A Morning Hike To The Glacier

Early Saturday morning, Quinn and I made our way out to one of my favorite places in all of Juneau: Mendenhall Lake. We met up with my mother, Teresa, and my youngest sister Valerie. 

We had all met together for our first hike of the year, and a good several months before we had expected to be able to! Because this year has so lacked in the snow department, this particular trail (called the West Glacier trail) was mostly snow free. 

The day dawned foggy, but by the time we set off it had burned off. Sun peaked out of a few holes in the overcast sky as we started our hike. 

Valerie had known about the hike since the week before, but my mother had only just found out and been invited the day before. This caused a bit of a communication error...Mom thought we were only going part way up the mountain, a bit more then a mile, with hardly any elevation gain. 




Oops! Sorry Mom! 
We were planning on going on the un-maintained trail to the actual face of the glacier...is that okay?

My Mom always being one for adventure, of course she agreed to come along (As long as we didn't go into any ice caves. We agreed!). 

The first part of the trail (the maintained part) was easy and relatively flat. Once we got off the beaten path and on the un-maintained trail though, it was much more exciting!

Here, Valerie is walking along a dam made by a beaver in a small lake. In the next picture you can just see the beavers home (that big pile of alder and willow branches partly in the frozen water). 

We weren't even to the glacier yet, and already we were seeing beautiful views of Juneau! Here, Thunder Mountain looms over the scraggly alders that are waiting for their spring leaves. 

Valerie made everyone laugh as we came over a certain bluff of rock as she exclaimed, "If you squint your eyes a bit, you can pretend we're actually in New Zealand!"

You see this big mountain of rock? We had to climb over it. My Mother was not too excited. Especially when on closer inspection it was found that most of the rock was very wet and slippery with ice. 

We weren't ready to give up though, so we found a safe dry spot and made the climb!

The view from the top was breathtaking, but a little bit more hiking across glacier-smoothed rock showed us an even greater view...

That of the fast-disappearing Mendenhall Glacier:

It was easy to stare in awe at the massiveness of the glacier, when we only ever see it from two miles away on shore.

Valerie, being a young teen girl, wasn't as captivated as the rest of us, and quickly found a big rock to demonstrate her mighty strength on.

A bit more hiking down the smooth rock and we were at the face. It was 

time for a break! Lunches were unpacked, and Quinn took out his quadcopter to do some flying. 

Valerie stands on the beach next to the frozen lake and glacier.

Looking back, it was easy to see we had come quite far. 

If you'd like to see and experience what we did, please click below and watch a video Quinn made about our adventure. Only then can you really understand how massive the Mendenhall glacier really is.

On the way back home, Valerie sang about how much she would rather be somewhere warm (specifically, Australia), but we agree that we love living here in Juneau.  

As we left the wind-swept rocks and headed back down into the trees, we stopped and made a cairn, a trail marker made of stacked rocks to show we had completed 

our hike!

It's sad to think that our neighboring glacier is so

quickly vanishing from our view, 

but I know I will always treasure the memories 

I've made hiking out to it, and admiring it from afar. 

A rock cairn silently stands, looking out over the Valley of Juneau. 

All in all, the hike took us four and half hours, 

with a total of just over eight miles hiked. 

A morning well spent, in our books.