Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau (06-21-14)

On our first day in Juneau, we ran over to the Visitor Center for Mendenhall Glacier. Glaciers and icebergs are much prettier in the sunshine.

To get there we passed by Mendenhall Lake- a fairly young lake, it’s only a hundred years old and was created by the glacier. These were the first icebergs we saw while in Juneau.

Part of the attraction of Mendenhall Glacier is its accessibility.  You can easily hike the 1 mile trail to Nugget Falls and get close to the glacier itself.  I was glad we saw this before we saw Sawyer Glacier or we may have been disappointed because Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm Fjord is spectacular.

  The visitor center here has great information, and quite a few spotting scopes so people can get a closer look at the view.

From the time a snow flake lands on top of the glacier, it takes 200 years for it to work its way down into the glacier and get to the point where it will calve off at the front of the glacier.  So the ice in these icebergs is pretty much 200 years old.

The more challenging way to see the glacier is to hike to it. We found out about an ice cave in the glacier, and immediately made plans to see it. Since we walked from the campground, this was a 9 mile strenuous hike for us. Along the way we climbed boulders…

 

We crossed numerous streams- only some of which had bridges. We sure were glad we have good waterproof boots.

In one spot we had to pull ourselves up the boulders using a rope that someone conveniently placed there.

A few miles later we were rewarded with a new view of the glacier.  This glacier is 200 ft thick at the edge, and about a mile thick in the body of it.












It was still pretty far away and the trail wasn’t always well marked, but there were a lot of people on the trail with us.












Finally we were walking on the glacier itself.  Or, Paul was.  For a little while, I chickened out.  We had heard that the trail is dangerous-this part was pretty steep, and crumbly -and the caves- well, they are made of ice- who knows when they will cave in??.  It took me about 20 minutes to change my mind and find my way down to the glacier.  You can get a better sense of the enormity of this glacier in this picture.

Walking on the ice in this area is fairly easy. Its so dirty that its not very slippery at all.  There are holes that you have to watch out for though. 

Some of them are big enough to fall into.  Hmm, that didn’t make me too happy, but realistically it would be hard to actually fall into one.  You can see them.

Finding the ice cave made the hike worthwhile!

It was created by the stream from a nearby waterfall, and has been growing rapidly over the last few years, according to the locals. 

We easily made the decision not  to go into the cave.  I used the zoom lens to take pictures of those who did venture in. 









After relaxing with a snack it was time to start the trek back.  We were tired but definitely glad we made the effort to see this.