Matanuska Glacier is a valley glacier in the US state of Alaska. At 27 miles long by 4 miles wide, it is the largest glacier accessible by car in the United States. Its terminus feeds the Matanuska River. It lies near the Glenn Highway about 100 miles north-east of Anchorage. Matanuska Glacier flows about one foot per day. |
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Below: The two RV Gypsies
noticed the glacier’s retreat: where there had once been a top
layer of white ice there was now an uneven field of pitch-black stones,
rocks and debris. |
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Below: Being able to walk
up to any glacier is a stunning experience, (but may not always be safe).
This is the biggest, and perhaps most impressive roadside glacier, in
part because it can easily be touched. Access to the glacier is on private
land, so there is a fee. This was the third
time that the two RV Gypsies have walked on this glacier, but Ilse Blahak's
first. John Smyther's knee was hurting him a lot, so John and Renee
stayed in their cabin instead of taking the journey on this date. Such
a shame that they had to miss out on such an unique experience. There
was an experienced guide leading this adventure on this date. |
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Below: The glacier can be
reached from the parking lot in good hiking shoes which the two RV Gypsies
did twice in 2009, but a guided tour with crampons is recommended for
the steeper parts, and also for safety reasons. |
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Below: The two RV Gypsies
showing off their crampons, a new experience for them. |
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Amid the sections topped with
rocks, weird massive-sized shapes amazed the two RV Gypsies, once again.
Lee Duquette especially like the giant "ice cream cone
shape" shown below. These were much bigger than they look in the
photos. |
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Below: Some areas consisted
of soft, slimy mud, and others of crunchy stones. |
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Below: Karen Duquette and
her younger sister, Ilse Blahak. |
A small flowing stream
of water in a crevice, |
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The two RV Gypsies were amazed because it was not a very cold day even though they were walking on ice. It was very peaceful and the only sound was the crunch of the crampons as everyone made their way up and around crevasses over dense ice, so fluid and flexible. The Matanuska Glacier, thousands of years old, is still active, shifting and creeping along its 27-mile length daily. |
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Below: The
two RV Gypsies practiced going up and down a steep slope of ice in their
crampons. |
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The two RV Gypsies enjoyed
seeing much more than just ice. There were lots of pitch-black stones,
multi-colored boulders, rocks and debris, deep and oddly shaped crevices,
dramatic pools of water, weird shaped ice formations, the Chugach Mountains,
flowing water, and lakes. All memories that will last a lifetime. It
was a very different experience from the other two times that the two
RV Gypsies have been on the Matanuska Glacier. |
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The guide demonstrated using her toe crampons
to climb straight up the ice. But she would not let any of us try it. |
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Below: The two RV Gypsies were dwarfed by the size of the ice structures on the Matanuska Glacier. |
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Below: This valley, carved
by glaciers, is the meeting place for 3 mountain ranges: the Chugach
Mountains, the Talkeetna Mountains and the Alaska Range. The valley
is home to thousands of rivers and lakes, left behind by the movement
of the glacier. |
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Below: Lee Duquette took a
panorama of the area. Below the panorama photo, there is also a close-up
photo of the beginning and ending section seen in the panorama - including
the guide, doing her own thing up the face of a big chunk of ice. |
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Below: Karen Duquette loves
photography so she took time to admire the beautiful patterns under
her feet as she walked on Matanuska Glacier. |
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