Alaska Part 1: Hand Trams, Ice Climbing, Eagles and Their Nest

We left for Anchorage, AK on Thursday evening. I had to work in the morning while Taylor visited his Great Grandma Lynn for her birthday and then dropped Tannin off at his parents. We were also able to swing by Parker and Lorien's on the way to the airport since they were moving to Colorado. The biggest bummer of the flight was that I had a sinus infection! It hurt so bad when the plane took off and landed, but the landing was by far the worse! Luckily, Alaska is totally worth the shooting facial nerve pain that lasted 30 minutes as we were landing!

We arrived at 11 pm in Anchorage and the sun was still setting which allowed us to see Cooke's Inlet through the plane window.

This is Alaska's 11 pm...

Friday July 22nd

After sleeping the night in Anchorage, we got our rental car and drove the AK 101 down to Seward.

Our first stop was Potter Marsh Boardwalk.

It rained all day so the view was very misty and foggy.

On the boardwalk...boardwalk!

The next stop was Bird Creek.

Our first view of a glacial river in Alaska. Also, you can see how the view would be breathtaking on a sunnier day.

This is what the mountains all around us looked like during our drive.

Bird Point stop:

Beluga whales are sometimes seen around this bay, but we didn't get lucky to see any.

However, we still managed to ride one!

Our longest stop was to hike Lower Winner Creek Trail.

Hiking in a rainforest in the rain! Luckily, we had our waterproof pants and waterproof jackets (and a waterproof camera case!

Most of the hike was flat and crossed over streams and swampy areas.

On the trail were many delicious wild-blueberries. 

And I happened to eat quite a handful...the rain washed them just for me!

But the best part of the trail was the hand tram over a raging glacial river 100+ feet below.

Also, Taylor did most all the pulling to get us to the other side....Hey, someone had to take pictures and video!

The glacial river below.

Then we went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

There were Kodiak Brown Bears eating salmon

We also saw some muskox, reindeer, bison, wolves, baby moose, elk, and caribou.

Then we found a field of beautiful Fireweed where we had to stop to take a picture in the rain! Luckily is was right next to a Jerky Stop and we got bison and elk jerky.

Around 9 pm we finally made it to our first cabin: Bear Creek Cabins just a little outside of Seward.

This cabin was awesome and so relaxing! We enjoyed having the windows open and listening to nature.

Saturday July 23rd

The sun finally came out on Saturday and we were able to see all the huge mountains around us!

It was the perfect day for us to hike up to Exit Glacier and rappel down into ice crevasses!

The hike up was about 1.75-2 miles and was very steep. We had to carry our own ice climbing gear and supplies (layers of warm clothing, waterproof jacket and pants, gloves, hiking poles, water to drink, snow boots, crampons, food, helmet, harness, and our camera!) which was about an extra 25-30 lbs.

Exit Glacier comes into view near the end of the hike!

We were dripping sweat from the heavy bag on our back and hiking up a steep mountain, so when the guides stopped us just a little away from the glacier and told us to put on our layers we were like....yeah...Maybe not?

 But soon an icy wind from the glacier dried up all our sweat and we were super thankful for all our layers of clothing!

Putting on all the layers of clothing! It was hard to walk in the snow boots, and the crampons made it extra difficult!

 All bundled up on Exit Glacier:

It was probably 25-30 degrees on the glacier depending on the sun being out or behind a cloud.

The view wasn't too bad!

This is when I was getting ready to go down into my first crevasse.  Taylor was the bravest and went the first out of our group.

Hanging out in Alaska, on top of a glacier, ice climbing...It's pretty cool with you!

 Taylor was brave enough to let go of the ice picks and use the camera to take a selfie in the crevasses!

Look at the deep blue ice! The farther down you go the deeper blue the ice gets. It actually become a new mineral! Also, this photo is how it actually looks, we didn't edit the color!

Oh, hey there, daredevil! Just don't drop your ice pick axe!

This photo is good to show the changing colors of the ice as you go down:

Dirt on top, white, light blue, and eventually deeper and deeper blue.

This is a good photo of the snow boots and crampons. The company had snow boots for us to borrow, and then they snap into crampons which are steel teeth that grab the ice while you walk and help you get a foothold purchase when you climb out of the crevasse.

The top two teeth by the toes are what you kick into the ice wall to get a foot hold.

 In this pic you can see the ice pick axes I'm holding with a death grip in each hand.

And it was super interesting to walk on a glacier! It was definitely a different experience! You had to keep your feet wide apart (about shoulder width apart) while picking up your feet high so you didn't accidentally trip over jutting ice. You also had to either walk in a V shape with you feet when walking up the ice or horizontally so you had a better purchase on the ground and didn't slip. I have a new respect for Mount Everest climbers!

This is after we did the ice climbing. 

Good job, Ragnar!

This hike and glacial rappel was probably one of the most intense work outs I've ever done! There were a few times a didn't know if I'd finish it!

After we were done, it was 7 pm (the trip was about 10-11 hours) so we went to downtown Seward to relax and get food.

On the seaside.

THE BEST Salmon burger ever! I would like to eat this everyday, forever...

Gold Rush Restaurant

On our way back to our cabin that night, we stopped at an eagle's nest.

There were 3 baby bald eagles and one parent on the fair left.

And even though it was like 10 pm, it was so light out, that then we went and found some salmon in the creek!

And there's always salmon predators...we spotted this bald eagle right across the creek from us!

He didn't like how close we were so he flew around our heads (it was awesome) and then landed in a tree 30 feet above us!