Tuesday July 1st
2014
Juneau, AK
Arrived (mostly dark) at about 1:30 am in Juneau
(capital of Alaska). Our plan was to drive to Mendanhal glacier trail
haed and take a nap in the car. Few miles of driving in the dark
(always fun in new and strange place). We found it and there was no
sign for “no overnight parking or camping” - for some reason they
like to put those sign up. We “slept” till 5:00 am. It was
(obviously) uncomfortable and overall terrible (we may be getting old
for such adventures). We woke up, got it together a bit, and started
our walk (hike) to Mendanhal glacier. Really beautiful forest. Many
streams and waterfalls. Lake with pieces of ice and covered by fog.
Really amazing views. About 1.5 on really wide and nice trail. About
two miles of unmaintained trail to the side of the glacier. Rocks. Up
and downs. Creeks. Views. It was really incredible and very hard to
walk. A lot of climbing over rocks, holes, and other obstacles. Close
to the glaciers. TOUCH THE GLACIER. STAND ON THE GLACIER. It was
really incredible image. Bunch of pictures. Something to admire. Well
worth it. The trail was amazing and offered so many different things.
Lake. Long way back. No people on the glacier part of the trail. The
other part of the trail (easy one) leading also to some mountain gave
us so many people – many of them were guided hikes. It felt good to
be getting back at this time (9:30 back in the car). Tired. Short
drive to the glacier visitor center. Small area by the lake with many
trails and few buildings. Overcrowded. It looked like they put cruise
people on the buses and drive them to the visitor center. And back to
the ship. It was horrible. It may have been one of our worst
experiences. The visitor center had great views of the lake, glacier,
and waterfall but the amount of people was insane. The price of
civilization, I guess. Ten miles or so to drive to downtown Juneau.
Parked. Three giant cruise ships (horrible image). Small downtown.
Bunch of tourists. Few stores, J.'s favorite artist's store. Lunch at
Grumpy's (good one). Shorter drive to find two places to produce
pressed pennies (J.'s new thing). Nowhere to park, too many people,
and good view at giant cruise ships. Too bad. We also had directions
to few waterfalls but we were unable to find them. Quick stop by the
store (few things and gasoline for reasonable prices). The shrine of
Saint Therese (about 7 miles beyond the ferry terminal) – very
interesting and peaceful (short of summer camp kids) place. Jumping
fishes – that was pretty funny and entertaining. Almost next to
this was Arboretum – unfortunately closed. We parked by the road
and sorted our things and got ready for our ferry ride. It was pretty
good and interesting experience to see Alaska's capital. By the way,
we also drove by the capitol building – it is there.
