Portage Glacier, Alaska, United States

5Philip E 5:00 PM Jul 10, 2022

Great place to visit.
Girdwood is primarily a winter resort but there is still plenty to do in the summer. You can ride the gondola to the top of the ski area. You have options too, you can hike back down or ride back down. If you are really ambitious you can hike up and then ride down. They also opened a chair lift this year to ride on. I also rode bicycle on the Bird to Gird trail. There are several bicycle rentals around. I went to Portage Lake and rode the MV Ptarmigan to the Portage Glacier and back. It is a very scenic boat trip and the glacier is awesome. It costs $45 per person for a one hour trip.

5ItchyFeet 5:00 PM Aug 23, 2022

Easy quick trip to a glacier
We took the Portage Glacier cruise toward the end of our two week Alaska trip last week (8/18). We had seen glaciers from the air and day trips on a boat from both Homer and Seward. For those who do not like small planes / helicopters or longer boat rides this is a great option to see a glacier without having to experience the motion sickness of the ocean or a long trip. This is a one hour ranger guided boat cruise on a large boat with the indoor downstairs seating area and the top deck having open air where you can get better views but also exposed to the elements like the rain. It rained the entire time we were in Alaska including this trip but you should expect that when you go to Alaska in August. Dress for rain and layers ; it was our coldest day in 2 weeks and winter was starting to arrive with the foliage colors. Downstairs is where the Ranger talks on the microphone but you can hear clearly upstairs as well which was our preferred location for the open air and to take photos. It’s a quick one hour cruise to see the glacier and some small icebergs that are right in front of the glacier. You can also see, if you’re lucky, white mountain goats high on the hills surrounding the lake. There are two large restrooms downstairs; the boat is very comfortable and smooth and we would suggest this cruise for anyone including people that were mobility challenged since you can stay downstairs and still see and hear everything.