Winter Alaska

Spring Mountain Lodge to Anchorage

No luck searching for the Northern Lights last night. And to Sally’s question, there hasn’t been a lot of walking (which I intend to feedback to the company. Mind you, walking on snow is not easy, so in some ways I am pleased that long walks were not part of the experience).

Started the day with a short walk using snow shoes. A lot of fun. Pictures coming later as they are on someone’s else camera (they obviously don’t understand the need for speedy transfer of photos so blogs can be done!).

Then we got in a helicopter ( a four- seater so there were numerous trips today). We landed on the Matanuska glacier, on a landing pad that the helicopter owner had shovelled out! The tracks which I have circled are the footprints of a wolf who had stolen the pole which the helicopter owner uses as a landing guide. The pole was lying on the snow a few metres away.

Then we walked down to see an ice cave….not just any old ice cave but the MOST AMAZING ice cave I will ever see in my lifetime.

This was the entrance to the cave.

The ice cave stands 9 storeys high.

The ice cracks, presumably because the glacier is moving. It looked like someone has laid a concrete path through the ice cave,but this was all done by nature.

This ice cave will disappear in about 6 weeks. It will simply melt away.

The cave is smooth to the touch. And occasionally you find embedded rocks or can see air bubbles caught in the ice.

The sunlight reflected off various parts of the cave. It was beautiful, almost spiritual.

It left me gobsmacked. Then we got back in the chopper and flew over the glacier and the mountains. Stunning scenery.

To mark the event, Drew had chilled a bottle of champagne in the snow (for more than the required 30 minutes, Robyn!), and Katya learnt how to saber the bottle top off.

Cannot forget to mention the moose, whose tracks were all over the glacier. Here’s a mum with her baby.

Got to Anchorage around 5.30 pm. Time for dinner at the Marx Brothers Cafe where they put us in a private room because we were making so much noise ( well, that’s my story!)

Another incredible day…..