Juneau Alaska

Time for the next leg of our ferry journey. We headed out of Sitka bound for Juneau.  The views were amazing passing snow capped mountains and lighthouses.

 

As we were coming into Juneau we could see the town and the Mendenhall glacier from the water side. The glacier was the real draw for us.

 

Since the glacier was the reason we wanted to go to Juneau, we got up and went first thing the next day, about 7:30 AM…arriving even before the visitor center opened.  We were concerned because there were 6 cruise ships scheduled to be in town and we knew the crowds were coming!! We had almost an hour of peace and quiet to enjoy. As we were heading back to our RV the first bus showed up!!

We were able to FaceTime with all of our grands and show them a glacier!! It’s always a highlight of our day when we FaceTime with our grands!!

These posters show how glaciers are formed from white snow to blue ice. The interesting tidbit we learned is that the top of the glacial field averages 200 feet of snow each winter. That snow then compacts over decades into ice, slowly pressing all the oxygen out and turning the ice blue.

These posters show the entire ice cap…click to open and see better…the Mendenhall glacier is really a very small part and we don’t even see all of it!

We camped at the Tongass National Forest Recreation Area…Mendenhall Glacier.

The warning to be Bear Aware changed to “Caution Bears ARE here!!” Yikes! We saw bear scat in several places but no bears…thankfully! We do have our bear spray and bear bells for when we hike though!

The islands of the inside passage are a rain forest and the forest floor was either a thick brown moss or thick bright green ferns that paths had been worn through.

We did drive through down town Juneau one afternoon and it was massively crowded because of the 6 cruise ships!! We spent most of the time looking out for jaywalkers and trying to find a place to turn the camper around to get back out of town. Instead we found an overlook we read about where we would be able to see whales , we did see the backs and tales of several humpback whales as they dove but didn’t get any good pictures. Hopefully next time!

 

 

He quieted the sea with His power