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.

Juneau, Alaska (06-21-14)

Who knew that Juneau is in a rain forest?? Tongass National Forest, situated in southeast Alaska,  is the largest national forest in the U.S. and most of it is a rain forest.  I suppose we could have guessed by looking at the forecast.

As a state capital, Juneau probably ranks as one of the more difficult ones to get to. The only way to get there is by boat or by plane.  We took the ferry from Skagway.

The day we arrived was beautiful and the two and a half hour ferry ride was easy and uneventful.   This is the Juneau area.







Having seen the weather forecast we elected to take advantage of the nice weather to push on and go check out Mendenhall Glacier. The information about that will be in another post.

In our research of  things to do in Juneau, we found out about a small mining museum and decided that should be on our list of things to do on our second day- we figured if it was going to rain, we might as well be in a museum.  Except, much of this museum is outside.

Next on our agenda was a trip to the Red Dog Saloon, home to the Duck Fart- a shot that has Crown Royal, Baileys, and Kahlua.  Trying to get to the Red Dog was how we discovered that there are actually very few parking spots in Juneau that will fit us.  The only open one we found was a mile away, which meant….yup- a mile walk in the rain. 

We sure did feel like we deserved that drink, to warm us up! It was pretty good, and we enjoyed the live piano music while we ate our lunch.  These guys are good at getting people involved with the songs they are playing.

One of our adventures took us to Eagle Harbor, which is known for it’s concentration of Bald Eagles.  The salmon were jumping out of the water all over the place- plenty of Eagle food around!

We saw tons of Eagles- sometimes as many as a dozen in one tree! There were a lot of juveniles around as well, and for the first time, we got to see some courting, where a pair of eagles fly together, swooping apart and then together again.

The scenery itself was worth the drive out there- very dramatic and gorgeous.

The Alaskan Brewing Co. is located in Juneau and although I don’t feel compelled to visit every brewery I come across, I wanted to check this one out. I like their Alaskan White, which is similar to Blue Moon. 

They don’t give tours of the brewery itself but they do have a tasting tour where they talk about the history of the brewery and some of their beers. They are fairly unique in that they don’t have one master brewer, they have 7 brewers.  They also allow their employees to try their hand at making small batches of beer-called Rough Drafts.  If visitors like it, they make bigger and bigger batches.





There was plenty to keep us busy during our 5 days in Juneau.  We probably could have stayed longer but we wanted to book our return ferry when we booked the ferry to get there, so we guessed at how long we'd want to be there.