wayside to Turnagain Arm

We slept in at our wayside parking spot, but were not too late in getting back on the road towards Anchorage.

We wanted to go to the base of the Matanuska glacier and our guide book, The Milepost, told us there was a way to drive up to it. We mistakenly turned off before the state facility and got caught up in some private companies come-on to unsuspecting tourists. The entrance sent us down a road crudely cut into the side of a shear hill face with many signs warning that the road was very dangerous. When we turned to come down the main switchback with a shear cliff to the left and shear dropoff to the right and the road was maybe 16 feet wide at most, we looked at each other, and said in unison “I love you” and proceeded. If a car had come up at the same time we were going down this section, I don’t know what we would have done. When we got to the end of the road it became obvious that the only way to get to the glacier was to pay for a guided tour. So we turned around and left. At least on the return trip, up the switchback, we would be against the cliff and not the dropoff if we encountered another vehicle.

As it turned out the state facility was no better at getting us closer to the glacier so after taking some photos we moved on. DR doesn’t understand why people want to get close to glaciers when they photograph so much better from a distance.

The drive was prettier than we expected and was way less congested than say L.A. traffic. We found an iHop and had breakfast for lunch and Laura stocked up on some Costco specific items we use.

DR was eager to move on to the Turnagain Arm in hopes of seeing a bore tide. A bore tide occurs where the change from low to high tide is large and the change in elevation of a long bay is low. What happens is that under the right conditions around new and full moons the tide rushes in like a tidal wave up to 10 feet tall in the case of the Turnagain Arm which is a 55 mile long bay. DR calculated when the wave should come by and we waited with multiple cameras and plans to photograph the bore tide coming in. As it turned out we were not close enough to a new or full moon and the wave, if any, was barely perceptable and, if visible at all, was probably only in the main channel. The next good bore tide is not scheduled until  after August 28th. DR is very crushed, Laura a little disappointed.

After DR finally admitted that we had missed the bore tide we headed up to the end of the arm and found the descent little Black Bear Campground and spent the night for $7.