September 7, 2016

JUNEAU, ALASKA

When It’s Springtime in Alaska
by Johnny Horton

When I pulled into Juneau, the city was a boom
so I took a little stroll to the Red Dog Saloon
As I walked through the door the music was clear
the purdiest voice I had heard in two years

The song she was singing made a man’s blood run cold
when it’s springtime in Alaska, it’s forty below 

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It’s not really that bad, but, the further north we go, the colder it does get. When I signed up for this cruise, I was advised to bring a jacket and some warm clothes. It was 102 degrees in Austin when I was packing and I almost didn’t pack a jacket and a sweater. Boy, I am glad I did.

Also, the further north we get, the more spectacular the scenery. At noon today, we arrived at the capitol city of Alaska, Juneau.  Here are some of the sights from the deck of the ship. Notice the pieces of ice floating in the water. Yes sir. That is pretty cold water.

THE MENDENHALL GLACIER

In the Tongass National Forest is the Mendenhall Glacier. It is Alaska’s most accessible glacier. Glaciers are formed by falling snow which turns to ice and accumulates seasonally. Slowly and steadily, gravity pulls the ice down valleys like the valley in this National Forest. It grinds everything in its path to powder as it moves.

On the way to the glacier, we pass through a spectacular garden. A unique feature of the garden is called the “Upside Down” Trees. How these trees came about is a story too long for here, but what they have done is uprooted hundreds of trees and planted them upside down with the roots sticking into the air. They then make flower baskets out of the root system. Here is what they look like:

Now for the glacier:

Most scientists believe the earth is warming up due to human’s polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Some people think it is a hoax and just naturally occurring heating and cooling of the planet that has been going on for millions of years. I tend to side with the scientists, but you can judge for yourself.

Here are pictures of the Mendenhall Glacier from 1958 to 2010. If you look at the right side of the pictures of 2003 and 2010 you can see a waterfall. That waterfall was completely covered by the glacier in the first two pictures.

If you are interested in learning more about this glacier, here is a website:

Mendenhall Glacier

The next tour I took in Juneau was to the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery. If you like to eat salmon, and you should because it is very healthy, chances are the ones you buy in the supermarket come from a salmon farm or a hatchery like this one.

This place hatches millions of salmon every year and releases them into the ocean. Most of them get eaten by predators, like bears, but some of them eventually make it to your dinner table.

Here are a couple of pictures: