Robert, Monday, June 23
We went to see the Mendenhall Glacier today, As I suspected it is only about 2 miles from where we are camping. There is a visitor’s center located on a high point about a half of a mile from the face of the glacier. As the glacier sits on the edge of Mendenhall Lake you can’t get very close to it, Our campground is at the other end of Mendenhall Lake. There is a trail that leads to a large waterfall on one side but we didn’t hike that as we had other things we wanted to do–maybe we’ll go back for that as it leads right to the foot of the falls. One of the other things I wanted to do was to buy some shirts. The shirts I was looking for look like normal, long sleeve shirts except they are made of synthetic material that dries out very quickly. You would think that around a place where it rains so much that shirts like this would be available almost anywhere. I have seen them at outfitters as they are useful when camping. I had no luck. We went to the Visitor’s Center for the Wifi hot spot. As it is across the street from the office for the glacier tour, it was also a handy place to park to go get the boarding pass for tomorrow’s trip. We then walked around downtown a bit. There were four, very large cruise ships at the dock and the streets were packed with people. Not to say downtown was much more than jewelry stores, T-shirt shops, and tacky gift stores. Many of the stores had signs in the windows that said something like, “Owned and operated by local Alaskans.” The cruise ships have people onboard who advise those on the cruise where to get the “best shopping deals” in town. The places with the “best shopping deals” just happen to be owned by the cruise ship company. I saw little in the downtown area that would entice me back. We had to head back to the trailer as we had supper cooking in a crock pot and we needed to get back before it cooked into mush.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Mendenhall Glacier & Downtown Juneau
Leslie Monday, June 23, 2008
We are fortunate that Robert has a Golden Age Pass for access into federal fee facilities. The Golden Age Pass is a lifetime pass available to US citizens over age 62. (It has a new name now, but provides the same benefits.) It costs only $10.00. The Golden Age Pass grants the holder half price camping at federal camping sites and admission for both of us to federal fee sites. We feel fortunate to have the Golden Age Pass because it removes any hesitancy that we might have in going to federal museums and visitor’s centers. Unfortunately after years of little funding, the National Park Service and the National Forest Service have been forced to charge admission to parks and visitor’s centers that historically were free. We’ve discussed how we might not visit all the sites, if we had to pay several admissions a day.
Our campsite is located very close to the Mendenhall glacier.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656124_gcm3i-M.jpg
Today we went to the US Park Service visitor’s center for the glacier. In the visitor’s center they had several high powered telescopes focused on mountain sheep climbing high above the glacier field.
Later we went downtown to check out the tourist strip. It looks like any tourist strip at any cruise ship doc anyplace we’ve ever been. For some reason (unknown to me) the Red Dog Saloon is supposed to be famous. One of my guide books said that it is the only bar with a gift shop larger than the serving area (and that cruise ship passengers really are lemmings who listen to the "shopping specialists" on board). We didn’t visit Red Dog but did stop in the old Alaskan Hotel and Bar (a dive) where locals were watching a baseball game on the TV.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656023_4mRHf-M.jpg
Quite a number of shops had signs in the window announcing that the store is locally owned. Over the years the cruise ship companies, Princess, Holland America, etc., have established shops in the towns where the ships stop. Usually the shops are not identified as being owned by the cruise ship company but the shopping specialists on board encourage passengers to buy at the company store. This hurts the local economy, especially the small businesses. In an effort to encourage visitors to buy Alaskan made products rather than knock-offs made in China, the small businesses post these signs.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656053_kQpRP-M.jpg
Alaskan are famous for taking advantage of the many hours of sunlight. Look at this sign advertising a race at midnight.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656327_3Pcow-M.jpg
In response to the comment, did we expect all this rain? Yes. The southeast coast of Alaska gets a lot of rain. It’s a temperate rain forest. We’re actually here during the dry season! The reason we planned to travel up the southeast coast at the beginning of summer and return via the Alaska Highway at the end of summer is that it rains twice as much in the southeast in September as it does in June. Natives don’t use umbrellas. They wear layers of clothing (no cotton, cotton kills when wet) topped with Gore-tex and rubber boots. Normal waterproof hiking boots won’t keep your feet dry because the trails are so boggy and muddy. Occasionally we’ve worn our LL Bean rubber-bottomed boots. They have kept us dry thus far but we’ve been told that they really aren’t high enough. From prior trips we learned to bring gloves and a fleece stocking hat. I really appreciate the thin gloves because I can work the camera controls while wearing the gloves. I’ve also read that thin gloves are useful in mosquito areas.
I overheard a funny conversation the other day. Two locals were talking about how funny it is that you can always remember the last sunny day.
We are fortunate that Robert has a Golden Age Pass for access into federal fee facilities. The Golden Age Pass is a lifetime pass available to US citizens over age 62. (It has a new name now, but provides the same benefits.) It costs only $10.00. The Golden Age Pass grants the holder half price camping at federal camping sites and admission for both of us to federal fee sites. We feel fortunate to have the Golden Age Pass because it removes any hesitancy that we might have in going to federal museums and visitor’s centers. Unfortunately after years of little funding, the National Park Service and the National Forest Service have been forced to charge admission to parks and visitor’s centers that historically were free. We’ve discussed how we might not visit all the sites, if we had to pay several admissions a day.
Our campsite is located very close to the Mendenhall glacier.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656124_gcm3i-M.jpg
Today we went to the US Park Service visitor’s center for the glacier. In the visitor’s center they had several high powered telescopes focused on mountain sheep climbing high above the glacier field.
Later we went downtown to check out the tourist strip. It looks like any tourist strip at any cruise ship doc anyplace we’ve ever been. For some reason (unknown to me) the Red Dog Saloon is supposed to be famous. One of my guide books said that it is the only bar with a gift shop larger than the serving area (and that cruise ship passengers really are lemmings who listen to the "shopping specialists" on board). We didn’t visit Red Dog but did stop in the old Alaskan Hotel and Bar (a dive) where locals were watching a baseball game on the TV.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656023_4mRHf-M.jpg
Quite a number of shops had signs in the window announcing that the store is locally owned. Over the years the cruise ship companies, Princess, Holland America, etc., have established shops in the towns where the ships stop. Usually the shops are not identified as being owned by the cruise ship company but the shopping specialists on board encourage passengers to buy at the company store. This hurts the local economy, especially the small businesses. In an effort to encourage visitors to buy Alaskan made products rather than knock-offs made in China, the small businesses post these signs.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656053_kQpRP-M.jpg
Alaskan are famous for taking advantage of the many hours of sunlight. Look at this sign advertising a race at midnight.
http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/320656327_3Pcow-M.jpg
In response to the comment, did we expect all this rain? Yes. The southeast coast of Alaska gets a lot of rain. It’s a temperate rain forest. We’re actually here during the dry season! The reason we planned to travel up the southeast coast at the beginning of summer and return via the Alaska Highway at the end of summer is that it rains twice as much in the southeast in September as it does in June. Natives don’t use umbrellas. They wear layers of clothing (no cotton, cotton kills when wet) topped with Gore-tex and rubber boots. Normal waterproof hiking boots won’t keep your feet dry because the trails are so boggy and muddy. Occasionally we’ve worn our LL Bean rubber-bottomed boots. They have kept us dry thus far but we’ve been told that they really aren’t high enough. From prior trips we learned to bring gloves and a fleece stocking hat. I really appreciate the thin gloves because I can work the camera controls while wearing the gloves. I’ve also read that thin gloves are useful in mosquito areas.
I overheard a funny conversation the other day. Two locals were talking about how funny it is that you can always remember the last sunny day.
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