Our first stop in Alaska was Glacier Bay National Park. We started by flying into Juneau, in the southeast corner of Alaska. The white dot next to it is Glacier Bay NP.
We took a 6 seat plane to Gustavus, about a 30 minute flight east of Juneau. Our pilot affectionately called the plane the 'Gustavus time machine' as the plane was from the 1970's.
Gustavus is a very small town with a gravel airstrip and one small building for an airport (no TSA or bag screening!). We took a shuttle bus from the airport to Glacier Bay Lodge, the only hotel within Glacier Bay National Park. The vast majority of the park is only accessible by a boat.
The next day, we took an eight hour ride on said boat into the national park, following this path:
It was a great trip. We saw tons of sea otters, some mountain goats, a black bear and a brown bear.
Side note- although Grizzly bears are genetically identical to brown bears, Grizzlies are a subset of bears that typically live inland and do not have access to a 'coastal' diet. All Grizzlies are brown bears, but not all brown bears are Grizzlies.
Of course, we saw many glaciers.
Once we finished the boat tour in the bay, we took a short hike near the lodge. The next day, we flew back to Juneau and explored the downtown area. We did a 5 mile hike on Perseverance trail, just behind downtown. We ate some delicious seafood. The next morning, we hiked a trail overlooking the Mendenhall glacier, located about 20 minutes from downtown Juneau. The weather was clear and beautiful. Afterwards, we flew out to Anchorage to start the next leg of our trip. Overall, we really enjoyed Glacier Bay NP and were pleasantly surprised at how cool and quirky downtown Juneau was. It was a great start to the epic Alaskan adventure!
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