soil is actually ground rock left behind by the glacier and has almost no nutritional value for plants

 Sandy and I wait patiently for the guys to go on to the foot of the glacier. It was really hot sitting there in the sun!

Phil made it to the foot of the glacier

 We headed back by a different route, which didn't include a trip through the bush and was much easier! Notice the grooves in the rock just below where I am standing, more glacier caused scrapings.

 An up close look at the scrapings

 The only wildlife we saw on this trip was the lonely mountain goat who came down the mountain a little ways, then turned around and went back up.

 Tracking the Exit Glacier

Glacier run off, this water is gray because of the silt it mixes with immediately after running off of the mountain.