Mendenhall Glacier
I decided to do Mendenhall Glacier on my own. Most of the glacier excursions I read about had people complaining that they didn’t have enough time in the Glacier Center or they didn’t have enough time to walk down to the waterfall. I even read about some who got left by their tour because they walked to the waterfall and didn’t get back in time.
I heard about the buses that run all day taking people to and from the glacier. I decided to buy one of those tickets so I can do Mendenhall at my own pace.
When I heard you by tickets for the glacier bus at a kiosk, I was thinking an electronic kiosk. I walked up to one these and the guy says “can I help you?” I say I’m looking for the bus kiosk. He says “I’m standing in it.” I say oh that kind of kiosk!
Apparently all of these are different companies selling their buses. I think I bought mine at the kiosk with the white glacier express sign.
About $50 is the cost. They told me to walk down to the meeting point by the tram.
Juneau Tours is my guy.
The Blue Bus is the one I had heard of. I’m pretty sure that’s the one you get if you book through the cruise line. I would hold out because that’s just an old school bus.
While I’m waiting on my bus to show up I’m going to grab a coffee across the street.
This bus is much more comfortable than that old blue school bus would’ve been.
This didn’t come out very good but there’s a bald eagle on the stump to the right.
The bus driver is dropping us off at the bear stop. He tells us when we’re ready to come back to look for this bus at the bear stop. The bus runs every 30 minutes.
The blue bus was right behind us so I would imagine the same instructions apply to to all of the glacier buses.
I didn’t see anyone purchasing passes but I have my Military pass in case I need it.
That’s the glacier center.
They have restrooms when you come in. Use them now if you’re going down to the waterfall. There aren’t any others until you get back here.
I went down off of the path. It looked like the best place to see the glacier but you’d do better to stay on the path here.
This is as close as you can get this way. I would recommend staying on the path even if everyone else is venturing down here.
If you do go off the path there you have to navigate these rocks to keep from getting wet.
If you stayed on the path you can go left at This fork and get the same view but elevated. I’m going to go left then come back and go right to the waterfall.
Up here is where you can get your glacier photo op.
Now I’m going to get back to the path and head to the water fall.
There are places to sit down, rest, and take in the view here.
I’m heading back to the fork.
I just passed the guy from Boston that I met at the alchemy the other day.
We’re back on the path to Nugget Falls.
About at the midpoint they have benches you can rest on.
This was a bit of a tease. You could hear that water running. I was thinking I was close to the real water fall but I’m not. It’s this small one.
Finally I can see the water fall! You can go two ways here. Left you can go down to the water fall. Right you get to a photo point. I’m going to go to the photo point then come back and go down to the water fall.
This is the photo point.
Now I’m going down to the waterfall.
They say it takes an hour to walk that round trip. I didn’t time walking down, but I know I got back in 16 minutes. That coffee hit me about half way down there and I had to get back to the bathrooms.
This is the glacier center. You can take steps.
Or an elevator.
It looks like they’re requiring masks in the glacier center. I had no idea and I didn’t bring one. It didn’t look like they were handing them out either. I just slipped in, took a few pictures, and slipped out.
I’m going to slip out this back door.
You can do an eastern trail here but it takes 2.5 hours. I don’t have that kind of time.
I have 7 minutes until the next shuttle if I can make it. Otherwise I’m here another 30 minutes. I’m going to go for it.
I made it back to the Bear Stop in time.
I made it with two minutes to spare. I got on the bus exactly 90 minutes after I got off of it.
The driver made a stop by Red Dog Saloon which is closer to the ship. And the saloon. 
Then people who wanted to go down to the tram could stay on. I went for the saloon. 
I was happy doing Mendenhall glacier at my own pace. I was there 90 minutes which I’m sure is longer than the combo tours that included the glacier center stop. I believe the reviews said they had 30-45 minutes at the glacier center. That’s not enough time to see everything. And I didn’t spend much time in the glacier center itself since I didn’t have a mask. You could easily spend 2 hours there if you do the glacier center and walk down to the falls. If you want to see Mendenhall Glacier and not be short changed when it comes to time, I think the glacier buses are a good option.
