Juneau

The National Weather Service predicted heavy rain all day today for Juneau, the result of an “atmospheric river” - we seriously considered skipping our tour to the Mendenhall Glacier.And it was raining steadily in the morning as we headed for Juneau.  

However, the rain let up as we approached, and by the time we docked, there were glimpses of sun through the overcast - and soon the overcast lifted.  Genuine mostly blue skies!

We walked around the cruise ship/tourist area (referred to as “downtown”) before boarding the bus for our tour.  Today’s was the complete opposite of yesterday’s - it was organized, on time, with an interesting guide and a very worthwhile destination.

Mendenhall Glacier is the most frequently visited glacier in Alaska - my guess is that this is because it’s so easily accessible from Juneau.  While it has receded significantly over the years, it’s still impressive.

Had we had more time, we would have walked out to the falls.

En route back to the ship we stopped at a scenic lookout to get another view of the mountains and glacier, but by then the rain had returned and low clouds obliterated the view.  No problem - we were very grateful for the good weather we’d had for most of the day.