Alaska Part 3: The Harding Ice Field

Do you know what feeds the glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park? I do. It is the Harding Ice Field, over 300 square miles of ice. Imagine a field of snow covered ice stretched out almost as far as you can see, interrupted only by the tips of moutains sticking their noses up through the ice. It is amazing.

A little trivia (I am related to a Kenai Fjords National Park Ranger, you know).  The Harding Ice Field was named for President Warren Harding, the second worst president in the history of the United States according to the U.S. News & World Report.  This makes him worse than president Bush, who is only ranked 5th from the bottom. Hard to imagine.


The trail was a bit on the extreme side. It was less than 8 miles round trip, but those 8 miles were pretty steep, and the last mile and a half or so towards the top was completely covered in snow. So hiking that part was "step step slide, step step slide." Jen, bless her, stayed home and watched Nory all day so that we could go on this hike.


Coming down was much more fun! Our shoes and socks were all soaking wet but the sun was out so we never got cold.


And the bears. Oh, the bears. On the way into the park, Dan L spotted a grizzly bear (Alaskans call them "Brown Bears") running across the road in front of us.


We hung out for a few seconds before spotting him shooting out from the woods behind the car and running back the other way. He appeared to be chasing something. It was a baby moose. Is this the discovery channel or what? We saw a grizzly bear chasing a baby moose!


The bear was hauling; I fear the baby moose was not long for this world. No perfect pictures but it was amazing that Dan managed to snap these at all. They were taken from the car. The galloping grizzly bear sounded a lot like my dog as he ran down the pavement. I bet their nails are about the same size.

On the way down the Harding Ice Field Trail we spotted another bear. This one appeared to be a black bear sleeping on a patch of ice. I couldn't even tell he was a bear without the binoculars.

A couple more pics from the end of the trail.

By the way, more of our Alaska photos found here.