Dynatrekkin'

Come along with us!

Day 189 / June 28, 2024

Posted by

Ember Hutton

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Today we left Cooper Landing and headed down to Seward. One of the locals even came out to say goodbye as we drove away… 👋🏻

…the local 🫎
Nana and Papa followed us to Seward so we could explore for a few more days together. Our first stop was Kenai Fjords National Park.
More specifically, the Exit Glacier Area. A mere 200 years ago Exit Glacier was at this overlook. It has been steadily retreating and may disappear from view in a few generations from now.
The Exit Glacier area is the only part of the national park that is accessible by road. We’ll need a boat to see the rest of the park.
The Harding Icefield is the largest feature within Kenai Fjords National Park, covering half the park. It is approximately 50 miles across at the longest point and 20 miles wide across the widest point.
We all learned a new vocabulary word today: firn ❄️
After the visitor center, we hiked out onto the ice field.
We were off to see up close how glaciers reshape the landscape and learn how plant life reclaims the land left exposed by a glacier’s retreat.
Didn’t have to fight any crowds 😂
As a glacier melts, rock that was carried in the ice drops out of it. This rock pile at the toe of the glacier can grow into a hill called a moraine.
When glaciers melt, plants begin to take over the rocky land in a special order. Some plants are good at starting in poor soil and building it up while others take over when the soil is rich.
The kids could have stayed all day playing in the glacial stream.
As we were cleaning up after dinner, someone knocked on our door and it was none other than the Clemons! Mark and Jen were driving by the campground and noticed the Beast (she’s hard to miss) so they stopped by to say hi. It was super fun to hang out, chat and even spot a bear on the mountain.
The kids, of course, were thrilled to have an unexpected meet up!

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About the author

Hi! I'm Ember and I love traveling and photography but not so much organizing said adventures and pictures. Chronically blogging in past tense. :)

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