August 11th - Day 14 - Sitka to Skagway

We travelled through the night from Sitka and arrived in Juneau at 9.30am.

As we approached Juneau we had our first views of the Mendenhall Glacier.



Our next ferry to Skagway wasn’t leaving from Juneau until 3pm, so we had a few hours in which to explore the area around Juneau as well as the town.
Before we left the ferry we thanked Christine, one of the ferry crew, who had been so helpful. Christine came from the south island of New Zealand and was very interested in our drives. We gave her details of the blog and Wendy took this photo of Christine and me just before we left the ship.


We drove off the boat and headed for the Mendenhall Glacier which was about five miles away. As we drove to the glacier it occurred to me that not many UK registered cars can have driven in Juneau. The state capital is completely cut off from the rest of Alaska by the high mountains and the wilderness that surrounds it. You can only get to Juneau by boat or plane.
The glacier is a very impressive sight with the mountains, waterfalls and glacial lake directly below it.


A huge waterfall pouring into the glacial lake at the base of the glacier. Look at how small the people are in comparison to the falls.


The cars in front of the glacier, with Bob, Wendy and Thelma.


We took a lot of photos and film and then drove about ten miles into the centre of Juneau. As we entered the town we saw four massive cruise ships anchored in the harbour.


Thousands of passengers were crowded into the small streets of the city.
We visited the Russian Orthodox church, St Nicholas, which was built at the end of the 19th century. A reminder of the time when Russia owned Alaska.


We visited both the State Capital building and the Governor’s mansion, the recent home of the now ex-governor, Sarah Palin.


Juneau apparently is the only Alaskan city that avoided being burnt down at some time in its history. As a result, it has many old wooden buildings which give the place a special feel. We both enjoyed our walk around the historic centre of the city.

We went back to our cars and drove down to the pot where the massive cruise ships were docked. This one is the Sapphire Princess, a floating city!!


We left Juneau after about a couple of hours to catch our ferry to Skagway at 3.00pm.
Wendy took this photo of the laundry van leaving the ship. I don't think we have ever seen one quite like it before, in all our travels!!


We had another idyllic journey through more fantastic scenery on the six hour journey to Skagway. Here is one of the many glaciers that come down from the Juneau ice plateau.


We arrived at the terminal in Skagway at 9.30pm as four more colossal cruise ships were leaving the port.
We are staying here for two nights. Skagway was the starting point for the gold rush to the Klondike in the late 19th century.