Funny walking to a glacier through a temperate rainforest.

First touch of glacier waters, very cold.

Markers like this are throughout the park, noting the glacier's location & year.

Note the sky-high hair, that's from the glacial wind blasting us.

The blue dot is Holden, undeterred by the wind for a closer view.

Striking a pose with Exit Glacier while it's still around.

E wanted away from the cold wind, so we headed down to the glacial plains view.

Day 7, pt. 1: Kenai Fjords Nat'l Park

July 21 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F

Our first stop of the day was to officially make our way to see Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park. It's sobering to see the massive way the glacier has shrunk, and while we had a great visit, it left me with a sad feeling of our climate's inevitable change.

Holden was not keen on the hike up to see Exit Glacier and made sure to let us know how much he didn't want to walk the 1.25 miles. But boy did his tune change once we were up there!

The biggest thing we learned about glaciers: THEY ARE WINDY. Holy smokes, we had no idea the way the wind would whip off that frigid hunk of ice. Everett wanted to get away from the cold as fast as he could, while Holden just kept venturing closer and closer. As E and I headed down I glanced back and saw how far up the side they made it and laughed to myself at Holden's earlier reluctance to even make the trek at all, much less scurry up well beyond the boundary line.

Eventually we all made it back down to the visitor's center and headed into Seward for the afternoon.Read more