On our recent Alaska trip along the so-called Inside Passage, our part 2 images are from the departure from Ketchikan; we headed north in the evening to Juneau along the Stephan’s Passage. In Juneau, we took a helicopter ride up to the Mendenhall glacier.
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- Along our route we met other cruise ships, sometimes passing them and sometimes being passed.
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- Heading north from Ketichikan on Stephan’s Passage, we had a beautiful late afternoon trip
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- Most of our trip on Stephan’s Passage was overnight. At dawn, this is 4:45am local time, we could look south over Admiralty Island at the moon and sunrise on the range.
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- Along Stephan’s Passage
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- While not very common, the shore line sometimes had un-nature-like stories awaiting to be told.
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- Nearing port around 8am at Juneau, the moon remained visible over the hills south of the town.
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- Our shore-side excursion in Juneau was a helicopter ride up to Mendenhall Glacier. Leaving Juneau airport/heliport, we were a party of 4 choppers.
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- The front of the Mendenhall glacier with the glacial lake below
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- Images of the glacier from the helicopter
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- After swinging wide around the glacier valley, here is a view of the glacier lake from above the glacier
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- Landing on the glacier
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- After breathtaking views from the air, landing on the glacier provided more spectacular views
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- The tour guides encouraged us to get up to the crevices and check them out
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- The glacier was more than just snow and ice; there was lots of rock debris and powdery material.
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- As mentioned elsewhere, eagles were a typical site everywhere
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- Besides eagles, seaplanes are also everywhere in Alaska