Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Root Glacier Hike, Kennecott Mining Town
Without heat, staying at Lancaster's Backpacker Hotel is rather like camping. Brrrrr. We sure could have used a campfire in our room overnight, but we wore our long undies and knit hats to bed and had nice warm blankets, so it wasn't so bad, until time to get up. They're closing the hotel for the season four days from now, on September 8, so maybe they think having heat isn't so important, but it's 36 degrees out this morning, there's zero insulation in this building, and they are wrong!
Anyhoo, breakfast at the McCarthy Lodge Bistro is included in the room price. Today they served pancakes with apple slices and cinnamon, yogurt with granola, muffins, fresh fruit, orange juice, and coffee. A good start to the big day of glacier hiking.
Guide Jason picked us up at 9:00 and drove us the five miles to the Kennicott Wilderness Guides office in Kennecott, where we signed liability waivers (this is still America, after all), and Jason checked to make sure we had all the necessary gear, meaning tons of clothing layers, rain gear, lunch, and water. The guide service supplied the crampons.
Gearing up and signing waivers
It's a pleasant two-mile hike from the town of Kennecott to the glaciers, with fantastic scenery all around. All that's visible of the enormous Kennicott Glacier are heaps of dirty gravel (the ice is buried underneath), while Root Glacier is a glittering white.
Kennicott Glacier beneath the glacial till
Approaching Root Glacier
Constrasting colors
Mount Blackburn behind the clouds
At the edge of the Root Glacier, we stopped and put on crampons before venturing out onto the slippery ice. There were plenty of people walking around without crampons, but it looked pretty dangerous, and with the security of the crampons, we could walk right up to the edge of the glacial ponds and moulins (holes) without fear of sliding in.
At the edge of a moulin
Jana and guide Jason
Moulin blue
Don't fall in
How deep?
We spent more than two hours hiking on the glacier. Jason led us to various cool features, and we even had a picnic while out on the ice. I couldn't get enough of the deep turquoise moulins, and the mountain views, some icy and others covered with fall foliage, were awesome!
Picnic time
Tom and Jana
Finally it was time to leave the glacier and hike the two miles back to Kennecott. Once there, we spent a half hour or so exploring the various buildings of the old mining town, now the Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark. This wasn't an official part of our tour, but Jason seemed to enjoy looking around as well.
The old mining town of Kennecott
Inside the ore concentration mill
Kennecott
By the time Jason returned us to our hotel in McCarthy, it was 3:40 in the afternoon. 9:00 to 3:40 is a heck of a half-day tour! It was an outstanding day with an outstanding guide, and I enjoyed every minute of our private “group” tour.
We ate dinner again at the Roadside Potato, after which we visited the Golden Saloon, next to our lodging, for a nightcap. They had a good draft beer selection, a full bar, and also served some good-looking food, but we'd already eaten.
Tom
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