July 19th was just packed. We are on our way to the glacier.
You can see how wet the ground is. The tides affect this river. When the tide is out, fish can get stranded on the ground, and eagles and others come to check out the bill of fare. We saw several eagles perched on the ground, and more in the air, going about their business.
It was on this bus trip that I really grokked that the eagles *just live there*. You don't have to go to a reserve to see them; they live ... around Juneau, say ... and you see them in the course of your ordinary day.
I like the look of the waves of grass.
We started with a quickie trip to Mendenhall glacier. We only had an hour, and could have used another. We pretty much whipped by all the informative signage, and didn't take all the paths........
Steep Creek runs through this area, and as you see, it runs clear.
Several different kinds of fish spawn here. Isn't this an excellent sign? Clear, informative, and we love the color.
Some salmon fry go to the ocean while little. Some live in fresh water for a while before they go on down.
I was interested to be walking around outside a town. This area of the world is temperate rainforest. Very wet, usually, though as you see we had another gorgeous day.
There are lots and lots of mosses and lichens. I don't know enough to know if these mosses and lichens grow in Michigan or not. If these "ground cones" grow in Michigan, I've never seen any.....
Of course all the plants were not little. This, I believe is hemlock.
This surely looks like astilbe....... (growing in the woods; not apparently cultivated)
The cottonwoods were shedding seed. In some places it looked like it was snowing. They said cottonwood is a major hay-fever-type allergen. Luckily we didn't seem to react to it.
A first glimpse of Mendenhall glacier.
A better view. My brother took a helicopter ride to the top of this glacier, and was able to walk around and get a close up and personal look (and taste -- there were streams of glacier melt that were ok to drink. I'm told it was tasty).
Walking closer to the river to look at the glacier, we spotted this fireweed growing on the side of a mossy boulder.
The edge of the riverbank on this side is just visible in the lower left corner of the pic above. We were able to get right to the water's edge. Isn't it interesting how the pebbles here are much less rounded than those at the beach? I conclude they are "recently" (in the scope of geological time) dropped off by the glacier. My brother picked up a small rock on top of the glacier, and it is as though it was just wrenched from its mother rock -- every edge sharp, every surface crisp and new.
(the camera really hates taking pics of wet stuff.....)
Just downstream of the lookout to the glacier, I saw people touching a hunk of glacier that had, I guess, drifted near the bank. I really wanted to do that, but we had to go get back on the bus to be delivered to our next stop.
Wait, I need one more pic............. Small pond on top of the rocky surface of the planet.
In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, a link to the next one is here.
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