Wind Songs: Rock Towers and Adventurous Ducks

After taking a long walk on a trail yesterday to see Herbert Glacier, my Mountain Boy and I decided to work out the leg kinks today by taking a short walk to the waterfall at Mendenhall Glacier this afternoon.

My dog walked with us yesterday, and nine miles did her in. As of this writing almost an entire day later she is still sleeping (as she has been for most of the day) on the couch.

"Point Dog" is worn out.

I had a small rubber duck in my pack today and placed it ceremoniously on top of a small rock alter - one of many we found today - close to the falls......

Before we made our way to Mendenhall Glacier today I dropped LC off at a gun store while I drove down to the Skaters Cabin area.

While I was there I spent some quiet time photographing the glacier from this side of the river, and also watching a rafting outfitter unloading, setting up and getting a good number of excited tourists geared up for a paddling adventure on the lake.

The weather was unsettled, but at least for a short time the mountains and part of the huge icefield behind the glacier were visible........

Although it was interesting to watch the seasonal workers unload and gear up, and interesting to eavesdrop on the crew chief speaking to the large group of tourists his company was preparing for their trip on the water, I continue to realize that I am ready for all of the tourists to leave.

Ready for the seasonal adventure companies to shut down for the summer.

Ready for the float planes and helicoptors to land for the last time.

Ready for the cruise ship tourist stores and the sidewalk vendors to board their doors.

Ready for the giant sidewalk stuffed bears and eagles and other photo ops to be sent into hibernation.

Ready for the coaches and street trolleys to park in long and silent rows in Thane for the winter.

Ready for the traffic to slow, for the people to go, and for quiet to once again consume the town.

I know that Juneau depends so much on tourism to survive and continue to be the vibrant and viable city that it is. But I am ready for some quiet.

This picture says it all to me - natural beauty, the absence of people and noise, rugged mountains, quiet water and quiet sky. I like this picture.........

Skaters Cabin from the opposite side of the cove.

While I was there it was full of people who most likely had reserved it for a birthday party or office party or wedding reception..........

After picking up my Mountain Boy we drove out to the glacier and searched for a few minutes around the two parking lots, looking for a spot. The place was packed, but eventually we did indeed find a place to park our car.

LC had not walked out to the waterfall before so that was where we were headed.

Mendenhall Glacier has something for everyone.

There are easy-to-travel and accessible pathways and gravel trails designed for a quick walk, in the hopes of viewing either salmon or bears - maybe even both.

It has an interactive, interesting and informative Visitors Center.

It has a very beautiful and accessible glacier and majestic waterfall.

And if you glance deeper and look for more intense (but for me) quieter adventure, there are beautiful and steep back country trails that provide views of mountains in all directions, as well as the wide open and never ending channel.

I have been to the glacier more than a handful of times since I arrived here in Juneau, but my most favorite memories of this place will always be the back country trails that I walked last winter.

I walked with my short-term and slightly nutty room-mate, and while she cursed the entire time we were out there (because the climbs were very long and steep and required a good amount of effort) I loved every minute of it.

While LC and I were standing at an overlook close to the glacier today, a lady asked me if I knew why people were stacking rocks. At that point I did not realize that there were a number of spontaneous rock alters springing up all over the beach area.

I answered that I did not really know why people felt compelled to build such things.

But I had seen them continually throughout the Juneau area, on rocky beach fronts from one end of the road in Thane to the south, all the way to the other end of the road 40 miles north of town at Echo Cove.

I have both enjoyed them and photographed them continuously ever since I arrived in Juneau.

And I have built a few of them myself. A cathartic and relaxing and quietly creative activity.

Juneau the city, spends a lot of time and money doing all manner of creative and useful things with rock.

They blast it, crush it, load it, transport it, store it, and use it on the roads (both in new construction and using it to gravel the snowy and icy roads in winter).

But these rock monuments and alters and towers (some small and simple - some large and highly creative) are quietly and regularly built by random and individual visitors to our beaches and coves.........

This young man, with two or three other young guys, spent about ten minutes creating their tall masterpieces.

Our rubber duck somehow got pulled into the action, sitting precariously on the top..........

On a relatively warm and relatively sunny late-summer Sunday, Mendenhall Glacier was a very busy place.

Hundreds of cruise ship tourists from around the world joined us at the glacier to enjoy this beautiful scene......

If you look closely (click on any picture to enlarge it), it becomes very obvious that large sections of the glacier have calved recently.

It was evident on the body of the glacier proper, and also evident by the surprisingly large and numerous pieces of the glacier that were floating in a variety of blue and white hues in the lake..........