Day 27, August 7...Anchorage to Seward and back

I took off today down the Seward Highway (roads up here have names and are referred to by name, not route number) to the little town of Seward.  Seward, like Anchorage, was established in the early 20th century as a staging area for the building of a railroad, this time connecting the Kenai Peninsula with other parts of Alaska.  The Alaska Railroad terminates here and the town has become the place where the Cruise Ships dock, since it faces the Gulf of Alaska and allow sea connections to Skagway, Juneau, and on down to Vancouver.  When we took our Alaska cruise in 2003, we boarded the ship here in Seward.

The Seward Highway follows the coast of Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage and then goes over a couple small passes to Seward.  Turnagain Arm, by the way, got its name when Captain Cook went exploring and couldn't find his way back out to open water.  He kept having to turn the ship around.  (true story!).

The scenery down the highway is beautiful and there are a number of glaciers that you can see from the road.  Here are a few pictures I took along the first 50 miles of the trip.  Turnagain Arm ends at Portage, Alaska, which is also the home to Portage Glacier.

Here is a sampling of the scenery:

This is Beluga Point:

I did eventually get to Seward, and here is today's cruise ship:

I hope they have fun.  We sure did.

Once you're in Seward, there ain't much there.  There is the Alaska Sea Life Center, which I thought was beautiful:

But, for $25 I took a pass on the tour.

And here's a picture of downtown:

About ten miles north of Seward is the road leading to Exit Glacier.  I went up and you sure can see the glacier up close.  Here are a few pics:

This is from about 5 miles away:

And these pics are right above the glacier itself:

Like all glaciers, Exit Glacier is in retreat and has diminished about 5 miles since 1881.  I thought this was interesting.  These rocks were exposed about 50 years ago after being under ice for countless millinea:

And this whole landscape of growth has come about since the glacier retreated past this area in 1951:

Pretty remarkable.

Tomorrow I'll be poking around Anchorage for the day, and then on Wednesday I plan to go south again to Portage and Whittier.  Weather today was a bit on the chilly side, but no rain.

Miles today:  283
Total:          6,616