Cruise Port Juneau, Alaska - Mendenhall Glacier Excursion

Рет қаралды 853

Ай бұрын

Alaska’s state capital is also one of its most beautiful cities and one of the most visited communities in the state. With so much to see and do, there’s certain to be something for you in Juneau.
Most summer visitors reach Juneau via cruise ship - indeed, it is one of the most popular ports of call in Alaska. However, Juneau is also served multiple times a day year-round by Alaska Airlines, and can be reached by the state’s ferry system, the Alaska Marine Highway, in both summer and winter.
Downtown Juneau sits snugly between Mount Juneau, Mount Roberts, and Gastineau Channel, and is a maze of narrow streets running past a mix of new structures, old storefronts, and quaint houses featuring early 19th-century architecture from the town’s gold-mining days. The waterfront bustles with cruise ships, fishing boats, and floatplanes zipping in and out. With no road access to Juneau, it is the only state capital in the United States that can only be reached by airplane or boat.
HISTORY OF JUNEAU
One of the reasons Juneau has so much character is that it’s one of Alaska’s oldest cities. Established before the big Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, Juneau also has gold in its past. In 1880, a local Tlingit Indian chief led prospectors Joe Juneau and Richard Harris to what later became known as Gold Creek, where the two men discovered nuggets just lying on the ground. Soon after, a town site was established, making Juneau the first city founded after the purchase of Alaska by the United States from Russia. The area later became home to what was at the time the largest hard-rock gold mine in the world - the Treadwell Mine. Juneau became Alaska’s territorial capital in 1906, and, after statehood in 1959, its state capital.
Experience the splendor of Mendenhall Glacier at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. Here, you can enjoy views of the thirteen-mile-long river of ice, which terminates on the far side of Mendenhall Lake, and watch blue icebergs floating in the water amidst reflections of southeast Alaska’s coast mountains. The Mendenhall Glacier is one of many major glaciers that connect to the vast Juneau Ice Field, a 1,500 square mile remnant of the last ice age, cradled high in the coast mountain’s lofty peaks.
The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is accessible from the parking lots by stairs, elevators, and an easy ramp. U.S. Forest Service Rangers staff the center and are available to answer questions and interpret the landscape around you. The story of Mendenhall centers on a changing climate and retreating glacier but includes the return of a forest and wildlife. State-of-the-art exhibits, a 15-minute film featuring the dynamic interplay between the Tongass National Forest and its many glaciers, and the Discovery Southeast bookstore will enrich your Visitor Center experience.
Several trails of varying distance and challenge bring you close to cascading waterfalls or salmon streams. Be prepared to meet wildlife, including black bears, porcupines, beavers, bald eagles, and seasonally returning arctic terns, waterfowl, and sockeye and Coho salmon. Stroll through a moist rainforest laden with moss or meander along the shore of Mendenhall Lake to Nugget Falls, counting icebergs as you go. Explore the ever-evolving landscape of the Mendenhall Glacier and experience the changes brought about by decades of glacial activity and the annual turning of the seasons.