Sheridan Glacier

As you take the road out of town from Cordova the mountains break apart and the flat lands of the Copper River Delta open up while you cross bridge after bridge. The Chugach Mountains are still visible to the north, bearing forth a procession of huge glaciers pouring out of them. The rivers emerging from the ice pass under the road in braided streams, often with wide sandy shores that tempt access to the ice miles away. A number of unmarked gravel roads of varying quality branch of from the main road.

 The vast landscape of Sheridan Glacier

I did know of one road that appeared to go all the way to the mountains, based on what i saw on a map. The road was unmarked though, and i chose incorrectly on my first two attempts. The third day we were there i finally hit it, and after several miles through forest the road ends in a mossy clearing, right next to Sheridan Glacier.  From the lot you can go straight to the glacier, or take a trail up the mountain next to it.

There were some cool bright rusty rocks in this shallow blue pool.

What looks like a pond is actually a deep crevasse. The rocks that look like they are "floating" on the far right are actually resting on an invisible glass ledge.

The Sheridan Glacier is perhaps the only glacier i've been to so far where you can step directly off of grass and onto the ice. The trail to the glacier follows along a large old moraine, and at this time the glacier is ramming right into it. To the west of the moraine is a growing melt pool that has flooded over the trail and drowned some trees. To the east the trail follows the shore of the main melt pool, which is large and interesting enough for some kayak exploring.

After the rain and wind stopped the water in the extensive meltpool area revealed some seriously surreal, abstract imagery.

I had forgotten crampons or an axe on our trip, but the ice was textured and flat, and we were able to walk a long distance with just regular shoes, until Maree was too uncomfortable. I dropped Maree off back on shore and went out to get some pictures. The weather conditions were just too interesting to leave. A cloudy day with a bit of rain here and there, but virtually no wind, and generally warm temperatures (for a glacier).

This is part of the toe (front) of the glacier. It had a lot of arches, bridges and tunnels, with different colored water from spot to spot.

An iceberg floating by like a spaceship.

This pool looked like frozen waves on rough seas.

The overcast skies provided us with another benefit. We saw iceworms! I never thought i'd see one, they are apparently very rare, especially in the daytime. First we just saw one, it was featureless and black, impossibly living in the ice of the glacier. It looked like something that would crawl out of someones eyeball in the X-files. After a few dozen yards the ice was covered with so many of them we had to watch our steps. I picked one up on my finger. It appeared to writhe in pain so i put it back on the ice. I imagine my finger may have felt like a hot iron to a creature that lives in ice.

The weather turned nice 15 miles up the glacier.

These serracs were miles away. They must have been enormous. The background is foggy here, but in the previous pictures the seracs are located at the bottom of the right hand slope in front of the distant triangular mountain.

Maree wouldn't get any closer to the crevasse.

Just underneath the white surface the ice turns blue, like at the bottom of all these little holes.

An Iceworm!

This is how big they are. On my finger i could barely feel it. Visibly it was freaking out, so i put it back down right away.

 We passed through an area of 1,000 square feet where the iceworms were everywhere. It starts to look kind of gross. Makes me think twice about drinking glacier water.

Maree crosses a large dirty area on the way back. It's easy to get lost in the size of these places.

Part II: The Nameless Creek

After several hours on the ice we returned to the car. The area was just so nice that i decided to walk up the forest trail for a while until it got difficult. There was a perfect stream in the woods that emerged from a small moss covered canyon, causing the trail to take another route. That stream had all the aspects of a perfect photo, from what i could see, it just didn't have the elements in the right place. Looking up stream as the forest walls narrowed was very intriguing, so i went back to the truck, put on my hip waders, got my tripod, and jumped right in.

For a while a faint trail wound through the forest. Looked like the moss was trying to devour the trees.

Moss covered cliffs and debris. There was so much moss around, i got the feeling that if you fell asleep on the ground you might wake up covered in the stuff.

Time to jump in!

Wading up the ice cold stream was one of the most fun unexpected little hikes that i've had in a long time. I entered the canyon, navigated several tricky deep spots, and after using my dormant Tai Chi skills to slow motion climb up through a threatening waterfall and over a rock dam i made it to the center of the gorge. It was a perfect spot.

In the grotto i had momentarily found the perfect stream.

I couldn't go past this point. I thought i would make a picture here, and i tried to move that narrow log since it ruined the image. That thing was amazingly wedged onto the rocks in three separate places. It wouldn't even hint at budging. Next time there's a flood it's going to be smashed by another one.

On the way back. I'll miss this stream.