Fourth of July Beach and Creek in Alaska
Alaska Travelog #23
Outside Seward - Tue, 18 Jun 2024, 4:30pm
Today's been a day of shorter hikes and visits around Seward. We started with a milder hike to an overlook of the Exit Glacier ("milder" being in comparison to our butt-kicker of a hike partway above the glacier on Monday), followed by a bit of gentle 4x4ing on the river bed. Now we've driven around the far side of the bay to Fourth of July Beach.
From here we're actually looking across Resurrection Bay to Seward on the opposite shore. We're technically still in Seward, though. In Alaska city limits seem to stretch miles away. For example, when we were in Anchorage we stopped in places 100 miles apart that were all called "Anchorage".
But hey, it's a beach! Er, gravelly shoreline. And the high temperature today is... 57° F. And there's a blustery wind. So, not exactly what you think of when you think "beach" in the summer. Oh, and it's next to an industrial site. In fact I had to employ some creative direction-finding to find public roads around the industrial complex and its many "No Trespassing" and "No Parking Beyond This Sign" signs to get to this public beach.
Back on the road- "road" being generous here, as named streets in this part of the city are gravel-I drove inland a bit to try seeing Fourth of July Creek. There's a gravel road that parallels it for a bit. When I saw a dirt two-track going off through the hedges toward the creek I tried exploring it in our SUV.
I marveled to myself at how there was such solitude here... until I rounded a bend and saw a truck parked in the path ahead of us. Then, as we got closer, I noticed that the truck was abandoned... and wrecked. "Well, that's a little bit scary," I said aloud.
We didn't let the wreck deter us from exploring further on foot. ...Yeah, that's exactly how horror movies start. 🤣
The wreck was about as far as we'd have been able to drive on the trail anyway, so it didn't cost us anything in terms of access. We picked our way around it then across the tumbled river rocks. If this creek looks like the glacial outflow from Exit Glacier it's because it is a glacial outflow. Above us in those mountains is Godwin Glacier.
Outside Seward - Tue, 18 Jun 2024, 4:30pm
Today's been a day of shorter hikes and visits around Seward. We started with a milder hike to an overlook of the Exit Glacier ("milder" being in comparison to our butt-kicker of a hike partway above the glacier on Monday), followed by a bit of gentle 4x4ing on the river bed. Now we've driven around the far side of the bay to Fourth of July Beach.
From here we're actually looking across Resurrection Bay to Seward on the opposite shore. We're technically still in Seward, though. In Alaska city limits seem to stretch miles away. For example, when we were in Anchorage we stopped in places 100 miles apart that were all called "Anchorage".
But hey, it's a beach! Er, gravelly shoreline. And the high temperature today is... 57° F. And there's a blustery wind. So, not exactly what you think of when you think "beach" in the summer. Oh, and it's next to an industrial site. In fact I had to employ some creative direction-finding to find public roads around the industrial complex and its many "No Trespassing" and "No Parking Beyond This Sign" signs to get to this public beach.
Back on the road- "road" being generous here, as named streets in this part of the city are gravel-I drove inland a bit to try seeing Fourth of July Creek. There's a gravel road that parallels it for a bit. When I saw a dirt two-track going off through the hedges toward the creek I tried exploring it in our SUV.
I marveled to myself at how there was such solitude here... until I rounded a bend and saw a truck parked in the path ahead of us. Then, as we got closer, I noticed that the truck was abandoned... and wrecked. "Well, that's a little bit scary," I said aloud.
We didn't let the wreck deter us from exploring further on foot. ...Yeah, that's exactly how horror movies start. 🤣
The wreck was about as far as we'd have been able to drive on the trail anyway, so it didn't cost us anything in terms of access. We picked our way around it then across the tumbled river rocks. If this creek looks like the glacial outflow from Exit Glacier it's because it is a glacial outflow. Above us in those mountains is Godwin Glacier.