Perhaps the most intimate way to experience the awesome scale of Alaska's glaciers is on the water. One of the most popular Alaska destinations for exploring glacier ice caves, though, is the Mendenhall Glacier, a massive body of ice located about 10 miles from downtown Juneau. So-called eskers may not look like much more than long, rounded hills, but in fact they represent the leftover rocks and silt that once flowed along the bases of massive glacier ice caves! To learn more about glaciers, glacier features, and glacial landforms, see the Glaciers & Glacial Landforms page. On especially warm days, for example, entire caves have been known to spontaneously collapse! People interested in exploring ice caves should wear helmets, as they would in other kinds of caves. If our guides locate a glacier ice cave, you'll be able to explore its stunning blue walls and ceiling under safe conditions. Pretty ethereal, no? You can raft or kayak through a sea of ice to the face of a tidewater glacier, fly over mountain cirques, take an afternoon helicopter tour and land on a glacier or test your footing across icewater rivers along a glacial moraine. Overview. The glacier periodically forms ice caves, blue ice pools, moulins, and other incredible features as it moves and melts. Our Mendenhall Glacier Paddle & Trek puts hopeful explorers into the very depths of glacier ice caves. It’s better to order a tour with an experienced guide … The Mendenhall Glacier Trek is an exclusive adventure that’s geared toward active travelers capable of trekking for several miles. We also offer several Juneau helicopter tours that allow guests to explore on the surface of nearby glaciers. These include the Helicopter Dogsled Glacier Excursion, an extended Dogsled Helicopter Excursion, and the slightly shorter Icefield Helicopter Excursion. 8-10 miles of hiking in approximately 8 hours. Best day hike in Alaska! Glacier ice caves, as you might suspect, can provide for some of the most stunning land excursions in Alaska. People interested in exploring ice caves should wear helmets, as they would in other kinds of caves. It’s a relatively quick 10-mile trip from Portage station, about 45 miles southeast of Anchorage near the head of Turnagain Arm. Often, water pours in at a so-called moulin (pronounced like the Disney movie), basically a hole in the surface of a glacier, before eventually making its way out to the glacier’s terminus, which could be the ocean itself. Which Alaska Zipline Tour is Right for Me? If you’ve considered visiting Alaska you have probably stumbled across surreal photos of people standing and walking in the bright blue Mendenhall Ice Caves formed on the Mendenhall Glacier. Mendenhall Glacier (also Sitaantaagu or Áakʼw Tʼáak Sítʼ) is a glacier about 13.6 miles (21.9 km) long located in Mendenhall Valley, about 12 miles (19 km) from downtown Juneau in the southeast area of the U.S. state of Alaska. I’d scoot back a bit if I were that guy! It is 4… Interestingly, glacier ice caves don’t exclusively form from flowing meltwater. Popularized by the guidebook Outside in the Interior and many recent social media posts of the ice caves, the route to the Castner Glacier has become a well-traveled trail in winter. It's located at milepost 217.3 on the Richardson Highway. Book your Alaska Ice Cave tour with us today. Castner Glacier Trail is a 2.6 mile out and back trail located near Fort Greely, Alaska that offers the chance to see wildlife and is rated as moderate. Quite a shot! This image shows the oft-photographed Kverkfjoll Cave in Iceland, which formed thanks to the high geothermal energy that underpins the volcanic island. The Mendenhall Glacier is a 12-mile-long glacier in the Mendenhall Valley, only 12 miles from downtown Juneau in southeast Alaska. Part of what distinguishes glacier ice caves, such as the Mendenhall Glacier ice caves, from “normal” bedrock caves is that they are, geologically speaking, quite temporary. ), where passageways have formed from the hot air and water associated with geothermal activity. Ice caves make up its surreal interior. The trail is … Guests have the chance to paddle among icebergs right up close to the face of the glacier. Ice caves are typically found beneath or beside glaciers. The glacier is at a distance of 12 miles starting from the Downtown Juneau which is located in Alaska’s South Eastern section. Unless you’re a European spelunker, we can guarantee you’ll be blown away. Nope, unfortunately not. As well as humpback whales, there's a good chance of spotting bald eagles, blue heron, and other animal and bird life. (“Glacier cave” is probably a better term, technically speaking). In winter, there's a bit more meandering. Select your cruise ship and we’ll display only the tours that work with your (2). Glacier ice caves are cold, with icy water dripping from their roofs. Gerald W. Williams Collection, Oregon State University Libraries. We cannot guarantee any specific glacial features including caves. (1). The most famous Alaskan ice caves are located under Mendenhall, Root, Spencer, Matanuska, and Kennicott Glaciers. The scenic two hour drive north east of Anchorage on the Glenn Highway makes it an easy day trip from Anchorage. This sketch shows classic esker morphology. Worthington Glacier is one of the most accessible glaciers in Alaska and you can find it near Valdez, Alaska. Alaska’s glacier hiking and climbing adventures are designed for a variety of interest and experience levels. The Castner Glacier is an easily accessible glacier toe in the Delta Mountains of the Alaska Range. Ice caves are a natural phenomenon that forms in glaciers during the winter months. A well preserved esker in South Dakota suggests that there was once a towering glacier all the way out here in the middle of what are now rolling plains! If you’re willing to trade some time on the glacier for time on the water, this tour might be a good option. Ice caves – though in this case “glacier cave” might be a more appropriate term – form when water flows through a glacier and melts a passageway through the ice. Be amazed by the 13-mile (21-kilometer) Mendenhall Glacier, and take to the water on a whale-watching cruise. FAQs  ⎜ Policies ⎜ Contact Us ⎜Privacy Policy ⎜About. Imagine that a giant glacier once reached high above this small, rounded hillock! Luckily, glacier guides on land excursions in Alaska are specially trained to evaluate stability, so if you’re headed out on a glacier trek you can be sure that your knowledgeable leader won’t give a thumbs-up unless it’s safe to do so. Ice caves on the Matanuska Glacier are often elusive, but our guides are out there every day and if there’s one that we can get you to we’ll know about it! Our expert guides will determine if any such ice features are safe to explore on the day of tour, and may add them to the trip as a bonus. Pingback: Hike The Mendenhall Ice Caves Before It's Too Late, For travel tips and a free copy of our exclusive Inside Passage Planner. “The largest glacier accessible by car in Alaska”. These caves usually form as water flows through a glacier and melts out a passageway in the ice. Sometimes, melting at the margin of a glacier may cause small caves to form within the ice, between the ice and the bedrock, or between the ice and the sediment beneath it. ABAK Wilderness Trips. The active front edge of the glacier is another few miles upstream. Besides, of course, being really, really big, one of the cool things about the Mendenhall Glacier is that it’s quite possible for Juneau visitors to trek out onto the ice itself (led by trained guides, of course: nobody wants to fall in a crevasse!). This massive glacier is about 60 miles from Anchorage, south of the Turnagain Arm area of the Kenai Mountains in the… schedule in each port. By booking with us, you're helping to ensure a bright future for Alaskan tourism. The first being Sitaantaagu or “Glacier Behind the Town,” while the second was Aak’wtaaksit or the “Glacier Behind the Little Lake.” Spend a full day on the Root Glacier exploring features such as crevasses, blue pools, canyons, waterfalls, moulins and cave-like features. Between late January and February, 2020, I visited the caves three times to explore, take photos, and ice skate. Ice caves like the ones in Alaska may change substantially from year to year, lengthening, widening, or changing direction as meltwater continues to flow and the glacier moves downhill. welcome to glacier salt cave & spa We are the home of Alaska's only "salt cave" with Halo (salt) therapy. The ice cave is a little over a mile from the road; in summer it's a fairly straight shot up the floodplain along a trail/old road. Our Alaska Ice Cave tours are truly an experience to behold. This massive moulin (moo-LAHN) on the Snowbird Glacier in Alaska’s Talkeetna Mountains is an especially large example of the usually smaller holes that often source meltwater into growing glacier ice caves. Mendenhall Glacier is a spectacular 12-mile-long glacier near Juneau, Alaska. To visit Spencer Glacier between May and September, you’ll need to book a ride on the Glacier Discovery Train of the Alaska Railroad, with service from Anchorage, Girdwood, Whittier, and Portage. One of the tricky things about glacier caves is that, depending on recent weather and the current temperature, they can sometimes be unstable. Glacier caves are often called ice caves, but the latter term is properly used to describe bedrock caves that contain year-round ice. Glacier ice caves are cold, with icy water dripping from their roofs. We set out to look for the Mendenhall Glacier ice caves, which were apparently hard to locate. Many people from all around the world come to Alaska to see this natural phenom enon. We offer two tours that, conditions permitting, prominently feature visits to Mendenhall Glacier ice caves. Here are the top four ice caves in Alaska… Glacier Ice Caves are sometimes referred to as "ice caves", but the term ice caves is more commonly used for caves in rock which contain ice year-round. The Matanuska is a beautiful valley glacier 27-miles long and four miles wide descending twelve thousand feet to the terminus. Daniel first saw Alaska at age nine, after a weeks-long drive up the Alaska highway in a weathered RV. Alaska's only Himalayan Salt therapy with Himalayan treatment rooms. This shot, taken on our Mendenhall Glacier Trek, shows meltwater rushing under the surface of the Juneau glacier. There are some cases, for example, like the incredible Kverkfjöll cave within Iceland’s Vatnajökull Glacier (don’t ask me to pronounce it! To learn more about caves and karst landforms, and ice features in caves, see the Ice Caves page. A number of stunning land excursions in Alaska culminate with a visit to this iconic destination, as the Mendenhall ice caves are often particularly stunning! Hike to where Donoho Falls pours under the cracking edge of the glacier and/or jump into an icy-cold Blue Pool! These tours, however, are not built around ice caves, so guests usually won’t have the chance for in-depth cave exploration. A glacier cave is a cave formed within the ice of a glacier. The glacier originally had … People everywhere are finding ziplining, Self-proclaimed “Foodies,” listen up! Sometimes, rocks and debris that the glacier has picked up melt out and drop into the caves. Most often ice caves are formed by water running through or under the glacier, creating new caves every year. It is completely overwhelming. The 6 Best Kid-Friendly Shore Excursions and Alaska Family Tours, Hike The Mendenhall Ice Caves Before It's Too Late, Aspiring glaciologist? But luck rea... Great weekend trip with Piriya, Nae, Pla and Ter! Book Now 907-500-9001 Massages | Dining | Gift Shop If you’re looking for one of the quickest ways to explore an ice cave in Alaska then hike Castner Glacier Ice Cave Trail. Originally, this glacier has 2 names. Hundreds of feet high and miles long, you can the hear ice crackling and sizzling as trapped air bubbles slowly escape. www.alaskashoretours.com. Portage Glacier. Alaska Ice Cave Tours on Matanuska Glacier. But I have never seen–nor can I even really imagine–a place more alien than the Castner Glacier ice caves in the Eastern Alaska Range. This is a must-do activity for travelers … You have saved and planned for this Alaska trip for what seems like, Mendenhall Ice Caves – So what exactly are the Mendenhall ice caves and why do people’s eyes seem, Planning your Alaskan cruise can take a lot of work, and depending on your desired experience and shore, If you are visiting Southeast Alaska one of the first questions you might be asking yourself is, “where, Trust me, I understand. In this special-edition local’s guide to the best restaurants, If you have kids and have begun to research for an Alaska vacation, you know that it’s not, Taku Glacier Adventure by Air, Water & Ice, Hovercraft Eco Adventure and Wildlife Viewing Tour, Skagway Glacier Discovery Helicopter Tour, Private Wildlife Photo Safari, Beachcombing, and More, Private Wilds of Sitka Sound Expedition by Boat, Anchorage Helicopter Glacier Dogsled & Lower Glacier Landing, Anchorage Helicopter and Glacier Dogsled Tour, Glacier Blue Kayak & Grandview Train Tour, Our Top 9 Favorite Alaska Excursions for 2020, 8 Things Your Cruise Ship Won’t Tell You About Shore Excursions, 7 High-Demand Alaska Cruise Tours You’ll Want to Book Early, My Alaska Travel Tips: How to Get the Perfect Alaska Cruise Photos, Mendenhall Ice Caves & Beyond: Juneau Glacier Tours Explained, Helicopter Dogsledding with Extra Landing, Your Guide to Inside Passage Weather in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan, The 10 Best Alaska Shore Excursions of 2018, Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan Alaska Map and Walking Guide.