While my brother was here we decided to go to Valdez, based on weather forecasts. Supposedly it was going to be nice there as compared to where we were. On the way we stopped at the Matanuska Glacier. I hadn't been there in a couple of years, and it seems like every time i go there the property owners are charging more to get through their gate. John had never been on a Glacier before, i don't think. He'd certainly never worn crampons or used an ice axe, and that takes an adjustment period.
Bordering one side of the glacier is a mountain called "The Lionshead". It is a pillar of very hard rock that the ice could not carve away. The name "Lionshead" was always confusing to me since most people agree that from the road the mountain looks more like a sphinx than a lions head. John noticed that the view from the other side, on the ice, has a sheer rock wall with vegetation on it in a pattern that does seem to resemble a lions head, as pictured below. So i wonder if this is the side it was originally named it after.
The glacier has a lake on it that is not too far to walk too. It's kind of hidden and it's interesting to see how everything changes from one summer to the next. The lake on this glacier has always annoyed me because the water is always very muddy looking, as opposed to the pristine clear blue water you normally think of when imagining a lake on a glacier. In this pic you can see some people walking across an ice ledge on the far side of the lake.
