Exit Glacier to the Harding Ice Field

Exit Glacier

This hike was one of my very favorites except we couldn't bring the dogs and the mosquitoes ate us alive. We hiked right next to a huge glacier for 4 miles to the Harding Ice Field. It's glacial ice as far as you can see. The four miles wouldn't have been that difficult except we gained 4000ft of elevation. The entire hike was straight up and down, so it was really hard on the knees. We tried to do it really fast too because we left our dogs in the car to do it. We made it up and down in four hours when it takes the average guest eight hours. It was exhausting!

 

Starting point

Our first glimpse of the glacier

Aaron rocking it

Tons of wildflowers

In addition to the flowers the whole way up was lined with salmon berries and raspberries. It's a wonderful way of anticipating bears, but we only saw some Marmonts and heard of other people running into them before and after us. I ate berries while I waited for Aaron to catch up.  

Getting higher

Waterfalls

As we reached the top, the weather turned. Making it very foggy and hard to see the ice field from the stormy sky.

The top

Looking out

Harding Ice Field Reflections

Coming back down the air cleared a bit and let us see more

By the time we had gone a mile down the weather cleared up nicely and was bright enough to see. It was really interesting to see the landscape change as we hiked. The bottom was so lush and beautiful with tons of wildflowers and berries. The middle was short almost mossy looking plants, and the top didn't have any plants at all. It was just shale and snow. I couldn't believe how cold it got near the top either! It was wild. Such a fun hike and very recommended.