Mendenhall Glacier

"Well folks, we are about to turn right onto Mendenhall Loop Road. Mendenhall Loop Road will take us to the Mendenhall Glacier which calves into the Mendenhall Lake, which flows into the Mendenhall River, which runs right by Mendenhall Elementary School all within the Mendenhall Valley. Any guesses of who Mr. Mendenhall is?

Mr. Thomas Mendenhall never stepped foot in Alaska. Turns out Mr. Mendenhall was a scientist who had a friend kind enough to name a beautiful glacier after him. Subsequently, we named everything around here after him. He also was a huge proponent of switching Americans to the metric system."

Being a bus driver with a different captive audience every day, I rarely have to switch up my material - another blessing of my current life.

Photo credit: Russ Garner

The glacier is really cool though, honestly. It's about 12 miles long, and is one of 140 glaciers in the Juneau Ice field. Alaska is home to more than half of the world's glaciers. 1 foot of glacier ice (30.48 cm if Mr. Mendenhall had had his way) is made from about 100 feet of snowfall. Its density is why the blue light rays cannot be absorbed, and we see a blueish tint. It is receding at about 150 feet a year though, so get here soon.

The glaciers in Alaska are very accessible. On Friday I was able to walk TO the glacier, walk ON the glacier, walk UNDER the glacier, walk IN the glacier. Here are some photos of the glacier, now that we're here at the visitor's center.

First time stepping ON a glacier. We don't usually hold hands.

Mendenhall Glacier Ice Caves

Glaciers are slippery, and we are graceful dames.

View from the visitors center