June 13th and 14th, 2016, Wasilla/Anchorage

The last two days have been filled with quite a bit of hiking. Good for us as sitting in the RV or the Jeep can be interesting, but I really need to get outdoors.

On Monday, we went up the Glenn Highway up to the Matanuska Glacier (Mat-Su). It is a beautiful drive up the river. As was the case in 2014, the people that own the road charge $25.00 per person to pass and go down to the glacier.

The road is somewhat maintained, but I am very surprised that these huge RV's can get down it and cross a homemade bridge.

Once down to the parking lot, we hiked down to the glacier. I was a little surprised that it seemed to take about a quarter of a mile longer than 2014. I am not a global warning fanatic, but this glacier is definitely shrinking.

On Tuesday, we drove down to the Whittier Tunnel and to Whittier. In 2014, we did this, but stopped just the other side of the tunnel to hike up to the Portage Glacier overlook. This year we decided to go "downtown". There really is not a lot going on in Whittier. The town evolved around a military installation during WWII. There are these huge buildings, dorms, I think that have been abandoned. I was told they rehab'd one of them to create around 200 rooms and all of the Whittier residence stay there.

We walked the docks and had lunch at the China Buffet. OK food for a pre-hike.

After lunch we drove back to the Portage Pass trailhead and hiked up. It is a one mile hike up, but 800 feet vertical. However, the views are worth it.