After spending the morning and early afternoon walking around in showers, the sun finally broke through the clouds and the winds blew away the mist. The landscape under the sun sparkled and the true colors were bright and deep. What a difference the blues and greens were under the sun. We hurried to visit all the different glaciers to see how they looked. The difference is remarkable.
What a difference the sun made. The glacial ice glistened blue under the sunlight.
The mountain and glacier was the perfect backdrop for this pretty lake.
These two glaciers a easily seen from the road that goes through the valley. At the end of the valley is the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. It is the longest highway tunnel and longest combined highway/railroad tunnel in North America at 13,200 feet. It uses a computerized system to stage the types of vehicles through the tunnel from trains, 18-wheelers, cars to motorcycles. When the train is due, the road closes to traffic. When cars are traveling the tunnel, it is one-way only. So for fifteen minutes, cars would go to Whittier and the next fifteen cars return. It is the only way to get to Whittier except by boat. Originally, the tunnel was only for trains but was expanded to allow vehicles to give land access to Whittier. Whittier has a port where you can take a ferry to Valdez so the tunnel is an important link allowing land traffic to access the ferry system. As it is expensive to go through the tunnel so we elected not to go but rather to focus on the valley instead.
A few clouds began to form before the afternoon was over. Here, Portage Glacier caught the mist as if it were a bowl of snow.
The four of us enjoyed walking through the forest and along the lake shores. Savannah and Charlotte are like sled dogs pulling Jim along.
Here is a section of the Blue Ice Trail that winds throughout the valley. It was a lovely way to experience the forest and view the glacier too.
Our final view before we said goodbye and headed out.
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