We read somewhere that this area gets 197 inches of rain a year! I guess we should stop complaining about cloudy days and be grateful they are not rain clouds!
Right now I am sitting outside next to a warm fire, enjoying a moment of sunshine and the roar of a glacial waterfall. We had a wonderful day of hiking and exploring. First we hiked an easy trail 1 mile up to Ryan Glacier. Its a very small glacier as compared to others in the area but we could walk on it and see where it was melting into a roaring stream.
We then drove over to Whittier, going thru the 2.5 mile one-lane tunnel. Portage Pass trail is 1 mile up a 750 foot incline for a view of Portage Glacier and Prince William Sound. It is really impressive. The blue color is caused by the compression of ice crystals to a point that only the color blue will reflect light -- all other light is blocked out. We explored the top of the ridge hoping to find a large lake but all we saw was a very deep ravine obviously cut out by a long ago glacier and one bear paw print.
After lunch at a delightful cafe in Whittier, we took a 10 minute cat nap while waiting for our turn to go back thru the tunnel and then drove to Hope. We wanted to check our white-water raft trips as well as to see this historic village. Most of the homes and businesses are restored log cabins. There was a parking lot where we could view Cook Inlet and watch fishermen on the 6-Mile Creek. Just as we were about to leave, we noticed people getting excited about something. And there she was -- a female moose and her TWO calves. She was uninterested in all the people so we were able to get pretty close for a picture. Those calves are cute!
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