While in Juneau today, we were bussed up to the Mendenhall Glacier, a tongue of ice stretching 12 miles from the Juneau Icefield to Mendenhall Lake. At its widest point, the glacier is more than 1.5 miles wide, with ice 100 to 1800 feet thick. The Juneau Icefield is the fifth largest icefield in North America, stretching across a 1,500 square mile area that straddles the boundary between Alaska and Canada. The Mendenhall Glacier is one of 39large and over 100 smaller valley glaciers in the Juneau Icefield.Today was to be a very long 12 to 13 hour day, so Marcia stayed back to care for our and other caravaner’s dogs. The group boarded the Fjordland Express, a beautiful catamaran scenic cruise boat at 7:45 a.m. for Juneau. It was just short of a 4-hour cruise to Juneau, but with plenty to see along the way. We traveled the Lynn Canal to and from Juneau, a glacier created waterway with 5 to 7 thousand foot high mountains on either side. We saw many eagles, harbor seals, Stellar Sea Lions and humpback whales going and coming from Juneau. We arrived back at Skagway at 8:30 p.m.
Juneau is the capital of Alaska, only reachable by either airplane or boat. It is very much a tourist town, supported by the many cruise ships that stop there. People who cruise must buy jewelry, because every other shop was a jeweler.
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