Bears at the Mendenhall Glacier

A two-year-old cinnamon black bear lies in wait after being chased up a tree by a sow. The mother bear was fishing with her two one-year-old cubs when this young male interfered in their activity near the Steep Creek Trail in Juneau.

As tour guides, Julie and I visit the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center at least three or four times a week, usually more like six. Viewing the glacier is less interesting as the summer goes on. But now that the sockeye salmon are running (to spawn) in Steep Creek, the black bears are out in force. This is a recent development out here in the last week or so. I have seen the mother (sow) with her two year-old cubs feeding on salmon twice in as many days. This happens directly below the elevated boardwalk on Steep Creek. Today the mother chased this young male up into this tree to protect her cubs and then calmly meandered out of sight, only to return to the trail, walk right underneath us (me and about three dozen visitors) and catch an unsuspecting salmon about 30 feet in front of us in the stream. Pretty cool stuff. And, just think, I get to see this nearly every day.

— Christopher

Beads of water accumulate on a blade of grass during a rainy Juneau day.

I was already soaked today while riding home from work, so I stopped to photograph the rain drops accumulating on the plants and blades of tall grass along the bike trail that we ride home each day.

A transient orca surfaces for air while traveling through Stephen's Passage near Juneau, AK.

Julie and I went whale watching with one of our tour groups. They found a group of these orcas that does not travel with the rest of them. Apparently they had just killed a sealion when our boat arrived in the area.


— Christopher

Summer Dogsled Camps in Juneau

The dogs at a summer doglsed training camp near Juneau, AK await being chosen for the 14-dog team to pull a 10-person cart. About 120 dogs — some of which will run the famous Ididerod sled race through the Alaska interior — live at the camp during the summer tourism season.

Most of our drivers don't get to do this trip. They gave me a van and I followed another driver up into the hills near Thane (three miles south of Juneau), where we passed by the ruins of the Alaska-Juneau Mine. The road opens up into this valley about 800 feet above sea level, where people experience the summer training camp for dogs and mushers who will run the Ididerod this year or next.

— Christopher

Glaciers and Clouds in Juneau, AK

A view of the Taku Glacier from helicopter. The Taku is the largest glacier in the Juneau Icefield at more then 30 miles long and five miles wide at its terminus.


Early evening clouds hang over Juneau's Auke Bay and the Coastal Mountains of Admiralty Island.

Only God could make this

After work we spent about four hours fishing and sitting by the fire on the beach at False Outer Point on Douglas Island last night, 7.7.07. The sun set like this for nearly two hours and did not fall behind the mountains until around 10:30 p.m. the eagles came out and tried to catch jumping salmon right in front of us near the beach.

Our ride to work in Juneau

Julie and I bought bicycles as soon as we arrived in Juneau to work for the summer. In stead of buying a car and paying exorbitant prices for gas, we ride eight miles along the Old Glacier Highway to work every morning, and back again in the evenings. Save money, get daily exercise, experience God's early-morning creativity with the sun through the trees and the mist. This turned out to be a beautiful day, by the way.

— Christopher

Alaska Wildflowers

Wild lupine near the Mendenhall Glacier visitor center. I have found purple, white and pink lupine along the roads and throughout the forest in Juneau.


— Christopher

Whale Tails

Juneau has some of the best whale watching excursions in the world. Humpback whales migrate from Hawaii to Alaska each summer to feed on small fish and krill near Lynn Canal and Stephens Passage, which are between Juneau and Skagway. Today I got to go on an Evening Quest whale watching trip with passengers from the Carnival Spirit. Allen Marine crew take us from Auke Bay to North Pass, near Shelter Island and Admiralty Island. With temperatures in the 70s in Juneau Saturday, the early evening ride was perfect in jeans and a T-shirt. Humpbacks typically eat one ton of food per day and they usually feed on their own, so as to not get in each others' way. One only sees the whale's fluke (tail) when they do a sounding dive -- a deep dive to around 200 feet below the surface.

-- Christopher

The Mendenhall Glacier

The Mendenhall Glacier flows 12 miles from the Juneau Ice Field at around 5,500 ft. above sea level to its terminus at just about sea level in the Mendenhall Valley. This glacier is one of the most easily accessable glaciers in the world and is Juneau's most visited attraction. Lately it has been reflecting more blue from deep within the crevasses. This is due to the fact that blue is the only color wavelength that can bounce back out of the extremely dense ice. On more cloudy days, the glacier is more blue because the clouds filter out the harsh sunlight that penetrates the ice and makes it more white.

Some people use the Juneau Ice Field as an example of global warming due to the fact that many of the 38 large glaciers in the area are melting -- the Mendenhall is losing 300-600 ft. of ice off its terminus every year. However, two of the largest glaciers in the Juneau area, the Taku and Hole-in-the-Wall glaciers, are getting bigger. That means enough snowfall is accumulating on the ice field to create glacial ice in place of the ice melting away from the terminus.

-- Christopher

Bald Eagle Released Near Mendenhall River

A female Bald Eagle was released May 28, 2007 after being taken in by a local family in February. The Juneau Raptor Center held a release gathering for the bird and said she was in captivity because she was so sick that she could not fly. They expect her to do fine now. A few fellow drivers and I were staging our motor coaches near the Mendenhall River between duties and observed a gethering of people at the park there. All of a sudden a we saw this eagle swoop out of the parking lot and circle around the bridge to the tree in the photo. She stood there for a while as a heckling raven prodded with his beak at her.

-- Christopher