Day 9, July 3, sightseeing in the Anchorage area

It was cloudy in the morning, but a local pilot had told us this was normal and the low clouds usually lift later in the day.  And since the days were very long, there was plenty of time for the clouds to lift.  So in the morning we went to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art.    Then in the afternoon, we headed to the airport for a sightseeing flight.

We headed down southeast from Anchorage along Turagain Arm towards Portage Pass:







This might be Portage Glacier.  This is the problem when you make the website 2 years later.  We went to Portage pass and circled around and then headed southwest along a valley to Seward.




This is Seward:


After Seward, we followed a valley out to the Kenai Peninsula and passed by the Harding Ice Field.




We decided to detour and follow a glacier up into the ice fields.  There were two planes doing this so we must have discovered a favorite tourist destination.


close-up of the glacier:


Up on the ice fields.  As you can see in the distance, the clouds were just high enough to permit this excursion.


We went up one glacier, turned left, and then left again back down another glacier.  Now we are passing the glacier we had gone up as we continue out the valley:




From here we followed the river out towards Kenai, then back northeast to Anchorage over a marshy area. Then crossed Turnagain Arm again.  This is known to have very strong tides.  Maybe the tide was coming in here:


Back on the ground, and riding back to the hotel, we passed this parking lot with both planes and cars.  Not a normal sight for me: