Getting Off the Island

Sunday Mighty Girl and I took Flossy to Friend C’s and boarded the Alaska State Ferry bound for Juneau, pathetically the New York City of Southeast Alaska.

After shopping and a great visit to the Alaska State Museum, we caught a real lucky break in the torrential rain just in time to have a look at the Mendenhall Glacier – one of the main attractions of Juneau.  

Mendenhall Glacier

We hiked around taking pictures with the rest of the tourists.  These pictures are taken from a vantage point approximately 1 ½ miles from the glacier.  

Heavy rains over the past two weeks have flooded creeks and streams. The waterfall to the right was roaring.

 Mendenhall Lake was full of big slabs of floating ice, calved off of the glacier.

The weather held while we made a little hike on the East Glacier ‘Trail of Time’.  This marker indicates the position of the glacier face in 1916.  It is at least 4 miles away from the present day face of the ice.

We heard the sound of rushing water ahead and soon came upon a breathtaking waterfall.  

Moving on up the trail, we heard a louder water voice – and this crashing creek to cross over on a foot bridge.

A rock spirit revealed himself around a turning in the trail.

The next day, we got back aboard the ferry for the long trip home.  

No end of beauty to see as we glided through the Alexander Archipelago toward Peril Straits.  

 

The commercial salmon fishing season is still going and we passed by lots of boats like this purse seiner.

The entrance to Rodham Bay appeared, moody in its shroud of cloud and mists.

At Sitka we had a three hour layup, and got off the boat for a hike around the Starrgavin trail system, built and maintained by the US Forest Service.

Part of the trail skirts the edge of a beautiful estuary.  

 

 

A bird observatory has been beautifully constructed of local red and yellow cedar by the Forest Service. 

Coming back toward the ferry, we walked along the beach a bit...

...and found a local edible plant called goose tongue, the grass-like plant on the left in this picture.  Its flavor adds a salty tang to salads.  It's good to be home - I will be getting caught up on lots of things, including visiting your wonderful blogs.