Portage Glacier

After a quiet (and wet) morning in Anchorage, we joined a group of people on a bus trip to visit the Portage Lake and Glacier.  We drove there along Turnagain Arm, one of the two 'arms' of Cook Inlet, part of the Pacific Ocean.

It was all rather more grey than we hoped and when we turned off the road to head to the lake, the cloud was unfortunately increasing.

Our boat to go to the glacier was ThePtarmigan..

 

Portage Lake is large and deep, surrounded by mountains.  It is hard to believe but sadly true, that 100 years ago the lake did not exist - the glacier filled the entire valley.  It has retreated amazingly quickly.

We were privileged to be taken very close to the face of the glacier.

Despite the lack of sunshine (in fact it was pouring with rain), it was surprising how blue the ice was deep inside the glacier - an effect caused by the way that the light falls on the ice and on the particles of glacial silt suspended in the ice which block and refract the light.

We felt very privileged to be able to view the glacier from such a close viewpoint.