Our next stop was the visitors center, where we once again used G's Senior Pass to be admitted for free. The visitors center had a beautiful lookout area and several exhibits, including a large piece of 200 year old glacial ice that we were able to touch. But the highlight was, once again, the movie, with gorgeous aerial photography of the glacier and the surrounding Tongass National Forest.
Although it was already mid-afternoon, we decided to hike the 3.5 mile East Glacier Loop Trail, which started behind the visitors center. It was a beautiful trail through the rain forest and offered great overlook views of the glacier and the large waterfall to its right. Along the way we were astonished by the heavy moss covering the rain forest floor and the different kinds and colors of lichen growing on the trees. For those folks from Ohio, it was like Hocking Hills times 100.
We were also astonished by the amount of bear and wolf scat we saw along the way. This is serious stuff!
We had originally wanted to return to the ship by 4:30pm to attend a lecture by Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Iditarod dogsled race, but I convinced G that she spoke every time the ship was in Juneau and we'd catch her next time (God, I hope that's true). Today was too pretty to waste sitting on the ship.
By the time we were back at the visitors center, it was almost 5pm, and we were beginning to drag a bit. The East Glacier Trail had a fair bit of elevation gain achieved by a never-ending series of rocky switchbacks leading to the top of that biggest waterfall. Despite it being only 60 degrees, we had worked up a sweat, we were getting hungry (no lunch), and we just wanted to be home (aka the ship). Our initial plan had been to take the public bus one way and the shuttle bus the other, but, in retrospect, we would take the shuttle both ways next time. The $6 per person savings over the bus was not worth spending a mile and a half's worth of energy to walk from the bus stop to the visitors center, especially when we wanted to hike once we got there.
Anyway, it was after 5pm and cooling a bit when we returned to the parking lot. We waited for awhile but never saw a blue bus come by, just several large tour buses that stopped and disgorged lots of seniors who, never leaving the parking lot, snapped a copius number of photos and re-boarded the bus, which then drove away. We were beginning to think that we were going to have to talk our way onto one of those buses, but instead I Googled the shuttle company on my phone to get their phone number to call them to verify that the buses were fact, still running.
Before I completed that, G had walked over to a couple who had just returned to their 4-door pickup truck in the parking lot. He motioned me over; they were giving us a ride back to the ship. During the 30-minute ride, we learned more about Juneau and life in Alaska than we ever would have otherwise. They were both part Haitt Indians (1/4 and 1/3 respectively) and had lived in Juneau their entire lives. That they were so nice restored our faith in the people of Juneau. That they took us right to the ship saved our evening for us. Otherwise, we might have gotten back to our cabin and collapsed on the bed.
Okay, we DID get back to our cabin and collapse on the bed anyway, but at least we eventually got up, showered and went to dinner in the dining room.
Photo 2: the moss covered rainforest floor
Photo 3: our first view of the glacier from the road
Photo 4: something tells me these bears aren't a bit like Yogi and Boo Boo
Photo 5: view from the Mendenhall Visitors Center
Photo 6: as close as I want to get!
Photos 7 and 8: scenes from the Visitors Center movie