Exploring Mendenhall Glacier - Alaska's Icy Giant!

Welcome back to Harris Family Adventures. Today we are going to cover our first and only excursion on this trip which is the Mendenhall Glacier, Salmon Hatchery and Salmon Bake. In this video we will cover the Mendenhall Glacier portion of this excursion. We found our waiting spot. Gonna wait underneath the dome. Check in with the people over here right when you get off. They'll tell you where to meet at and you just watch for your bus. They'll have your sign in there with your excursion. 79% of all statistics are made up on the spot. When the bus arrives make sure your party stays together. When we got on the bus the bus was full and we only had a seats for a few members of our party and unfortunately some of our party had to ride another bus which separated us in different phases of the excursion. Thank you. Before you get on the bus they will give you a card to use that will be your ticket to get onto the next bus. They do not take your name. They give you this card and that's all you have to get on the next part of your excursion. The Mendenhall Glacier is located 12 miles from Juneau, Alaska. It stretches 13.6 miles long and is part of the Tungus National Forest. This is one of the most accessible glaciers in North America fed by the Juneau Iceland which contains over 30 glaciers. They said that this glacier has receded 1.75 miles since 1950. You will enjoy the beautiful scenic drive through downtown Juneau. Along the route the driver will point out various points of interest. A lot of your time is spent in the Mendenhall Valley and the glacier used to actually extend all the way out here a long long time ago. But of course as it's receded it's carved out this wonderful valley that we now call Juneau. Oh wow there it is. I think once this cloud moves out of the way and the sun hits it you'll really be able to see that blue. Before you get off the bus your driver will tell you how much time you have available at this stop and will give you suggestions on which trails to take. On this excursion we chose to take the Nugget Falls trail which is a 45 minute walk. That's pretty. Oh that's beautiful isn't it? Wow. Here's the visitor center. Nugget Falls that's where we're heading. Oh that's true we're going up the hill. You could get a good Christmas tree out here. I can see Jonathan Imley doing this in Colorado. It's a nice little walking trail. Yeah spider. I hear water. Getting closer. We went a half a mile. I dress too warm. Definitely wear layers. Wow look how pretty that is. We'll go over there. You can come closer. That is cold water. Come up here Dan. Feel it. You need to feel it. The glacier used to cover this whole thing. I think it's pretty. I think it's worth it. Mendenhall Glacier. Right up there in the corner on the left side. Heather and Tyler. We'll get right up to There you go. See there is Nuggets in this fall. See that? Right on the base of the fall. One last look and we gotta go. Beautiful. Wish we could get up to that glacier but they won't let us. We need to hurry up back. We got 25 minutes to get back to our bus. It's a mile hike. We got this. Looking for the Smurfs to pop out. It's a Here's the hills Tyler. We almost made it. Almost there. There's the visitor center. Some additional bathrooms over here. No bathrooms along the trail. That's your best view of the glacier right there. Not from the falls but it even looks They give you a card and you have to return this card back to them after you leave the glacier. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe and help us meet our 2,500 subscriber goal by the end of this year.