McCarthy, AK

After driving from Whitehorse, to Destruction Bay, and then into Alaska through Tok we made it to Kenny Lake RV Park and Mercantile. The drive into McCarthy was 85 miles each way and took us 2 hr 15 min. The road is pretty much a series of potholes and washboard, over the top of a old railroad track. In the rain at 6am, it just looks like a long mud puddle.

You must park on the far side of the river and walk across the footbridge.

It was a cool rainy day with a temp of 44 to start.

We bundled up good for the glacier hike.

We started the hike from the Kennecott Mine.

That's the original mine building in front of us

If it looks like the buildings are leaning, well they are. 

We hiked 2 1/2 miles to the toe of the glacier.

We booked a tour thru Kennicott Wilderness Guides.

Our guide Jeff, is a college student in Anchorage during the year, and does guide work for the summer.

Once we reached the glacier we put crampons on our boots.

They are not comfortable to walk in, worse than walking in wet sand.

Then we spent a couple of hours hiking all over the Root Glacier.

The glacier toe is covered with a thin layer of gravel, but it is still very slick and hard to walk on without the crampons

Eventually we made it to the blue ice, and as you can see, it is not very level.

After climbing down the sheer ice walls, we got a few nice pictures.

That is a water fall right next to us, it made rappelling down pretty tricky. LOL.

This a really deep pool at the confluence of several small streams in the glacier. One of the hikers in the group ahead of us stripped down and jumped in for a quick swim, twice.

There was lots of really nice waterfalls along the way, and it actually warmed up enough to a lose a layer or two

One last look at the glacier as we retreated. There is actually ice under the rock layer for another couple of miles from where we are standing here.