Hiking to a Glacier in Alaska

My hiking group, feeling accomplished, after hiking to the face of Meares Glacier, here in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Meares Glacier is a beautiful, yet mysterious glacier at the head of Unakwik Inlet in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Unlike nearly all of the other glaciers around here, Meares glacier is advancing. It has steadily moved forward since it was first described in 1905. As it pushes a mound of earth in front of it, the glacier bulldozes through old growth forest, upending trees with abandon.

Today this is the wild area that we were exploring on our expedition cruise. Even though it was late May, it felt like winter in Alaska has hung on a bit too long. That didn't dampen our spirits, in fact, after our morning adventure we all took a refreshing dip in the waters of the fjord. But first it was adventure time, and we could choose between kayaking, skiff tours, or a bushwhack hike through the forest, to the face of the glacier.

The winter rains and snow melt made our first river crossing difficult. Instead, we bushwhacked our way up into the high forest, and then found a bear trail heading in the right direction. We had several peek-a-boo moments with the glacier. We also heard sporadic thundering noises from giant chunks of ice calving off the face of the glacier and splashing down in to the fjord waters below. It was a bit eerie hearing this thunderous noise, but not seeing it because the forest was so dense.

Then, the trail just ended. The glacier had advanced through the rainforest. Trees were lying all over each other in a jumbled mess. I wasn't even sure that we would be able to get out to the rocky pickup area. We got uncomfortably close to the towering face of the glacier, but then we were able to backtrack safely out onto the rocky shoreline. We were far enough away from any falling ice to be safe from ice shrapnel. The view was absolutely amazing, as was the adventure itself.

Now time for the polar plunge followed by a dip in the hot tub. This is the life of adventure!