July 31, 2007 – Exit Glacier

Today we saw another glacier up close – Exit Glacier. We took the guided tour (3 miles) and learned about the area and glaciers.

Some pictures:




Notice the people in this picture:

Exit Glacier is 3 miles long and about 300 feet deep. Some of the crevasses are over 100’ deep. This glacier as well as all the glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park is feed by the Harding Icefield. This Icefield is 50 miles long, 20-30 miles wide and possible 3000’ thick (they are not sure).

There was a hike to the icefield but it was labeled as strenuous (straight up the mountain for 3.7 miles – nope not for us!!).

Notice the blue:

The reason the glacier is blue is because the ice absorbs all the colors of the spectrum and only the short wavelengths (bluish) are reflected back.

This was really amazing to see.

And this afternoon, we are at the Yukon Bar enjoying a beer and I am uploading the blog. If I owe anyone an email, please send me a reminder. Wi-Fi access is few and far between right now (can you tell I am in withdrawal - :-))

Just a bit more info – we now have some darkness – the sun sets at 10:30 and rises at 5:30.

Tomorrow we will be going towards Homer...stay tuned.