Day 5 - Tracy Arm Fjord and Juneau

Day 5 again started off early, as the ship was heading into the Fjord bright and early, and we didn’t want to miss anything. This was one of the days that getting the balcony cabin was completely worth it. We went upstairs for breakfast and hung out on the upper decks to listen to the Naturalist share his expertise on the Fjord. But whenever we got chilly, or just wanted to sneak away from the crowds, we were able to go back to our room, and watch the scenery from the room or balcony, bundled up in blankets. This was a great day for the binoculars. We tried to see some wildlife on the nearby land, but didn’t catch much. Once we got closer to the glacier, we saw plenty of seals resting on the icebergs, and eagles flying around. There were a few icebergs that looked a little dirty and we wondered why. Just ask and you’ll receive an answer! We saw a few eagles chowing down on breakfast on one of the icebergs. Apparently the “dirt” was leftover fish from Eagle meals. Lovely.



After a few hours, we approached the Sawyer Glacier, and apparently got closer than our ship had ever gotten before. We were about a half mile away from the glacier itself. The ship did a nifty little spin around thing - like a U-turn in water, kind of amazing - and we were on our way back out. The view of the glacier and the entire route in and out were perfect - exactly what you want out of an Alaskan cruise.



Once out of the Fjord, we continued our journey to Juneau. We had lunch on the ship, and arrived in Juneau around 2pm. Our schedule wasn’t as strict as in Ketchikan, but there were still a few things we wanted to do, so again, we were one of the first people off the ship. We took “the blue bus” out to Mendenhall Glacier. It was our first encounter with the local alaskan people. Our bus driver narrated as we rode out to the glacier. He pointed out all kinds of things, like the local library, and the McDonalds.

Arriving at Mendenhall, we checked in at the visitor center to get more information on the hiking trails. Unfortunately, the trails were either very short, or expected to be 3 hours long, which was more than we could allow. Of course, we always end up realizing (a little too late), that the estimates were off, and we could have done the longer trail with plenty of time to spare. But this is one trip where I didn’t want to be late for anything. I’d rather miss out on a cool trail than miss the boat and be stuck in Juneau! So we just moseyed around the glacier, took some pictures at the beach, and enjoyed the scenery. This was probably one of the most beautiful spots that we’ve been. It was amazing to stand in the sand, and spin around 360 degrees, with beautiful scenery everywhere. A huge glacier in front of you, a lake beside you, and mountains behind you in the distance. We walked out to the waterfall, took some more pictures, and then headed back to the visitor center.




We arrived back into downtown Juneau in the early evening, and immediately took the Mount Roberts Tramway up 1800 feet into the mountain. Again, we asked the experts for advice on the trail system, and they recommended a trail that would take about an hour. We hiked up to Father Browns Cross, as directed by the experts at the visitor center. On our way up, I touched snow for the first time in Alaska (can you believe I had snorkeled but not even made a snowball??), and we saw some hang-gliders flying off the mountain. I could have watched them for hours, it looked so fun. It was such great hiking, we couldn’t pass it up. We still had plenty of time once we got to the cross, so we continued up the trail a little farther. The Juneau trail was a lot more open than the wooded Deer Mountain Trail in Ketchikan. There were plenty of spots to stop and just enjoy the scenery. Once we were done with this trail system, we headed back down, checked out the visitor center and a few crappy shops, and then returned to the boat for the night.