Saturday, July 27, 2013 (Travel to Williwaw Campground, Chugach National Forest, Portage Lake, Alaska)

I was up just before 7:00 this morning...and amazed at how well I had slept.  I had expected disruption from the highway noise as well as from all of the other campers squeezed into this small overflow area of the campground.  It was a cloudy start...the forecast for the Anchorage area..."Patchy fog before 2pm. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 71. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon."  And the forecast in the Portage Lake/Whittier area is even better!

We left our camping spot and continued on the highway to Anchorage, taking highway 1...the Seward Highway...

It was a gorgeous drive...the scenery must be absolutely spectacular in the sunshine, unfortunately, we had cloud this morning.

It was a good highway...but we were surprised at how busy it was.

 Lots of Fishers...

 20 Mile River...

We arrived in the Portage Valley (on the highway to Whittier)...and the Willliwaw Campground, around 12:30.  As we drove through, we were really impressed by the paved roads, the size of the campsites and how well spaced they were...and most had a really good back-in angle.  The info for this campground says it's suitable for RV's under 99'...sweet. We backed into one vacant site but it wasn't long enough if we disconnect so we decided to take a walk further around the loop to see if there was a better site...and there was!

The campground was quite full and had lots of reserved sites for the weekend. However, there was a double site available and paying the extra $10/night ($28 instead of $18) was well worth it!  It was open allowing more sunshine in (good for our solar panels) and had a wonderful view of one of the glaciers. There were no services at any of the sites.

We quickly got unhitched and set up and then headed to Portage Lake...M/V Ptarmigan tour boat crossing the lake...

Portage Glacier at the far end of the lake used to start where the Visitor Centre is at the opposite end of the lake...

 and then the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center.

We learned at the visitors center that one of the Rangers was leading a hike up to Byron Glacier to search for Ice Worms...those interested were to meet at the trailhead at 3:00.  We wouldn't have time to go through the displays at the center today...since it was about 2:00, so we would have to do that another day. 

We had to make a quick trip back to the trailer to pick up a couple of things...we saw this woman as we were driving through the campground...interesting!!

We arrived at the trailhead shortly before 3:00...the parking lot was full, obviously a popular hiking trail.  Teryn, the ranger arrived promptly and we were off...there was quite a large group taking in the hike.

Explaining about the stages of re-vegetation after glaciation...

Apparently those two upper cracks weren't there the day before...

Teryn is handing out utensils for digging...spoons and a few small spades...

Wow!

Digging for Ice Worms...with his spoon...

Ice Worm just above the spoon...

We had quite a walk up onto the ice...of course, I forgot my walking stick and could really have used it!

Portage Lake in the distance...

The ice/snow on the left side was cracking and very dangerous so we had to walk onto the ice on the right hand side and over onto the other side...

We helped find a few ice worms...really enjoyed the scenery...and after about an hour or so, headed back.





Trees pushed over from avalanches...

Back at home, it was time to relax...

 ...and enjoy the view...

After dinner, we went for a short walk on the trail that is right behind our site.  It actually goes for quite a distance in both directions, so we will have to explore that further another day.  Looks like there is lots to do in this area!