Hi there!
In May 2023, I went to Mendenhall by bus from the Juneau cruise port. I was on the Sapphire Princess cruise ship.
Your experience may vary!
The Mendenhall Glacier will be one of the easiest glaciers to see when you are on land during your Alaska cruise.
If you have glacier sea days, then those days will be the absolute easiest glaciers to see, and in that case you will be able to see glaciers without even stepping off the cruise ship!
The most popular options to see Mendenhall Glacier are by tour or by shuttle.
The Mendenhall Glacier is also accessible by bus from the Juneau cruise port… if you don’t mind walking a little!
And by a little I might mean a lot.
So whether Mendenhall Glacier is reasonable to go by bus will depend on how much you’re willing to walk.
ð You can take a bus to Mendenhall Glacier from the Juneau cruise port… as long as you don’t mind walking a little from the bus stop!
ð It’s a bit of a walk from the bus stop to Mendenhall Glacier, but the walk comes with scenic views! You’ll be walking on a paved path located alongside the road.
ð Because you are walking from the bus stop to Mendenhall Glacier, you can stop to take a sign of the Tongass National Forest Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area!
ð Cruise ship in Juneau
Since I had already walked around a lot before I even started on the bus to the Mendenhall Glacier, by the time I got on the bus to leave the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, it was A LOT of walking! My feet were hurting!
Walking around the cruise ship and around during my morning excursion added up! By the end of the day after Mendenhall Glacier, I was at 27,000 steps! I was at 7,000 steps before I even started going to the Mendenhall Glacier.
For my one day in Juneau, I did a Juneau icefield seaplane tour + Taku Glacier Lodge salmon bake that started in the morning, and then in the afternoon I did Mendenhall Glacier on my own.
I was really only able to go to Mendenhall Glacier by bus because we had a long day in Juneau which meant I had extra time. It was an 8am arrival to Juneau, and the back-on-board time was 8:45pm.
Even with that extra time, I had to pay close attention to the bus timings since it seemed like towards the later evening the bus frequency became more limited.
It ended up working out well, though!
More Alaska cruise ports on your own: In Ketchikan, you can take the Ketchikan bus to totem parks on your own! In Sitka, you can see totem poles in Sitka National Historical Park on your own.
On another Alaska cruise, I did a different kind of Mendenhall Glacier tour.
It was a Mendenhall Glacier tour by canoe.
It was a canoe on the lake (you will be paddling!), then once on shore, we did a small hike to see the Mendenhall Glacier (and blue ice!) up close!
This didn’t go directly to the glacier, as in we didn’t walk on the Mendenhall Glacier, but I consider it one of my favorite tours that I did in Alaska!
One of the things you’ll learn during your Alaska cruise is how glaciers are continually retreating (moving back), and we were walking in ice-free areas that were completely covered in ice just a few years ago!
So you can really get a feel for how much glaciers are moving.
How to get to Mendenhall Glacier from Juneau cruise port
You can get to Mendenhall Glacier from the Juneau cruise port by tour, shuttle, or bus.
You can also get to the Mendenhall Glacier by taxi, uber, lyft, or renting a car, according to the Juneau tourism people.
Your options for getting to the Mendenhall Glacier for the rest of the summer 2023 are a little more limited than they were earlier this summer… read on.
Earlier this summer, the easiest way to get to Mendenhall Glacier from the cruise ship was to take an excursion organized by your cruise ship. $$$
The next easiest way to get to Mendenhall Glacier used to be to go by shuttle. $$
If you are starting your cruise in Whittier or ending your cruise in Whittier… or it will be in the middle of it… I would like to recommend to you the 26 glacier tour as an alternative to the Mendenhall Glacier! You will get a better view of glaciers compared to seeing the Mendenhall Glacier from the visitor center, which is what most people do.
And the most “difficult” way to get to Mendenhall Glacier (because of all the walking) is to go by bus on your own. $
The cheapest way to get to Mendenhall Glacier is by bus.
So you can get to Mendenhall Glacier by bus from the cruise port.
But do YOU want to?
I went to the ticket booth to inquire about whether I would be able to get a one-way shuttle ticket.
Since I had already walked a lot by that point, it would have been nice to only have to do a one-way walk to Mendenhall Glacier.
No, they do not sell one-way shuttle tickets.
Here is basically the conversation I had with the person selling the Mendenhall Glacier shuttle tickets:
- me: Do you sell one-way shuttle tickets? I would like a shuttle from the Mendenhall Glacier.
- shuttle ticket seller: *seems confused* How would you get there?
- me: Public bus.
- shuttle ticket seller: Why would you do that?
- me: uhh… because it’s cheaper…
I was literally thinking, what type of question is that?! ðð
But that basically sums up how you might feel about going to the Mendenhall Glacier by bus.
To some people, the idea of going to Mendenhall Glacier by bus is a ridiculous idea that shouldn’t even be considered. ðĪŠ
And maybe that’s you.
But well, it’s not me.
There is a bus stop that is kind of near the Juneau cruise port, and from there, you’ll take a direct bus to get you close to the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area.
Google maps makes planning for the Mendenhall Glacier bus easy.
It can help you with locating the bus stop, and it can also help you figure out the bus timings.
You just need to make sure you have cash in dollar bills so you can take the bus.
More below about what you need to know to get to Mendenhall Glacier by bus!
ð
What to know about taking the bus to Mendenhall Glacier
You can use google maps to help you plan your bus trip to Mendenhall Glacier.
Make the “Juneau Cruise Ship Terminal Area” as your starting point. (map)
Your ultimate destination is the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center and it is on google maps. (map)
But for purposes of figuring out the bus to get there, I found it easier to use “Mendenhall Glacier Studio & Gallery” as the destination.
Then, click the public transit option.
Because the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is not so close to a bus stop, I found google maps would more often suggest driving instead of bus only, even when selecting the public transit option.
If you’re still at home, you can change the “depart at” time to get a better idea of bus timings available. It may also be helpful to change the day of the week, as weekdays vs weekends may be different.
There is a bus stop kind of near the Juneau cruise port in downtown Juneau.
You can catch a bus to Mendenhall Glacier from the “downtown transit center.”
This may be around a 10 minute walk from your cruise ship. (map)
The closest bus stop to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is 1.5 miles away.
Depending on how fast or slow you walk, this means that you may be walking 30 to 40 minutes one way to get to and from the bus stop.
This means that you might end up walking an hour or more round trip in order to take the bus.
There is a paved trail from the bus stop to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, and it is basically flat.
You might spend an hour walking around the Mendenhall Glacier.
If you’re making the trip out to Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, you want to not only see the Mendenhall Glacier, but you also want to do the Nugget Falls Trail.
So in addition to the one hour you will spend getting to and from the bus stop, you may spend one more hour walking the Mendenhall Glacier trails.
These trails are mostly flat.
It’s around a 45 minute bus ride to the closest bus stop to Mendenhall Glacier.
The bus stop closest to the Juneau cruise port to the bus stop closest to the Mendenhall Glacier will be around 45 minutes.
You can follow along on google maps to know when you’re getting near.
You can also expand out on google maps to see all the bus stops.
The bus driver will be announcing upcoming bus stops, so you can follow along that way too.
It’s $2 in cash for a one-way bus fare.
No change will be given, so you want to have $4 in dollar bills, $2 each way.
You can take the Mendenhall Valley bus to Mendenhall Glacier.
Depending on your timing, there are a couple of bus routes you may be able to take.
Bus routes 3 and 4 are the Mendenhall Valley buses.
I took bus route 3 called the Mendenhall Valley bus route from the downtown transit center to Mendenhall Glacier.
You can use google maps to look for bus routes and bus timings.
There are buses back to downtown Juneau and the Juneau cruise port at the same bus stop you got off at, and also across the street.
After you’re finished with the Mendenhall Glacier, there are buses that go back to downtown Juneau going in both directions.
I ended up getting on a different bus than the bus I thought I’d be waiting for according to google maps.
I thought I’d have to wait 20 minutes or so for the next bus, but right as I arrived I saw another bus.
I asked the bus driver if it was going to downtown Juneau and they said yes, so I didn’t have to wait at all.
I’m not sure why that bus didn’t show up on google maps as a next bus that I could take, but still, I think google maps can be good for figuring out generally how to take the bus to and from Mendenhall Glacier!
If you are still at home and doing a little planning, then another way you can use google maps is to adjust the time.
For example, you can see the suggested bus route if you want to be back to the cruise port by a certain time or if you want to leave at a certain time.
How much time do you need at Mendenhall Glacier?
Of course, you can always spend longer if you want to take in your surroundings in more slowly.
I walked the trails at a relatively leisurely pace and spent a little bit of time at Nugget Falls, and I had around 1.5 hours in Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area.
So for example, here is how my Mendenhall Glacier afternoon went:
- 2:10pm: bus from downtown transit center (bus stop near Juneau cruise port)
- 3pm: arrived at bus stop closest to Mendenhall Glacier, start walking to Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center!
- 3:05pm: Tongass National Forest sign
- 3:30pm: arrived at Mendenhall Glacier parking lot, start doing things in Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area!
- Photo Point Trail, Nugget Falls Trail, Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center overlook
- 5pm: started walking to bus stop to go back to cruise port
- 5:35pm: got on bus back to downtown Juneau and cruise port
- 6:20pm: arrived at downtown Juneau bus stop, walk back to Juneau cruise port!
- 6:30pm: arrived at Tracy’s King Crab Shack, located a few minutes walk from the cruise ship
You can see the Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls at the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area!
Once you arrive at the Mendenhall Glacier parking lot, you will be on your way to do Photo Point Trail and Nugget Falls Trail!
Stop by the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center too!
That’s where you’ll find the best view of the Mendenhall Glacier! (I think it’s better than Photo Point Trail.)
Tips from the US Forest Service about getting to Mendenhall Glacier
City Public Transportation: The city bus charges a minimal fee.
The bus does not make a stop directly at the dock or at the Visitor Center.
The city bus drops visitors a mile and a half from the Visitor Center.
Visitors will then need to follow the sidewalk from the bus stop 1.5 miles to the end of Glacier Spur Road.
The path is flat and paved.
Read more from the US Forest Service.
And that’s a bit about getting to Mendenhall Glacier by bus!
I went to Mendenhall Glacier in May 2023. I was on a Princess cruise that made a stop in Juneau. Your experience may vary!
HAPPY BUS RIDE TO MENDENHALL GLACIER!
There are partner websites included in this post. I may earn a commission.