A sign points the way. This park is a private campground at the foot of Matanuska Glacier. For $8 per person, you can get a pass to drive a few miles to near the glacier and walk out on it. So we did. And took a ton of pictures. [800x600][1600x1200]
This is the view from the parking lot. The white ice part of the glacier is still pretty far. We seem to be on a terminal moraine - the pile of sediment left behind by the glacier the last time it advanced this far. [800x600][1600x1200]
We can zoom in on it a bit. [800x600][1600x1200]
[800x600][1600x1200]
There's a somewhat marked trail (occasional traffic cones) to lead out to a picnic table atop another moraine. We started by following that. [800x600][1600x1200]
[800x600][1600x1200]
Most of the way up this trail, we start to see some patches of ice still melting under the sediment. [800x600][1600x1200]
More ice. [800x600][1600x1200]
This may look like a big mountain, but it's just a mound of sediment we walked past. [800x600][1600x1200]
We're starting to get a little closer to the glacier, but it's a long walk over what is at this point, some pretty soft sediment piles. [800x600][1600x1200]
There are many small streams coming out of the sediment, too. [800x600][1600x1200]
Now we're getting somewhere - white ice. [800x600][1600x1200]