Juneau - The Gateway To The Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier Explorer was the name of the tour we booked in Juneau. This is the capital city of Alaska. On the surface, it looked like any other city with a business downtown district surrounded. by residential areas.

Don't you think so when you look at the pictures above? What made Juneau special to us tourists was it was the gateway to the iconic Mendenhall Glacier. The cover picture shows the Glacier Observation Center. A closeup is shown below.

We had the choice of climbing a flight of stairs to reach the center or take an elevator. What do you think my wife and I did?

If you said the elevator you win a prize lol! The view when inside was spectacular.

Although impressive it was still a distant view. There were several paths to get closer to the glacier. Since my wife had knee pain, she stayed here and I did some exploring.

We took advantage of a short film that explained more about the Mendenhall Glacier. Global warming has caused it to recede by 4600 feet in the last 22 years. This process continues with big chunks of ice breaking away daily. See the mini icebergs floating downstream in the lake below.

In mid-winter, the lake freezes over. People walk over the lake and ice skate as well as explore ice caves in the glacier itself.

The sky was partly cloudy which gave the ice a bluish hue. When totally sunny the glacier glows its whitest.

An impressive waterfall flowed to the right of the glacier. There was a pathway that took you close to see it but I didn't have the time to do that.

I took a picture that provided more information on Mendenhall Glacier. Below you can see a closeup of the Mendenhall Glacier. It is hard to fathom that in another couple of years, it will have receded even further away.

What do you think of the closeup above? While departing the area I got a distant shot of this magnificent glacier.

This day was free of rain unlike Sitka yesterday where it rained incessantly. If you're wondering the lowest temperature was about 49 F and the highest was 59. Pretty mild indeed.

There were several other cruise ships docked in Juneau from Princess, Royal Caribbean Lines, and Disney.

I truly enjoyed our visit to Juneau.