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You Can View Glaciers By Bus

A virtual tour with Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT

If you want to view glaciers but are deathly afraid of ships, boats and planes, by driving to Alaska the long way, across the Alaska-Canada (Alcan) Highway, you can come to places like this, where you can get an excellent example of a glacier's retreat.

Here Portage Glacier calves icebergs bigger than office buildings into Portage Lake, which is over 650 feet deep. We learned that several years ago the United States Forest Service decided to build the spectacular Begich-Boggs Visitor Center in the Chugach Forest (pronounced "Chew gatch") devoted to the interpretation of glaciers. It would be13,400 sq. ft. with a wall of almost solid glass so that visitors could comfortably watch the glacier from inside the building. Today it is one of the most visited attractions in Alaska.

Unfortunately, the glacier has retreated about five miles since the turn of the century (the twentieth century, that is) though the building itself is not that old. Today you no longer can see the glacier from inside -- or even near -- the center. You can, however, watch an award-winning film, "Voices from the Ice," and then drive through a short tunnel and across a bridge to see Portage Glacier itself.

Just outside the visitor center, there's a path where I took this picture of icebergs in Portage Lake. I was struck by their wonderful, varied shapes and, much as I enjoyed finding faces and animals in clouds when I was a child, I can see a crocodile in the one toward the front and the one behind it is a wave crashing on a beach.

What do you see?

Continue the tour with Green Ski Trails in the Summer

© Copyright 2000, Revised 2002, Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT