Explore Juneau, Alaska! Mendenhall and beyond!
- Andrea Lule
- Oct 31, 2017
- 4 min read
Juneau is most famous for its gold prospecting back beginning in the 1800's. Which came to rest in 1917 after a cave-in of three of the major mines were destroyed. Back in the day, the mines produced over $70 million in gold before it was closed. Juneau is a cute little historical town named after Joseph Juneau, who originally took the trip to investigate the area back in the day. Like the other ports, as soon as you step off the ship you're into the expected quaint little jewelry shops and souvenir stores.
The port itself is beautiful.We did end up with slight drizzle throughout most of the day. Which was nice considering the excursion my boyfriend ended up choosing for us was a 3+ mile hike. We ended up doing the “Mendenhall Glacier Guide’s Choice hike” also provided FREE by the cruise. I didn't realize until the night before we pulled into port, it was the most advanced hiking level that could have been chosen. Thanks babe! ;) But with the age range of the people on the ship, I wasn't worried about trying to keep up with anyone. Which I came to find out was totally wrong. Haha
We spent most of the morning on the ship and wandering around the town. Poking through the little stores, there are tons of local goods and finds! Considering the location, prices in Alaska are decent. I would have expected everything to be a lot more expensive. If you really wanted to, you could jump in a cab or taxi in get to some more big box stores. But the little town has enough to see and do within walking distance of the port.
You can walk up and down the street and find people walking their dogs and poking through the local markets. We stopped in the famous Alaskan Fudge Company Store. We were able to see a worker making fresh fudge right in front of us!. So cool! Everyone in the town knows each other, and was so friendly and helpful when it came to needing any guidance or asking any questions about the cool things to do up in Juneau. And by the way, the chocolate we got at the Alaskan Fudge Company was the best I've ever had. I got milk chocolate with Rice Krispies inside, the boyfriend got dark chocolate with raisins and nuts I believe. Both were unbelievably delicious. And we'll be actually ordering some for the holidays for friends and family. Store info :
https://alaskanfudge.com/ --- Phone # 907-586-1478
Now to the excursion. The only downside I would say, and the BIGGEST issue is the time that this excursion started. We needed to be back on the ship at 6 p.m. and the excursion didn't start until after 1 p.m. It was over a 4 hour hike, so everyone in our group was worried about getting back to the ship in time. Which of course had everyone racing to get up this hiking trail just to get to the glacier. There was no time to stop and take pictures of the beautiful rainforest that we were walking through. The guide had mentioned walking up to the glacier, checking out the views, and then taking our time walking back to the cars. But unfortunately the people that we were with we're swift walker's,(they even had walking sticks!) and wanted to just get to the glacier and get back to the ship. My boyfriend and I are photographers, so it made it very difficult when we were trying to not fall behind, or keep up with the rest of our group. The rainforest itself was so unbelievably gorgeous. It’s hard to believe places like this still exist on this planet. Our guide was very friendly., She was well educated in geography, botany, and everything you may want to know about Alaska. Very educational and fun experience. This trip was NOT for the inexperienced hiker as it was a climb up slippery rocks and uneven terrain to reach a summit above the glacier. And so rushing through it was not ideal. Once we got up to the view point, you had a nice view of the glacier. If you had a little extra money, I would definitely suggest doing the helicopter tour down into it.. Just for the fact you can physically get to the glacier, and for the time constraint reasons. My boyfriend has also done the heli tour, and loved it.
The hike back of course was not much slower, and still didn't really have a lot of time to take pictures of anything. I believe if the tour would’ve started earlier in the day, it would’ve been more worthwhile for everyone. But fantastic scenery nonetheless. The company that provided the tour was Gastineau Guiding.. In case you didn't book through a cruise, Ill leave their information for you.. You can also find other tours they there a well.
Phone number is # +1 907-586-8231. -- http://www.stepintoalaska.com/
Of course by the time we got back to the ship we had less than an hour to get back on board. Luckily we were out early and spent all of our time before the excursion wandering through the town. The tour and hike were awesome, only downfall was the timing of it. There are lots of other cute little things you can go to in Juneau if not on a tour.. The state museum is there as well as the Historical Mining Museum and park. There's also a salmon hatchery and the famous Mount Roberts Tramway. I heard some people on the ship that did the Tramway, they said that the views were spectacular and definitely a recommendation as well. So much to do and see in this town, never enough time! Hope you enjoyed, and hope it gave you some insight on this beautiful, wet town. Cheers!
