Spent most of the Saturday cruising through the Glacier Bay Inside Passage. This was the last day that a cruise ship of our size will be allowed to sail in these waters until October 1st. Rangers from the 3.3 million acre Glacier Bay National Park boarded the ship and provided narration throughout the ship about the glaciers, wildlife and history of the area. The weather was quite gray and cloudy, but the scenery was still breathtaking – and, I got to see and hear a large tidewater glacier calving.
Today’s stop was in Juneau. Yesterday marked the arrival of the first cruise ship of the season, and today, ours was the second. I am told that during the high season it is not unusual for up to 5-6 ships to be in port on any given day, so lucky us, we had the parks and town to ourselves.
Juneau, the capital of Alaska, is nestled between Mount Juneau and Mount Roberts, and is only accessible by boat or plane. It rains or snows 300+ days a year, and today was no exception. Luckily, the only time it really poured I was inside the Mendenhall Glacier Park Visitor’s Center.
In spite of the weather, I visited a Rainforest Garden, took the Mount Roberts Tram up 1800 feet to take in the views of the city and valley, and walked around the town before deciding I was wet enough and headed back to the ship to dry out and get warm.
Crossing my fingers for the tomorrow’s weather – supposedly, Ketchikan is the rain capital of Alaska.
