Juneau Excursion Question

[Snate]

I have been looking at the older posts and couldn't find an answer to this but was curious about doing whale watching PLUS a canoe excursion to Mendenhall Glacier while in Juneau from noon-10PM.   Is this doable?  I saw one canoe trip but it left at 3:30 so kind of right in the middle of the stop at this port.  Any ideas on this would be much appreciated.  Thanks

[blackkitteycat]

Hi, i'm a local to Juneau who works in tourism. In my experience working with local outfitters, most whale watching tours tend to be a little over 4 hours (incl. transportation to and from downtown, which is about 20 minutes away from the dock) and canoe tours tend to be around 6 hours. I would not recommend doing both. 

I will say that I haven't been very impressed with canoe excursions to Mendenhall. The lake is not very big, the area is extremely touristy and busy, and the glacier is unfortunately pretty small nowadays. This is just my experience, however.

 

Keep in mind that depending on where your other stops are, you might be able to do one of these excursions somewhere else. Whale watching is very popular all over Southeast Alaska and many of the companies are based out of Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan.

[Snate]

59 minutes ago, blackkitteycat said:

Hi, i'm a local to Juneau who works in tourism. In my experience working with local outfitters, most whale watching tours tend to be a little over 4 hours (incl. transportation to and from downtown, which is about 20 minutes away from the dock) and canoe tours tend to be around 6 hours. I would not recommend doing both. 

I will say that I haven't been very impressed with canoe excursions to Mendenhall. The lake is not very big, the area is extremely touristy and busy, and the glacier is unfortunately pretty small nowadays. This is just my experience, however.

 

Keep in mind that depending on where your other stops are, you might be able to do one of these excursions somewhere else. Whale watching is very popular all over Southeast Alaska and many of the companies are based out of Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan.

Thanks for the reply.  I think we are going to not do the canoe portion of Mendenhall glacier but we still want to visit the Glacier Park I think on our own and maybe hike to Nugget Falls.  Is there a time where the park closes?  I figure we grab a whale watching tour first thing when we dock and then grab a cab/shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier and wander around that area if it is open after our whale watch.  Any other advice on that would be great.  Thanks.

[donaldsc]

4 hours ago, Snate said:

Thanks for the reply.  I think we are going to not do the canoe portion of Mendenhall glacier but we still want to visit the Glacier Park I think on our own and maybe hike to Nugget Falls.  Is there a time where the park closes?  I figure we grab a whale watching tour first thing when we dock and then grab a cab/shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier and wander around that area if it is open after our whale watch.  Any other advice on that would be great.  Thanks.

 

You can find the closure time and other useful information on the Mendenhall Glacier WEB site.

 

DON

Edited April 7, 2022 by donaldsc

[Suzanne123]

We’ve done hiking and kayaking with this vendor.  You might be able to fit in at least the Auke Bay kayak trip and have them drop you at Mendenhall on the way back.

https://beyondak.com

[MichFish]

On 4/6/2022 at 7:29 PM, blackkitteycat said:

Hi, i'm a local to Juneau who works in tourism. In my experience working with local outfitters, most whale watching tours tend to be a little over 4 hours (incl. transportation to and from downtown, which is about 20 minutes away from the dock) and canoe tours tend to be around 6 hours. I would not recommend doing both. 

I will say that I haven't been very impressed with canoe excursions to Mendenhall. The lake is not very big, the area is extremely touristy and busy, and the glacier is unfortunately pretty small nowadays. This is just my experience, however.

 

Keep in mind that depending on where your other stops are, you might be able to do one of these excursions somewhere else. Whale watching is very popular all over Southeast Alaska and many of the companies are based out of Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan.

It’s amazing how “small” it is.  I went to school in Juneau back in the 80s.    Since then I have been back twice and will be back again in May. 
 

It is amazing how much it has receded.   You know the. You are young and learning about glaciers it seems like nobody would be around long enough to notice any movement because of how slow….

 

Not so much.  Lol.  I feel really old when I visit Mendenhall now.  Lol