A few kilometres south of the top of Thompson Pass, the road swings round a bend and a river of ice is simply there, filling a side valley and hanging above a gravel bar. This is Worthington Glacier, and it is one of the few glaciers in Alaska you can reach on a motorcycle without anything more strenuous than putting the side stand down. There is a state recreation site with a parking area, a viewing platform and a short trail that leads up toward the terminus, close enough that you can see the blue colour in the crevasses.
The ice here comes down from a high icefield in the Chugach Mountains, and like most glaciers in the range it has been shrinking for decades. The trail has had to be adjusted over the years as the ice pulls back, and the meltwater leaves a landscape of fresh, raw gravel, silt and boulders. That raw look is the point. Plants have barely started to colonise it, and you can read the retreat as a series of steps in the ground. Cold air pours off the ice even on a warm day, so the walk up feels like opening a freezer door.
Riding to it from Valdez is a pleasure of the unhurried sort. The road climbs steadily out of the coastal rainforest and through Keystone Canyon before the mountains open up, and you reach the glacier a little before the summit of the pass. Traffic is light, and what there is tends to be camper vans and the occasional truck, so you can ride at your own speed and stop wherever the view demands it. Frost heaves are the hazard, as on every northern road, and they are usually marked with small flags or fresh paint. In wet weather the gravel in the parking area gets slick, so mind your footing and your boots.
Fuel is the thing to settle before you come. There is none at the glacier. Valdez, some thirty kilometres down the road and a town with a small harbour, a few cafes and the oil terminal's workers, is the place to fill the tank, and Glennallen is the next real stop to the north. Bring a warm layer and gloves even in summer, because the wind coming off the ice has a bite, and bring a camera that can cope with white on white. The best light is early or late, when the low sun picks out the ridges of the glacier and turns the meltwater lake the colour of milky jade.