Mom, her friend Joy, and I headed to the Seattle airport on Saturday, May 10th for a quick flight up to Juneau, Alaska. Most of our fellow passengers seemed to also be on our cruise boat as some already were wearing their Lindblad/National Geographic hats and name badges. After arriving at one of Juneau's three airport gates (I love tiny airports) and dropping our bags off with the Lindbald folks, we boarded buses for a tour of Juneau and the Mendenhall Glacier.Things about Alaska's capitol city that I did not know. The city of Juneau is almost as large at Delaware and Rhode Island combined with only a population of roughly 31,000 folks. Thats a lot of extra land. Juneau is the second largest municipality in the US, coming second only to the nearby Sitka, Alaska. Juneau was named for a gold prospector, Joe Juneau, after names like Harrisburg and Rockwell were deemed to boring for city names. Juneau has only about 40 miles of paved road and can only be reached via ferry or airplane.
We headed out of Juneau to our first Glacier... the Mendenhall Glacier. We only had a short time to visit, so I took a quick walk on the beach and up to a viewpoint. The Glacier is quite large, but has been steadily retreating since the early 1900s and rapidly retreating since the last decade.
It was back on the bus and into downtown Juneau where we visited the Alaska Museum. It was nice to learn a bit about the history of Juneau and the area, but I really wish we had spent more time at Mendenhall Glacier and less time at the
Museum.The ship was docked nearby and we got in line to check in. With only 56 passengers on such a small cruise ship, check in was quick and easy and soon enough, we were all on board and unpacking clothes in our cabins. Since there were three of us, I ended up with the single cabin on the main deck all the way up near the bow. This turned out to be a great cabin with only one minor flaw (will get to that later). We all meet in the lounge for a meet and greet with the boat's officers, staff, and our expedition team and then it was into the
dinning room for dinner. We didn't depart Juneau until late in the evening as most of us were getting ready for bed.In the morning, I woke up and looked outside my window to see huge chunks of ice floating by. We were heading into the Endicott Fiord towards Dawes Glacier. The weather was very moody as mother nature had thrown a thick gray blanket down low into the fiord. As we sailed on futher, the ice chunks got larger and more in number and ranges in color from transparent like the ice cubes in your water glass to this amazing blue color. We passed lots of small waterfalls trickling down the steep cliffs of the fiord and finally, we came
around a bend in the fiord and there nestled under a thick low hanging cloud, was Dawes Glacier. It looked tiny from so far back but soon enough we would get a lot closer and realize how massive this Glacier was.Another great thing about being on a Lindbald ship.... Zodiacs! The ship carries a small fleet of zodiacs which after anchoring, they put into the water. Donned in our parkas and wellingtons, we climbed aboard and headed closer to the glacier. The weather was lifting and the views of the glacier from a mere quarter mile distance became amazing. Dawes Glacier is apparently 200 feet high at its face and roughly 2 miles wide and it has this amazing blue color to it.
Zodiac-ing through the burgy bits and hearing the cracks and groans of the glacier as it moved and calved was an amazing experience. We would hear this loud crack and thunder and turn and notice a small section of the glacier had calved into the water. Often times, we would hear the cracks and pops of the glacier, but we would not see any calving; the insides of the glacier was moving as well as it inched forward in its travels from the faraway ice fields in Canada. We saw the white specks of mountain goats high up on the cliffs and wondered how on earth did they get up there and how do they move about without falling. We also saw tons of bird flying about and resting on bits of iceburgs in the water.
We got back on board and sailed out of the fiord. Next stop was a small little bay nearby where we were able to anchor. We again donned our parkas and mud boats and the zodiac took us to shore where we could either hike or kayak. I elected to kayak around the bay and headed over to a pretty waterfall cascading into the bay. I then kayaked along the shoreline enjoying the beautiful rock formations and plants. It was nice to get off the boat and find ones own quiet piece of Alaska to enjoy for an hour or so. I could have kayaked out there forever.Soon enough, we were back on board, meeting new friends while enjoying a hearty dinner. Soon after dinner we headed to bed exhausted from a great first day in Alaska.
More photos:
Flying to Alaska, Mendenhall Glacier, & Juneau.
Dawes Glacier
Kayaking around Williams Sound
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