Outdoors with Don Q: A boat tour and a nature walk at Juneau

This is the second of my three-part series on our recent, 10-day, sightseeing and fishing Alaskan adventure at Juneau and Pelican.

We were joined on our trip in Juneau and Pelican by good friends Barry and Susan Drury of Watson Lake Yukon, plus new friends Denis Ryan also of Watson Lake and Kirk Jensen of Whitehorse Yukon. This would be our six person party for three days of salt water fishing at the tiny village of Pelican.

Elaine and I began our Alaska adventure by flying to Juneau on June 17, then we took the boat tour to the Tracy Arm Fjord on June 18, took the nature walk to nearby Mendenhall Glacier on June 19 and were finally joined by the other four in our group in Juneau on June 20.

Tracy Arm Fjord:
The all-day boat tour leaves daily at about 8:00 a.m. from a dock within easy walking distance of our hotel (Goldbelt Hotel), and it costs $143 per person.

The tour company is Adventure Bound, its boat is named "Captain Cook," its captain is Gary and the crew on that day consisted of Alissa and James. Captain Gary has been with the company for 11 years and lives in Montana during the off season, Alissa plows snow in the winter months and James is still going to school and enjoys playing soccer.

Elaine and I were first in line waiting to board the boat, and we were soon joined by two sisters from Minnesota, Sherry and Ryckie, who immediately struck up a friendly conversation with us. While we were waiting and talking, a float plane landed and taxied to a nearby pier, where a deck hand was waiting to moor the plane. We don't know what happened but all of a sudden there was a loud splash, we looked over and the deck hand had slipped and fallen into the frigid water. He was pulled from the water, soaking wet, shaken, but unharmed, by the pilot. Brrr!

When it was time to board the boat, Elaine asked the Captain if she and I plus Sherry and Ryckie could sit in the wheelhouse and the Captain said yes.

The four of us joined the Captain in the wheelhouse and the boat left the dock at 8:15a.m. in a light rain for the two-hour, 48 mile trip to a glacier.

At 10:00 a.m., we entered dense fog, the boat slowed down and as we crept forward in the fjord, we began to encounter ice floes, with Harp Seals resting on a number of the floes. We all got some great photos of the seals.
At noon, we arrived at Icy Waterfall, where the Captain slowly put the nose of the boat at the very edge of the large waterfall, so the passengers could take photos. Elaine and I, plus many others, sure did!
At 12:15 noon, we arrived at the front of the spectacular South Sawyer Glacier, which is one-half mile wide, 900 feet tall and is 30 miles long.

We took photos of the glacier, ice floes, Harp Seals and another tour boat that was even closer than us to the front of the glacier.

All of the passengers had lunch while enjoying the wintery scenery, and then after lunch, the boat began the trip back to Juneau with a short side trip to the North Sawyer Glacier, which is 1/4 mile wide and also 30 miles long.
Once the passengers where done taking photographs at that glacier, the boat began the return trip to Juneau in wind, white caps on the water and a steady rain, and we returned safe and sound at 5:00 p.m.
A fun-filled boat ride with lots of photos, memories and new friends.

Mendenhall Glacier:
The next morning we took the Glacier Express (the "blue bus") from downtown Juneau to the Mendenhall Glacier parking area for a walk on the U. S. Forest Service nature trail to the Nugget Falls.
The ride costs $20 per person roundtrip with buses leaving every 30 minutes.

This was also the day that we lucked out once again and had the two seats in front of the bus, from which we were able to get some great photos of the countryside, mountains, Bald Eagles and the glacier. According to Wikipedia, Mendenhall Glacier is a glacier about 12 miles long located in Mendenhall Valley, about 12 miles from downtown Juneau.

The glacier and surrounding landscape is protected as the 5,815-acre Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, a federally designated unit of the Tongass National Forest.

Originally known as Sitaantaagu ("the Glacier Behind the Town") or Aak'wtaaksit ("the Glacier Behind the Little Lake") by the Tlingits, the glacier was named Auke (Auk) Glacier by naturalist John Muir for the Tlingit Auk Kwaan (or Aak'w Kwaan) band in 1888.

In 1891 it was renamed in honor of Thomas Corwin Mendenhall. It extends from the Juneau Icefield, its source, to Mendenhall Lake and ultimately the Mendenhall River.
The glacier has retreated 1.75 miles since 1958, when Mendenhall Lake was created, and over 2.5 miles since 1500.

Once you are at the parking lot, it is an easy 45 minute roundtrip (0.8 miles one-way) walk to the bottom of Nugget Falls, but be advised that the trail and the sand bar at the bottom of the falls are both jammed with people. I can assure you that you won't be lonely on the walk or at the falls.

Finally:
There you have it: Two easy and fun-filled activities to enjoy on your visit to Juneau. You would be remiss if you did not do both of them.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon:
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you what we enjoyed the most on either the boat tour or the nature hike. If he grins and says, "Heck that is easy, it was the informative and friendly crew on the Captain Cook boat," he might have been on that same tour.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. Don's wife, Elaine, is the Outdoor photographer. They live in Carson City and can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.