Our Alaska Trip: Day 10

Downtown Juneau, the capitol of Alaska.

I got this view of the Juneau ice fields from the highway.

This is skunk cabbage. Bears eat it when they come out of hibernation.

Bears sometimes wander into the towns, even in metropolitan areas. Rangers remove the bear, tag it and set it free up in the mountains. If a bear is caught 3 times it is considered a danger to man and is "stopped" permanently.

We went on a whale watching excursion and had a great time. The naturalist told us we saw more whales than they usually do. I quit counting at 8. They were all humpback whales.

When you're looking for wales you try to spot the water spout from the blow hole. That's the small white fog in this picture

When whales get ready to dive, they arch their backs and flip up their tales. This is the most we ever actually saw of one.

The naturalist told us the markings on a whales fluke are as distinctive as fingerprints. There is a website you can check against pictures you have of whale flukes and identify the whale you saw. The knobby things on the outside points are barnacles.

Here's a distant view of the Mendenhall Glacier.

More awesome scenery...and bald eagles.

Another view of the ice fields. What looks like tire tracks is actually margin lines where two glaciers have merged together.

In one spot along the shoreline sea lions were sunning themselves. From the distance they looked like sausages piled up.

Look at the big guy in the middle of the picture.

The white dots in the middle of the picture are bald eagles sitting in the trees. I didn't enlarge this picture to give a sense of size.

This lighthouse is no longer in use and is being converted to a bed and breakfast.

Sadly this picture is a bit blurry. It is a harbor buoy with an eagle sitting on top and 2-3 sea lions lounging at the base.

Our next stop was the Mendenhall Glacier. This is located just outside Juneau. Imagine having a glacier in your back yard!

This waterfall was next to the glacier. The tiny specks at the base are people.

Rangers retrieve chunks of glacial ice from the river at Mendenhall and display it.

It reminded me of a cracked marble--you see the cracks inside but the exterior is unbroken.

It was so awesome to touch a chunk of ice that was snow 200+ years ago.

I also got to touch glacial silt. it was gray and had the consistency of flour. It reminded me of the dust that sifts out when you empty the vacuum cleaner bag.