2. 2009

Knik River Valley

Tracy and I wandered up the Knik River Valley a couple miles, trying to get as close to the glacier as we could in a couple hours.
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A porcupine climbs a tree to evade us.
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A porcupine climbs a tree to evade us.

AlaskaAnimals2009Matanuska Susitna Valley

  • A porcupine climbs a tree to evade us.
  • Looks can be deceiving, this guy looks quite soft and holdable.
  • A local hunter's tree stand blends into the surroundings fairly well.
  • The riverbed is a huge flat valley without much for vegetation except in little patches here and there.
  • Glacial silt blows around the area regularly, so when the snow melts it forms a layer of grey over everything. Last year's leaves turn colorless and vague.
  • The Knik Glacier greets us as we round a bluff on the hillside and reach the straightaway.
  • Our only sightings of other people were those going a good deal higher and faster than us.
  • The walking is pretty easy and the view only gets better and better.
  • Tracy and the Knik Glacier.
  • Still miles away, the enormous glacier looks down on us.
  • Water currents flow out of the entrance to a beaver home alongside the river.
  • A thin thread of trail traverses a steep section of cliff to get around a bend in the main channel of water.
  • Moose tracks are the most plentiful of those along the riverbed.
  • A stitched panorama of 81 images. I just wish the sun would have held out a while longer. We turned back here, some two miles short of the glacier.
  • The tiny size of the glacial silt particles makes for a very fine mud that cracks as it dries.
  • Leaves melting into the silt leave an impression to last who knows how long.
  • A leaf print without a leaf.
  • The dry texture of the silt almost belies the fact that there's an entire river flowing by.
  • Local flora clings to the crives in the rocks.
  • Tiny spruce trees eke out a living on the gravelly riverbed.
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