Matanuska Glacier, Alaska - June 26th to 27th, 2022
Part of the appeal of traveling is the opportunities it provides to experience new things. One of the items on our list that we wanted to experience in Alaska was walking on top of a glacier. Matanuska Glacier was the glacier we chose.
Sunday we continued our drive down the Glenn Highway (Tok Cutoff) from Hart D Ranch to Matanuska Glacier. It was nice to be on decent roads again. There were still some pot holes and dips, but they were fewer and farther between. Keith could actually go the speed limit most of the time.
What wasn’t nice were the hazy views. We’re not sure if the haze was due to wildfire smoke or something else. There are views of Mount Sanford, Mount Wrangell, and Mount Drum along the highway. Our itinerary has us driving this highway in the opposite direction when we are leaving Alaska. Hopefully the views will be better then.
There were a couple of historic lodges along the way, Gakona Lodge and Ranch House Lodge. We pulled in and took a look at them from the outside, but did not get out to go inside. Neither one looked like they had a store or cafe that was open. The only real stop we made, other than a couple of rest area stops, was a gas station in Glennallen. The price for unleaded was $5.85 per gallon. Ouch! However, that was better than the $5.89 per gallon we paid in Tok two days earlier.
We reached our destination for the day, the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Area, around noon. The small campground there is first come/first serve. We had our pick of sites. It was $20 per site per night, cash only. There is no dump station and you have to treat the fresh water from their pump. We had filled our fresh water cans and dumped our gray at Hart D Ranch before we left, so we were all set for the next two days.
The reason we chose the Matanuska campground was its location. We had a reservation for a guided glacier hike the following day. The meeting place for the Mica Guides was just a ten minute drive back up the highway.
After lunch, we walked over to the day use area. There was a hazy view of the Chugach Mountains, but a pretty good view of the Matanuska Glacier. From the viewing area, there was a one mile loop trail through the woods to another viewing platform. We’re not sure the view of the glacier was any better from the platform at the end of the trail, but it was a nice walk through the woods with lots of wildflowers and interpretative signs along the way. From the signs, we learned what a rock glacier was. The skeeters were swarming along the trail, so either keep moving or bring bug spray.
The mosquitos were not bad at our campsite. There was a gentle breeze blowing through, which probably helped keep the pests away. We brought out the Thermacell and were able to sit outside in our camp chairs for most of the afternoon.
We walked over to the view from our campsite a couple more times before the day was out, once after dinner and once again before turning in for the night. The haze decreased as the evening wore on, so we got some better views of the Chugach Mountains. Yay!
Monday was a clear, warm, sunny day for our glacier hike. For some reason, Ann was a little chilled in the morning and her toes were cold. Our glacier hike was not until 11:30 am with the check-in time 15 minutes ahead of the scheduled hike. We relaxed at our camp site and drove over to the MICA Guides building at about 10:45 am, arriving before 11 am. We were the first ones to check in.
Ann’s toes were still a little cold, so she decided to put a couple of chemical foot warmers in her boots. She has issues with poor circulation in her fingers and toes, so she didn’t want to take any chances. She came close to getting frost bite on her toes back in February when we went snowshoeing in Breckenridge (Breckenridge, Colorado - Feb 11th to 18th, 2022). Better safe than sorry. She never used foot warmers before. As she pulled a pair out of her pack, she realized that they were expired by over a year. We had a lot of them at home and just grabbed some before we left on our trip. They are leftover from the marching band and drum corps days from our kids. We didn’t think to check the expiration dates. Ann opened up the package anyway and shoved them in her boots. They seemed to warm up, so perhaps they would work fine.
At 11:30 am, the rest of our group had arrived and we went into the Gear Hut to get fitted for our gear. MICA Guides provides crampons and helmets. They also provide other gear if you need it, like rain jackets and waterproof boots. Since Ann’s hiking boots were not waterproof, they recommended she borrow a pair of their boots. She remembered to transfer the foot warmers over when she switched boots.
There were six of us in the group plus our guide. They will take up to eight people at a time. After gearing up, we all hopped into the MICA van and our guide drove us over to where we would start our hike. To reach the glacier, you have to cross private land. All the land surrounding possible access points to the glacier is now all owned by one person. He charges $35 per person to cross his land. You would think that because the glacier is on public land, that there should be some public right-of-way to access the glacier, but that is not the case. So we had to pay the $35 for each of us in addition to the guided hike.
The glacier hike we chose is just a three hour hike. We did not pick any of the tours that included ice climbing. Our hike just took us to the first ice fall from the terminus of the glacier. We started out with our helmets on, but waited to put our crampons on until we were walking mostly on ice instead of the rocks covering the terminus. Our guide made sure our crampons were fitted correctly and gave us some quick lessons and techniques on how to walk on the ice with the crampons.
Our guide’s name was Sherman. Well, his actual name was Thomas, but MICA already had a Thomas on staff, so they changed our guide’s name to Sherman to keep them straight. Sherman gave us wonderful information about glaciers and the surrounding area.
He helped us peer down into a couple of moulins (or glacial mills) which are vertical shafts in the glacier where water flows from the surface down deeper into the glacier. Sherman would have us go one by one up to the moulin while he held us by one of our arms for safety as we peered down into the moulin.
We also walked into a small glacier ice canyon with Sherman making sure we did not walk underneath areas with overhanging ice. He put his ice axe in the side of the canyon so we could pose with it, looking like we were ice climbing.
Sherman also drilled a hole in a wall of ice, then screwed in a faucet which let the melting ice create a fountain. We all dumped out the water we had brought with us and filled our water bottles with the fresh glacier melt. It was cold and very refreshing. There was no need to treat the water, it was very pure and fresh.
Another dramatic feature was the ice fall. Ice falls are somewhat like waterfalls, only with ice. The ice fall was a jagged ice section across the glacier. Some of the surfaces had wonderful shades of blue. Every now and then a chunk of ice will fall (calving), but it is rare to see one. Our guide has been on the glacier every day so far this season and has only seen the ice fall calve once. He did tell us early on that if we heard a rumble, like thunder, then look at the ice fall, because the sound is probably from calving. We were not fortunate enough to witness that.
However, as we were leaving the glacier, there was a hissing sound. Sherman told us that was gas escaping from the ice. As the glacier flows, it can trap gases under the ice. Then, at some point, the gas may find a way to escape, making the noise.
Although the glacier moves at a slow pace, the features of the glacier are constantly changing. The one rather large moulin we saw was just a small softball sized hole a couple of weeks before. You have to pay attention to where you step. A seemingly harmless looking puddle may not have a bottom. Sherman demonstrated this with a small puddle. He stuck his ice axe all the way into it and could not find the bottom. We could tell that was also probably true with a crevasse that was filled with water. At one end of the crevasse, there was definitely a current to the water, but then it became still. All that water streaming in had to go somewhere, which meant it was going down into something deep.
After our fascinating guided glacier hike, we were ready for ice cream. There is a little coffee stand with ice cream right at the MICA Guides building, but it was closed that day due to staffing shortages.
We asked Sherman if he knew of any place close by that had ice cream. He recommended Sheep Mountain Lodge, which is just 15 minutes to the east on the Glenn Highway. So that’s where we went. We had driven that stretch of road the day before, but this time the skies were less hazy, so we were treated to better views of the Chugach Mountains. Sheep Mountain Lodge was a nice looking place. We each had a scoop of ice cream, moose tracks, but the food also looked pretty good. We were tempted to stay for dinner, but decided to head back to the campground and cook instead.
Matanuska Glacier was a wonderful adventure. We’re glad we went with a guided tour as we learned a lot about the dangers of the ice from our guide. The three hours went by too quickly. Next time, we may opt for a longer time on the glacier.
Check out our related video: Matanuska Glacier, Alaska
(Ann)