Into Alaska - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 87

Alaska” comes from. You know - the dessert that is comprised ound of frozen ice cream
topped by an egg-white meringue that is cooked by extremely high heat before the ice
cream thaws. Just wondering.
At Squirrel Creek State Park we make camp in a grove of slender white birch on the banks
of a pretty creek. Sounds picturesque but everything in Alaska is oversized and this creek
was roaring with the run-off of the torrential rains that were now drumming on the roof. It
does give one pause in the night, wondering how much bigger the creek could get before
the banks start sliding away.
Up the next morning to sunny skies and in a couple of hours we are at Worthington Glacier.
This glacier sits on Thompson Pass, at 933 m /2800 feet, renowned for recording Alaska's
heaviest snowfall - 5 feet in 24 hours. Yes, 5 FEET!
The parks people have facilitated access to this glacier - to a point. There is a path that
takes you to a good viewpoint. That's never close enough for some, like Steve, so we
scrambled over the moraine fields, balancing on boulders, hopping over rivulets. We climb
upandoverrockledges,finallycloseenoughtotouchthefrontoftheglacier itself.Ancient
and still, the ice is exceedingly blue.
This is the first of the many glaciers we will enjoy up close.
Worthington Glacier