Visiting Exit Glacier, Seward

Eleven years ago we visited Alaska for a month before we moved here and Exit Glacier is one of the places we checked out. On a recent camping trip to Seward we wanted an easy hike (really, it is easy--the kids were pretty whipped from 23 miles of hiking the previous day) so we headed over to Exit Glacier to see if we remembered it. We did--but for our environmentally conscious kids, it almost felt like a funeral because the glacier has retreated quite a bit in the mere 10 years since we'd last visited, as evidenced by the year markers posted along the trail. And the trail to the glacier is longer than it was before, also a sign of the times.

The paved paths were just what we were looking for and we joined crowds of tourists as they explored the paved paths to the glacial outwash area and the glacier itself. Someday the hike to the Harding Icefield may be in our future--billed as an 8-9 hour strenuous hike. They offer it as a guided tour.

Here is a video of the glacier: