Mendenhall Glacier

Juneau is considered to be in a temporate rainforest so it gets lots and lots and lots and lots of rain.  When we arrived, between the rain and low clouds you couldn't see the mountains or much of anything else.  Today has been quite the opposite - fabulous weather with lots of sunshine and blue skies.  We also realized that in addition to all of the eagles, we can see Mendenhall Glacier from our Airbnb.  Win - Win!

Nuggett Falls

Mendenhall Glacier is very accessible.  It's within the Tongass National Forest, and normally attracts busloads of cruise ship passengers.  However, the cruise ships have yet to return because of COVID, so we've been enjoying all of the sites with much smaller crowds.  The glacier was no exception.

As with all of the other glaciers we've seen, they have been dramatically receding due to global warming.  We hiked out to Nugget Falls, a dramatic waterfall that plunges into Mendenhall Lake which is fed by the glacier.  Twenty years ago, you could take a great picture that captured both the falls and the glacier.  Now, you only see the very tail end of the toe of the glacier from this vantage point and not much else.

The view from our Airbnb

Both are tremendous sites to behold; however, it's a shame that this glacier could all but disappear from view in my lifetime.