Alaska Camping 2008
Day 3: July 12, 2008
Kenai Peninsula
We woke to brilliant sunshine, an unexpected bonus, as the weather forecast had been for “mostly cloudy with chance of showers”, just like every other day. Because the coastal areas are generally cloudier, cooler, and rainier than the interior, we decided to make the most of this day exploring the Kenai Peninsula to the south.
After checking out the exhibits at the Forest Service visitor center on Portage Lake, we drove south on the Seward Highway, stopping at overlooks and checking campgrounds. We ended up camping early in the day at the small, tent-only, Primrose campground at the south end of large Kenai Lake. Then we headed on to the Exit Glacier area of Kenai Fjords National Park.
We hiked the nature trails out to Exit Glacier and then tackled the harder trail climbing up to Harding Icefield. We climbed the first two miles, gaining over 1,000 feet elevation, to “Marmot Meadows”, which had good views of the glacier as well as surrounding peaks and valleys. Beyond that point, the trail was still completely covered by the previous winter’s snow pack!
We drove down to Seward and hiked a couple of miles on the Caines Head trail to the deserted beach at Tonsina Point, where we had amazing views of the snowy peaks ringing Resurrection Bay. The day was capped by hot showers at the municipal campground in Seward. Returning to our camp on Kenai Lake late, we saw that the clouds were also returning. Light rain fell during the night.
2649-Middle Glacier above Williwaw campground
2650-Portage Lake
2654-Jerome Lake on the Seward Hwy
2655-Kenai Lake, west arm
2661-Snow River watershed from Seward Hwy
2663-Exit Glacier
2670-Phil at Exit Glacier
2673-Resurrection Peaks from Harding Icefield trail
2675-Exit Glacier from Harding Icefield trail
2676-south over Exit Glacier from Harding Icefield trail
2677-Karen at Marmot Meadows on the Harding Icefield trail
2683-east across Resurrection Bay from mouth of Tonsina Creek
2686-View across Resurrection Bay from beach at Tonsina Point
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All materials Copyright Phillip Farrell.
Last revision August 10, 2008.
