Working in Juneau

As a Back Office Operations trainer for Alaska Home Depots, I had the opportunity to work most of the summer helping setup and open the 7th Alaska store in the BEAUTIFUL capital in Juneau.

Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier is an awe-inspiring mammoth glacier. For perspective: see the people near the bottom right? They are still a half an hour hike from the glacier cliff.
These are ice "teeth". This is a closeup of the glacier's bottom left water's edge. The dark blue "tooth" just "calved" the sliver of ice floating in the water. The oxygenation of the ice causes the darker color.










The waterfall on the right is a local favorite spot to sometimes catch a glimpse of "ROMEO" the big black wolf who is known to play with dogs running off leashes.

Again to get a perspective on the size and volume of this waterfall, see the tiny spots of people on the beach in front of it?

Mendenhall Ice

Not your average ice cube
Not a seal

And these are not penguins. They are terns.

More scenes of Mendenhall

There are several helicopter flightseeing companies in Juneau. All will take you over several area glaciers. A couple of them actually will land on top of Mendenhall. There is a sleddog training camp on top that tourists can ride in a sled pulled by racing dogs.

God's Awesome Beauty

Captain Larry's Whale Watching Adventure

Captain Larry's vessel is "Orca Odysea". Orcas are his passion,that he loves to share.

Seeing a pod of Orca whales made my heart pound and gave me goose bumps. Seeing them is a rare treat. This was my 1st time actually seeing whales even though I have been on 5 or 6 boat tours.

Stellar Sea Lions takin' a break on a buoy.

Tourists and Cruise Ships

Juneau harbor can dock up to 7 GIANT cruise ships. Tourists and these ships are the main economic boost for the city. I saw as many as 5 behemoths docked. The downtwon area is crazy busy and majorally crowded. I don't recommend trying to drive downtown when ships are in. Pedestrians are everywhere and easy to run over. But the food at the local restraunts is excellent!

Juneau Oddities

I visited this Avalanche sight my 1st trip at the end of May.













This is the same sight 1st week of July.









Jerry came to visit me the 1st week of July. I had left for my fourth trip on June 24th and
had to stay gone until July 13th. Way too long not to be together. So he came down for his birthday and 4th of July celebrations. I had a blast showing him around. We hiked and explored the bottom part of the avalanche sight. It still had alot of snow not melted, but heavy runoff. Wish we had goldpanning equipment.
We found weirdly enough, a swimmer/ snorkel fin in the runoff river at the bottom of the avalanche sight.
a) someone was snorkeling at the top of the mountain in the snow and lost their fin.
b) someone was snorkeling at the bottom of the mountain in the freezing glacial water and lost their fin.
c) snorkelers no matter where or why they are on a mountain, are a taste treat for bears, but bears distaste swimmer fins.
d) bears have a secret need of fins when fishing.

Waterfalls of Juneau

Can you see the child's face in the cliff on the left of the waterfall?
The zoom out of the "child's face" waterfall.

Tongass National Forest

Tongass National Rainforest Flora&Fauna