Although other excursions were canceled ahead of time or we canceled once we got onboard, this was the place where we really hoped that didn’t happen. We loved the dogsled on the glacier so much during the last cruise that we decided to go back onto a glacier for an ice trek. This time it was to the famous Mendenhall Glacier just outside Juneau. The excursion was great and we spent just a little bit of time in town before we got back on the Encore and sailed off out Endicott Arm. On the last cruise, the fjord cruise was very memorable and we had a great view of a glacier as we saw some ice calve. This time we didn’t get as close as last, but it was still a nice sail and a decent view of Dawes Glacier.

Juneau/Endicott Arm Dawes Glacier

08/27/21—09/04/21

We came into Juneau fairly early in the morning and got off when it was time for the tour. We took a van to the airport and got onboard our helicopter. Taking off, we immediately saw the beautiful landscape outside of Juneau. We saw waterfalls, valleys, deep snow, and lots of glaciers. We learned about crevasses and moraines. We took lots of photos and found some of them to be breathtaking. Finally we saw an orange tent on top of Mendenhall.

When our helicopter landed, we got off and slid over towards the tent, where we put on our crampons and got our poles. We began hiking the glacier, checking out some crystal clear water.

We moved along and the guides helped Madeline walk and even cross a crevasse. The 900’ deep ice was a beautiful blue down inside. It was gorgeous weather and the air was fresh, but it was time to get back on the helicopter and take off.

On our way down off of Mendenhall, we passed near Nugget Falls, which emptied into Mendenhall Lake. We saw people in both places on their excursions. We then neard Auke Lake and Statter Harbor before returning to the earth. Our van dropped us off in the capitol of about 32,000 people.

We left the pier and began to head up Endicott Arm on our way to Dawes Glacier. We saw another orca and some waterfalls and icebergs. We eventually got as close as we were going to get to Dawes. We went down to dinner and said goodbye to it.