Worthington Glacier

 August 15, 2015

We drove back up the mountain that we traveled up coming into Valdez to take better pictures of the falls and landscape than we did on the way in.

This is actually Horsetail Falls.

 All of the major falls have names, but I can't remember what they are, so I will just call these the twin falls

This is the story of the RR, at one time there were  nine companies fighting over the right to build a short rail from Valdez to the Copper Mines to haul out the copper. A feud, leading to a gun battle stopped progress and the tunnel was abandoned. You have to give them an 'E' for effort, they cut the tunnel by hand! Still a lot of work left to be done to get an engine through that hole!!

 Tom and Phil saw this little guy while they were wondering around taking pictures, but they don't know what it is, neither do I...do you???

 The landscape surrounding Valdez is beautiful, surrounded by tall peaks with glaciers everywhere!

 Our destination for today is Worthington Glacier. Suppose to be an ice cave to HIKE to.

Yes, I got talked into it again...suppose to be a SHORT HIKE. I think they are lying again!!

 This seems to agree with me about Global Warming

We found fellow caravaners just finishing their hike, they said it was not hard, just to go slow.

Umph! See the little black hole just below the
glacier? That's the ice cave...does that look like an easy hike to you? Professional hikers need not reply.

So...we get ready to do this. First we have to make our way through (literally) those bushes to find the trail...which isn't really there, we have to make our own.

 Question...do we go to the right up the smooth surface, or the left, the rocky side? Or just up the middle through the (ice) water draining from the glacier??

We did a little of each, depending on what looked easier for the next step, sometimes we had to back track...we aren't professionals LOL

 We are getting close, but not that close...we are wearing green jackets

 Glacier melt, running fast and cold!!

 We made it, that's the ice cave. Notice the different colors of the ice? The deep blue is the glacier core, the white is newer ice.

 Nita (goofball) and Phil (serious) inside the ice cave, probably not a smart idea, the falls coming down the rocks.

 See the cracks in the ice, how the glacier is leaning against the rock? Not really stable

This rock is totally different from the surrounding rocks. The glacier probably picked this up from somewhere else and dropped it as it receded

 What goes up must come back down. We are headed for the little building in the upper right hand corner of the picture. Of course we first had to choose which way to go. Tom, Sandy and I chose the smooth rock, Phil went down the crunchy rock, he got there first.

 Talk about the blind leading the blind...let's go this way, no let's go that way...

When you look at the picture, you can see how the glacier has pulled away from the mountain side on the right, and is receding quickly. Very unstable and standing in the ice cave was probably not a wise decision.