Portage used to be a railway town. Alas, during the 1965 earthquake the land sank 6 to 11 feet (2 to 3.5 metres!), destroying the town and rendering the land useless as salt water started to penetrate the soil. Nowadays, Portage is not much more than a road junction - the road to Whittier turns off here. Whittier is the summer home of the Klondike Express and is reached via a combined road and rail tunnel. We had no specific reasons to go there, so decided to bypass the town. However, we did go to the tunnel entrance, where there are visitor facilities, although not all were open yet!
This is the parking lot for the Portage Glacier Tour Boat! Needless to say, the boat was all locked up! I think the surface of the water was frozen too, which does not do much for boat service.
A very forlorn looking location. This is taken from about the same location as the above photo, though perhaps a little closer to the Portage tunnel. This is Portage Lake, into which the Portage Glacier empties. The glacier used to extend to the lake, but with the retreat of the glacier, it no longer goes that far.
After refilling ourselves at the tourist operation at Portage, we resumed the journey to Seward. As we climbed into the mountains, the rain turned to snow. Although very light, it was a real thrill for Kelly, who had not seen snow before this!
Kelly being snowed upon a little south of Turnagain Pass.
Jerome Lake is all frozen! But since the sign says the lake is stocked with fish, presumably it does thaw out at some time.
Anchorage to Portage
