A BEAR. We saw a big black momma bear.

More on that later.

Petersburg is a very cute town and you could easily spend a week here. However we are booked for Juneau and the ferry can’t wait. Doing an overnight trip meant we missed out on some of the wildlife sights but so far the wildlife has been rather scarce and the weather was lousy anyway. So might as well sleep.

Leaving Petersburg

It was still raining when we pulled into Juneau at 7am. The first order of business was breakfast which did us for most of lunch and then the rain eased. We decided to check out our campsite and pitch tents while it was dry. The forecast is wet, wet, wet.

On the way we talked to a local who said some of the campsites were closed because the river was rising and the rain kept coming. Inspecting the site we found it very wet, low and rocky which did not bode well for a good nights sleep. With the rain renewing its intensity we chickened out and booked some rooms in a 100 year old pub, the “Alaskan” of course, with lots of character and dry beds.

Our pub for a few nights

Having negotiated a dry bed the rain abruptly stopped so we raced out to see the Mendenhall Glacier, one of the must see sights in Juneau.

Breaking out the warm and wet weather gear at last.

The Mendenhall Glacier

The glacier is impressive enough from this viewpoint but when you look at the whole system of glaciers it pales into insignificance.

There is a system of about 6 glaciers feeding from the top of this mountain. Mendenhall is receding but the two to the right are maintaining their size.

Waterfall beside the glacier that was created by the glacier shrinking

We wandered back to the car park, elbowing our way through the 1000’s of cruise boat tourists, when Nicky stumbled upon a black bear at the side of the road. So Nicky took all the good photos while I was watching salmon jump upstream. We finally caught up and followed the big female down the creek. My photos are very disappointing but I am sure there will be other opportunities.

She is a lot bigger than I imagined, somewhere around 200kg. The browns or grizzlies weigh in at twice the size so can’t wait.

With the rain two quilt shops needed serious attention so while the girls went shopping the boys explored some of the craft beers the town is famous for.

Juneau is big on cruise boats and there were 4 lined up today. I will leave you with some images of the harbour and tourist trap areas.

Tomorrow more exploring around Juneau regardless of the rain.

Maybe the cable car tomorrow if we can see the top.