On Thursday, July 24th, we drove all the way from Seward to Portage (all of about 85 miles!).
As with every road trip, you just cannot ignore God's beautiful creation!!
The purpose of the trip - to see the Portage Glacier which is located in the Chugach National Forest and one of Alaska's most visited attractions.
Although the former village of Portage is basically a ghost town, it's still one of Southcentral Alaska's more popular roadside attractions.
Between Girdwood and the road to Whittier is what's left of Portage. The community at the end of Turnagain Arm was home to almost 100 residents until the 1964 Good Friday earthquake. The massive earthquake caused the shoreline to drop between 6 and 12 feet, allowing high tides to flood the town and surrounding area with salt water. All that remains of the original village are a few structures sinking into the nearby mud flats and scattered stands of dead trees.
On the map below you can see Seward (lower right) and the road up and over to Girdwood and Portage and Whittier (on the right). If you click on the map, you can see it better.
Found our campground and then drove over to Portage Lake to see if we could get on the tour boat that afternoon, which we did.
Behind us was the American Flag with a mountain in the background.
As we headed out, you can see several glaciers around the lake.
This lake is fed by the snow in the mountains and the streams bring silt into the lake. As a result, there are no fish in the lake.
I guess Judy took this picture of me because I was contemplating something (maybe the meaning of life??)!!
Anyway, here is the glacier in the distance.
Of course, you need to have your picture taken to prove you were there!!
Note, this next picture is a flashback to 2011 when we took this tour the first time!!
And, now, back to 2014 again. Notice the winter coats - very cold and breezy on this lake.
Smokey the Bear was there so the girls had their picture taken!
It was a great way to end the day.
Next stop - Whittier.
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