Back in 2015, my family and I first visited the Mendenhall Glacier just outside Juneau. And this past July, I returned for a second visit during an Alaska cruise
The Mendenhall Glacier is about 13 miles long, and it’s only about 12 miles from downtown Juneau. It’s one of the world’s most accessible glaciers, since you can take a car or tour bus to view it from a very nice visitors center run by the U.S. Forest Service.
Unfortunately, like many other glaciers around the world, Mendenhall is receding at a fast pace.
During a hike in the forest near the glacier, we saw a marker that showed where the glacier’s ice ended 100 years ago — and that was about a 15 minute walk from a spot just to see the glacier today.
Even in the decade since we last visited Mendenhall, we noticed the difference in how much less ice there was with it. Soon, a guide told us, it might not even reach the lake that you can see in front of it.
