Tuesday, May 19

At each port, we were able to chose from a variety of shore excursions, some offered by Princess and other by local tour companies. There was a range of activities to suit every interest: bus rides to historic sites, nature walks, kayaking, whale watching, helicopter rides....the only limit was the depth of your wallet! On Tuesday morning in Juneau, most of our group took a bus ride to tour a fish hatchery and see the official Visitor's Center for the Mendenhall Glacier. But I wanted to get closer to the wilderness, and took a guided hike instead. Out of the 2,600 passengers on our ship, only 16 chose to do the hike. We walked for about 3 hours, into the hills to a site from which we could look down on the glacier and its lake and back again.

Our trail crossed several rushing creeks	Clear water means the source is rain and melting snow, not a glacier	Mendenhall Lake flecked with glacial ice; visitor's center is at the far end
Me at the overlook above the glacier	Face of the glacier and waterfall across the lake	The ground was mostly slate; hard, black, shiny
Part of the trail; much was cut by the CCC in the 1930s	More "trail" - lucky I love scrambling up and down rocks!	Over 700 kinds of moss and ferns grow at lower elevations
Bridges are built of hardwood; bears chew on them to clean their teeth	View back toward the glacier from Mendenahll Lake beach	Results of glacial calving: "bergy bits"