Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier – 5/18/2016

May 18, 2016 (Wednesday)

Juneau

We arrived in Juneau around 1:00 PM.

Tiny little coastal towns, surrounded by pristine wilderness, whose population swells when the cruise ships dock.

Weather was a little grey and drizzly but not too wet. We had breakfast and met a lovely couple – Hugh and Lou from Alabama. He’s a Baptist minister from the Birmingham area. Really enjoyed talking to them. They were going to fly into the Taku Lodge. Sounded like fun but very expensive.  He was told it was a must do once in a lifetime.  Guaranteed bear sightings.

Once we got our tender tickets we waited around until it was our turn to depart.

A tender full of folks going ashore to check out town.

Once on shore there was a whole long line of people selling tours. We opted for the Mendenhall Glacier and Mount Roberts tram ($60.00 per person).

We got on the bus and the driver was very much a local – native. He told stories and did a great job.

A murder of crows, some of the largest I have ever seen.
A mural on a building on the bus ride to the glacier. The First Nations creation stories are told symbolically as they had no writing.
Sedimentary rock that has been jumbled in ways I can’t decipher. Some look almost 90 degrees turned upright and others look 40 degrees sloping up in the opposite direction.

We got to the Mendenhall Glacier and went into the Visitor’s Center.

A must for all Alaska cruisers.
Like all of them, it is a shrinking glacier. Size is so hard to judge in this land.

We decided to do the hike to Nugget Falls. The hike was a little over a mile to the falls but was a very easy, mostly flat, hike. So glad we decided to do it as it was spectacular. The Park Ranger we talked to said the falls weren’t yet at full capacity. Hard to believe as it was coming out with a great amount of force.

Life will out.
Spring in Alaska.
Artist rendition of the ice fields that feed so many glaciers.
Hard to grasp just how big and loud this is from the picture.
Pretty woman in front of the falls.
Ice calving off the main body.
Pristine and beautiful.

We got back into Juneau and wanted to see the Capitol inside but it was under construction. We decided we’ll just have to come back as there is so much to see and do.

We think this is the Governor’s Mansion.

We took the tram up to Mount Roberts. Awesome views. We got to see “Lady Baltimore” – a bald eagle they keep in captivity because she had been shot and was blind in one eye and had had one of her wings broken.

Gondola up the mountain.
Up on top looking out, pretty spectacular.
We are up really high and on a pretty steep cliff.
The giant cruise ships look pretty small from up here.
Even the really big ones.

Everything is dwarfed by the mountains.

Getting back down the tram took quite awhile. Seems like everyone was taking the tram at the same time. There were three or four other ships in port so it was very crowded. Once we got back down from Mt. Roberts, and back to our ship, we went to our room and crashed for awhile. (We did notice as we approached the ship that eagles were flying around the ship as we arrived. Lovely.) We woke up and went to dinner at the complimentary restaurant. We opted to skip the show.