The second port stop was Juneau, which is the capital of Alaska, and also is accessible only by plane or boat.

Juneau is the cruise stop for whale watching, which we of course did.

Because we were visiting in June instead of July this time, we didn’t get to see the humpback whales bubble feeding like we did in 2011, but it was still an incredible privilege to see these amazing animals.

Jules and Michael got to see a humpback breaching from the cruise ship–I missed it.

On the whale watching cruise we also got to see sea lions.

It was good we didn’t have to do much beside stand around for the whale watching, because that morning we took a hike a Mendenhall Glacier.

It was a fantastic guided hike and we had a marvelous guide who was knowledgeable about the area and (importantly to me) the things we saw on our hike.

We went partway up the West Glacier Trail, to get a view of Mendenhall Glacier.

Mendenhall Glacier, however, made me a bit melancholy. For all I’d been saying for a year we wanted Jules to see the glaciers before they all melted, it was still a shock to see how much Mendenhall glacier had retreated.

Here is Mendenhall Glacier as viewed from Mendenhall Lake in June 2026.

Here is the view from Mendenhall Lake in 2011.

Juneau (June 16):
Sunrise 3:50 AM
Sunset 10:07 PM
Temperatures 48 54 F