Journey to Alaska Day 13: Seward, Portage and Anchorage

Our last full day in Alaska started with another great breakfast at the B&B and us saying goodbye to our lovely hosts.  We decided we would try to hike to both Exit Glacier in Seward and Byron Glacier in Portage on our way back to Anchorage.  We had also been given a tip by a local to drive up to Flattop Mountain once in Anchorage to get a view of the city.  Since we didn’t have any plans once in Anchorage except dinner, we decided to do that also.

We arrived at Exit Glacier and knew it would be a half-mile walk to the glacier.  At least that was what I had read.  But at that point, the glacier still seemed far away.

We saw that it would be another .60 mile to get closer.  Which is of course what I wanted to do because apparently I had not seen enough glaciers to satisfy me!

So Fran and Harvey went back to the visitor's center and Ben and I trudged on getting as close as we could. 

Exit Glacier is aptly named as the glacier is receding rapidly.  They had signs posted all along the trail showing how far the glacier was in different years.

When we got there, we saw a crowd of people off to the side away from the glacier.  It was then we saw a brown momma bear with her two cubs following behind about a mile away across the field.  It was just so thrilling to see this beautiful bear in its natural environment just ambling along peacefully.  Ben was able to zoom in on his iPhone and get somewhat of a decent picture.

With all the bear excitement, Ben and I had the glacier all to ourselves for awhile to take pictures!

In this picture you can see that even fairly recently, the glacier would have been right behind me.

Back in the car, it was on to Portage and Byron Glacier.  Along the way, we stopped at Summit Lake Lodge for an ice cream and bathroom break.  I shared Ben's ice cream and oh man, it was sooo delicious!  I have got to find a way to have it shipped to us at home!

I took some pictures of Summit Lake.

We made it to Portage and the Begich Boggs Visitor Center with its beautiful view of Portage Lake.  

We stopped there and got directions to the glacier and then made our way over via Byron Glacier Road.  (You can get a far away view of the glacier from the visitor’s center.)

This was an easy paved 1-mile hike which everyone was able to do pretty easily.  But man was it buggy!  We had on our bug bands but we didn't stand a chance against these bugs!

Once we made it, we could see where the trail stopped with the glacier still pretty far away but we could see people were walking all the way to it.  Ben and I decided to go a bit further once the trail stopped and hiked over the rocks as far as to where the snow started.  

Fran and Harvey amused themselves while waiting.

Satisfied with our adventure, we got back in the car for the drive to Anchorage.  It began to rain a little on the way and as we made the turn to Flattop Mountain, it became very rainy and foggy.  But once Ben started the drive up, he didn’t want to have to turn around mid-way so our view at the top was totally socked in by the clouds and we couldn’t see anything.

So that was a bust but considering everything else we had done, we couldn’t really complain.

We chose the Courtyard Marriott for our night before the flight home, just wanting something close to the airport since our flight was at 9:30 am the next morning.  It was sooo noisy when we got there but it was just seaplanes we were hearing and surprisingly our room was totally quiet for sleeping that night.

We had about an hour to rest and regroup before our 7:00 reservation at Simon & Seafort’s.  I read about this place on a trip report online and made a note at that time to make a reservation there for our last night since the food looked good and it has a nice view.  

We got a nice table and I got a delicious salad and the crab stuffed halibut which had the best mashed potatoes ever with it.  I was determined to get the Baked Alaska for dessert but even I had to admit defeat after my salad, entrée and bread.  I was so bummed but it just wasn’t happening.  Everything was great.

Our last night in Alaska.

I tried to talk Ben into staying up for what looked like a beautiful sunset but we needed to get to bed since the next travel day would be a long one.  I couldn’t believe our trip we had planned for over a year was really over!

The next day we made the long trek from Anchorage to Dallas with a stop in Seattle.  I posted this picture on Facebook with the caption "Halfway home!"

And before we knew, it we were back to Texas and 94 degree heat!  Oh how I missed those wonderful cool Alaska temperatures right then!

We all agreed that this was a wonderful trip and we enjoyed every moment of it.  If you have any interest in seeing this beautiful state, do it!  You won't regret it. 

Many, many thanks to Fran and Harvey for giving Ben and I this trip of a lifetime!