Seward to Glennallen

Alright, so I've told the kids many times on this trip that we were on the backside of nowhere.  

Well, the GPS proves it in this picture. I'll tell you where this was taken shortly.

Before I tell you about today, let me go back and include two things we

 saw yesterday that I forgot (or was just too tired to remember) to tell you.

One was the Dall's Porpoises.  These were so beautiful.  I think they look like mini Orcas. This is not my picture, but this is what they looked like.

The other thing we saw was a black bear out in the water just a little ways from shore fishing. 

(again, not my picture.)

So now for today.   Another beautiful but cloudy beginning to our day.

We knew we had to see Exit Glacier before we left Seward.  We didn't need a boat for this one.  We could drive most of the way to it, but then we had to hike almost two miles to get to it.  So that's why the GPS shows us in the middle of nowhere.  We were at the end of the road, and we had to hike the rest of the way.

And yes, we did hike it. This is what a lot of the trail looked like.

And this.

And this.

But we finally made it.

I don't think it's as pretty as the ones we saw yesterday.

On the way back down from the glacier we had a "little bit" of a scare.  We had seen a sign as we went into the park to be on the lookout for bears because, of course, it was a wild area.  When I would hear a noise, I'd look, but I never saw anything.  Well, just about 3/10s of a mile from the entrance I heard a branch snap and looked up.  Bounding out of the woods about 100 feet in front of us was a large grizzly bear!  I made some sort of noise (I couldn't speak I was so scared.) and Paul looked up to see the second grizzly bear galloping after the first one!  It happened so fast!  The Lord is always right there to protect us.  They just kept right on running into the forest to our left.  I wouldn't go any further, though, because I wanted to make sure they kept on going and didn't turn back toward us.  I gave Paul the camera so that if we had to run I could go faster.   I refused to move until Paul threatened to leave me there by myself.  That did the trick.

After we got back to the entrance I looked at the "bear" sign a little closer.  It said, "If a black bear attacks you, fight back.  If a grizzly attacks you, play dead, unless he starts to eat you, then fight back."
Isn't that a hoot!  I'm so glad our angels were on "bear" duty today!  Paul asked me, "Why didn't you get their picture?"  Yea, right!  But here is what they looked like, about the same size, too.

Then we began our long but beautiful ride back from Seward through Anchorage to a little place called Glennallen.

My "church " pictures for today.

 See the cross made out of snow on the mountain?

This was another glacier we saw on the way to Glennallen.

We had to turn off the main road and travel 20 miles of really rough road (although it was paved) to get to our final destination for the night,  Lake Louise Lodge.  

This is what the GPS looked like here.  Now this really is the "backside" of the backside of nowhere.

This is the view we saw after we left the paved road and rode the rest of the way on this gravel road.  We'll show you pictures of the lodge tomorrow.  Night y'all.  I say, goodnight, but it's still bright daylight here, and it's after 10:00 p.m.