Alaska Part 5: Juneau

As we all know, Juneau is the capital of Alaska.  It is the only U.S. capital that borders another country (Canada).  It has a few more people than Skagway (32,000 vs. 900), but it too, gets over 1 million visitors a year, mainly from cruise ships.  It also has the distinction of being the only capital that has no roads connecting it to Alaska or North America.  I guess you get there either by boat or plane.
Since part of the reason we came to Alaska was to see glaciers, there was an excursion in Juneau to a glacier: the Mendenhall Glacier, which is about 15 miles NW of Juneau.  You cannot actually get up close and personal to the glacier, but you get a good view of it from Nugget Falls. The Glacier is about 12 miles long and the terminus about one mile wide.
After viewing the glacier, we came back to Juneau and took a quick tram ride up Mt. Roberts.  Mt. Roberts is 3,819' tall and the tram goes up to 1,800.'  May not be able to see all of Juneau, but the views are still good.

  Part of the trail to and from the glacier and falls.

Icebergs in Mendenhall Lake. 

  Nugget Falls. It drops 377.'  Looks really big compared to the people at the base.

Mendenhall Glacier.  But look how small the waterfall is compared to the glacier. 

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls.

Father and son posing.

  Here's that handsome couple that keeps showing up in my blog !!

A sitka spruce.

Barclay's Willow.

A pretty flower along the trail.

And another.

Going up the Mt. Roberts tram.

Our cruise ship taken on the way up. The waterway is called the Gastineau Channel and it goes between the mainland part of Juneau and Douglas Island on the other side. The island is 76 square miles and is a part of the city of Juneau.

A good view of part of Juneau and the town of Douglas.

Looking north from Juneau.

Looking west at Douglas Island.

More of Juneau looking north.

The Channel looking south (sorry about someones head in the lower left).