Juneau is the Capital of Alaska.
Juneau is a very popular Cruise Port.
Juneau is the second largest Alaskan city.
Juneau has no roads in (or out) of it.
Juneau is only accessible by air, water, rail, dogsled, etc.
Juneau is forty to eighty miles away from three of its closest neighbors, the bustling metropolises of Gustavus, Haines, and Skagway.
Juneau is located where it is only because of some gold mines from back in the day.
The End
No! Not really!
We stopped at Juneau and wished that we had longer to visit as it does look like a cool place to spend some time. Our goal for the day was the Mendenhall Glacier, one of the only domestic glaciers that are accessible by road. The roads that don’t go anywhere else. Go figure.
It’s a biggie, and it and the surrounding area is part of the Tongass National Forest which at 16.7 million square acres (26,000 square miles) is the largest National Forest, we have and is larger than ten US states including (obviously) New Jersey which would fit almost four time over inside this Forest!
It is a Temperate Rain Forest, but we can’t attest to that because we are experiencing a crazy stretch of good weather (if you are a Touron, bad weather if you are a duck!) Please forgive the next set of photos as I’m trying to nail down the correct way to expose dimly lit scenes with obvious highlights! These all show the incredible insides of a temperate rain forest.
The salmon are running upstream….. we’ve all seen photos of those ‘fish ladders’ by the dams and other pics of bears wading out to wait for a meal to just jump into their mouths, but how many of us have gazed down into a crystal-clear, glacial-fed stream and see crazy-red salmon spawning? (Please note that I was able to jam three hyphenated words into that last sentence!)
We did, and now you will too!
Rounding out the trio is the Nieuw Ampsterdam, one of Holand-America’s finest.
These guys are so numerous around here that they are called Alaskan Chickens.
Now, during the Salmon Spawning Season (which can be translated into the Eagle and Bear Eating Season), there were so many that they just looked like pigeons on a sidewalk!
6 replies on “Juneau and the Mendenhall Glacier”
Great job on the rainforest pictures; I always struggle with those.
Thanks Karen! I think I’ve got it now!
Rainforest pics are great
Nice pics! Love the one of you and Paula too!
And the whole family!!!!
Hi Carol! Thanks for all of your comments and this trip could not get any better! I’ll paas your thoughts along to Paula and hope to nsee you and Glenn soon!