Juneau

Thursday June 7. Today we arrive in the capital of Alaska Juneau for some wonderful off ship excursions. Juneau was a part of the gold rush in the late 1800’s. It is rather unusual among U.S. capitals in that there are no roads connecting the city to the rest of Alaska or to the rest of North America. The absence of a road network is due to the extremely rugged terrain surrounding the city so everything has to come in and out by plane or boat. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging 16 feet, below steep mountains of about 3,500 feet to 4,000 feet.

We travel to the Mendenhall Glacier to see the effects of the last Ice Age on this picturesque valley. We have a guided walk along a gentle forested trail, take in splendid vistas and many visual opportunities, including wildflowers and cascading waterfalls. Then we see breathtaking glacier panoramas and floating icebergs surrounded by snow capped peaks. We get some very helpful photography ideas.

We take a short ride to the harbor to explore the channels and islets of the beautiful Stephen's Passage. We board a boat with large panel windows that offer unrestricted views.These are the only crafts of their kind in Southeast Alaska, custom built specifically for marine wildlife photography. We go whale a sea lion watching with great success and wonderful weather.



Later in the afternoon we return to the ship to sort through our photos from a very enjoyable journey guided by the very interesting guide, Jim who is also a storyteller and various other skills like history and poetry.