Day 34: Byron Glacier – walking on ice.

We both woke up at 0400am. I guess we had too much sleep. The locals said that bears are very active early in the morning. So
we decided to try our luck again: “What the heck- let’s march the not-so-interesting 10K trail (out and back) to the falls again.”
at 0500am, we were marching again. The air was crisp, and the forest was very quiet. We were the only hiker on the trail, and that, by itself, was fun and charming. Yet the bears did not appreciate our efforts, and we returned empty-handed.
We had a long day of driving to Denali state park, and we also had set an oil change maintenance for our Ford in Anchorage at 0100pm.
Nevertheless, we took the wise decision to detour to see Byron Glacier. It was easily one of the most beautiful areas of our trip. Byron Glacier is located next to Portage Pass to Whittier, the home of the Portage Glacier. This area is very accessible and has so many hikes and glaciers to offer. Had we known about it – we would have undoubtedly stayed there longer.
We hiked the short and straightforward hike to the Byron Glacier. That was a rewarding, very easy hike, with a beautiful ice cave and easy access to walking on the glacier slopes. This was a fantastic place.

The areas we saw in Anchorage were very discouraging. Besides the inevitable (and handy) retailers like Costco and Fred Meyers and the very
effective Ford agency there- the city was loaded with homeless people and cars that seemed smashed from behind (Likely due to traffic on the ice during winter). We are not sorry. We decided not to stay a night here – and aimed to stay two nights at the Denali State Park (not to be confused with the national park).
Those who know – are saying that the best views of Mt. Denali (also known as Mt. McKinely) are seen from that place- so we decided to give it a chance. But unfortunately – the weather was super cloudy, and all we could see were low clouds and the river below.