Mendenhall Glacier and Juneau

After we left Sitka at 0540, and the sun had already been up for 2 hours (!), we had an entire day to kill in Juneau, until our 5:30 pm flight to Gustavus and Glacier Bay.  So, we rented a car at the airport, had a nice breakfast, and got to the Mendenhall Glacier about 0800.  Again, because we had been up for several hours already, we were surprised to be just the second car in the parking lot.  We thought, oh well, COVID strikes again.

We proceeded to hike all the trails available in the area (a grand total of 6 miles), taking our time and lots of pictures.

Nugget Falls is said to be even more beautiful in the winter, when it’s frozen.

We walked out onto the beach alone, for this vantage point:

…and when we headed back in, we ran into many people going out.  Thus, we figured that we had just gotten a super early start, but it was sure nice being alone for most of our hiking.  The East Glacier Trail was 3 miles, but took us 2 hours because of all the switchbacks and steps.

It was gorgeous SE Alaskan rain forest, and gave us a different view of the glacier.

Because we were flying a lot during this part of our exploration, we didn’t have bear spray with us when hiking.  So Steve kept up a litany as we approached blind corners – “oh bear!  Hello bear!”  Before we left Juneau, we visited an outdoors store and bought a couple of bear bells, for our future hikes.

We then drove up the Glacier Highway north of Juneau until the nice pavement gave way to potholes and buckled asphalt.  We opted not to drive to “the end of the road” that it’s literally called, but did enjoy the scenery along the way, of the Chilkat Mountains.

Sorry this post is so short. Just watch out - the next one’s a doozy! ;)