Matanuska River Valley

The little town of Glacier View, overlooking the Matanuska Glacier, has 249 inhabitants.

Glacier View scenery: The orange rock is gypsum. The Talkeetna Mountains are to the north of the river valley and the Chugach Mountains to the south.

The 75-mile-long Matanuska River in southcentral Alaska drains a broad valley south of the Alaska Range, flowing southwest ito the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet. Downstream of its source it is joined by the runoff of the Matanuska Glacier.

The Matanuska Glacier is fifty miles east of Palmer off the scenic Glenn Highway in the northern Chugach Mountains. The face of the glacier is four miles wide.

What appears to be a big avalanch is a rock glacier.

Sheep Mountain Lodge has over twelve miles of hiking trails.

recreation:

hiking: Paul is always ready to stop for blueberries.

rafting on the Matanuska River

parasailing: three parasails launched from the top of Sheep Mountain, but the weather quickly closed in and cut off the ridge lift they were flying in. We picked up two of the three when they landed and brought them back to the rough gravel landing strip at Sheep Mountain Lodge, where their Maule, on 31" bush tires, was waiting to take them back down the valley to Anchorage.