Glaciers & Moose kind of day

Day 26

7/16/26 Thursday

Mosquito count: nope… not today

Sunshine and mountains…Good Morning! What a delightful surprise to take the van window covers off and see sunshine and mountain tops this morning! It’s been several days and made us excited to get out and do something active this morning.

We decided to get the bicycles out… it’s been several days and we bicycled about 24 miles round trip up the Knik (kuh-nik) River to the end of the road and the toe of the Knik Glacier. I posted a picture of that glacier yesterday. It was fun to get closer and a better view of it. The next best thing would be to take the helicopter trip to the glacier and walk in it for about $500. The whole trip is about 1 hour.

The road wasn’t too busy but there was some heavy equipment going up and down. Mostly dump trucks. But everyone gave us room. It was a backroad with no shoulders. The speed limit was 45 mph… I think. We followed the Knik River all the way but it wasn’t always close and all the foliage and trees blocked our view most of the way.

There were a lot of homes all the way to the end of the highway. Most of them were old and well lived that we could see along the road. Some of the streets went higher up the mountain so there may have been some newer homes higher up with the valley view.

We did have one pullout about 7 miles up that we stopped for photos. This would end up being our best view of the Knik Glacier.

About mile 8 there was a general store and espresso kiosk. A nice younger man who own the property was busy building camping cabins behind the general store. He has plans to build a brewery as well. He said the area is really growing with the tourism industry. Helicopter rides, sled dogs on the glacier, bicycle company tours etc. He wants to join the industry.

At the end of the road was the Alaska Glacier Lodge. They had cabins, restaurant for guests and helicopter tours of all sorts. You can even helicopter up to a glacial lake and paddle board for $1300. The woman told us it’s booked out through July and it’s one of the most popular on the menu! I was hoping we would have a really close glacier view but it was over the moraine from the lodge.

After that short visit we set off back down. I say down because we climbed about 1250 ft and there were ups and down all the way but mostly ups.

At one point on the way down I stopped at the milk cow for sale property because Jim had mentioned the cows. While I was stopped waiting to ask him where the cows were I looked down the hill. At the bottom of the hill Mama Moose and her 2 calves were standing in the road! Whew! If I hadn’t stopped I would have encountered them eye to eye. The last thing I want is to get too close to a mama moose with her babies. So we waited not long for her to get across the road. I was all on alert now. And sure enough just a couple minutes later or so I spotted another moose with one baby at the edge of the trees. I had just notice a dark blob ahead near the trees. I stopped again and this time she was closer than the last group… but still far enough away. I was looking at her and she was looking at me. Then a dump truck was coming behind me. I waved my arm with the slow down signal to let him know something was on the road. He got the message but she heard his heavy truck and they all scooted across the road.

That was fun. This is all new to me… so many moose and one after the other. I remained on high alert for the next several miles.

We came to a creek crossing the road. Notice the color of the water. It’s that cold gray color because of all the glacial silt. There say there are no fish in this creek because of the heavy silt. No nutrients.

The next highlight near the end of our ride was all the campers on the river sand bars. This is something I have read about and am hoping we will have a chance on Kodiak Island for sure. The biggest disappointment about this camping sight was all the garbage left behind right by the sign telling people it’s a public recreation area. Ugh… people are such slobs sometimes.

We finished the bike ride and got back on the highway for Anchorage. About a one hour drive is all.

Before we got all the way to Anchorage Jim found a free dump spot at the Chevron in Eagle River. Yeah! Took care of that business with the gray water.

On to Anchorage. We needed some food supplies for the next week on the Kenai Peninsula. We plan to visit a few small towns… Hope, Seward, Homer and ultimately Kodiak Island. We have a ferry to Kodiak booked for next Tuesday.

We are parking our van in front of our friend Jana’s house. Neither she nor her husband are home so we’re holding down the fort for a day. Jana is currently bicycling on the Tour of Wyoming. Experiencing ghastly hot weather with severe thunderstorms in the Cody/Powell area. We met Jana some 13(?) years ago bicycling in Helena with her friend Shelagh from Missoula. We’ve all been bicycling friends since!

We will be coming back to Anchorage in a couple of weeks and meet up with Jana. At that point we can discover Anchorage a little more before we all go bike riding in Denali NP. At least that’s the current plan.

Tomorrow morning we meet up with another bicycle friend who lives here. Morgan drove the sag wagon for many Greater Yellowstone Coalition tours and Montana Road Tours. She knows Jana and Shelagh too. Looking forward to meeting up for breakfast! It’s been a few years.