This Jaw Dropping Place In Alaska Will Blow You Away
By Casea Peterson|Published February 11, 2016
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Casea Peterson
Author
Casea Peterson grew up archery hunting, fishing, and camping throughout the Pacific Northwest. Motivated by her love for the outdoors she moved to Alaska to attend school and to spend time exploring the last frontier. If she doesn’t have a pen in hand or her nose in a book, she can be found out on a lake or up in the woods around a fire with friends.
The Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska is more than a big frozen block of snow and ice; it is an ever-changing natural phenomenon riddled with pockets and caves that, at first glance, seem to be filled with cool blue crystals. The melting of the snow and ice creates caves that are filled with shockingly blue ice. These caves are sought out by both the tourists and by locals, and the fact that they are so dangerous to get to makes the appeal that much greater. If you ever get an opportunity to visit one of the Mendenhall Ice Caves you will walk away slack-jawed and dazzled. Make sure you bring a camera because this trip will be a once in a lifetime experience!
The Mendenhall Ice Caves are within the Tongass National Forest just outside of Juneau in Southeast Alaska. The caves are very popular among tourists and locals alike, but visiting them can be very dangerous.
The most well-known and photographed cave was on the westernmost side of the glacier, but in 2014 its icy walls thinned enough for the cave to finally collapse. Ice caves are constantly morphing in and out of existence as glaciers continues to melt so as sad as it was to see this cave collapse, there will always be more to explore.
Many of the ice caves can take anywhere from 6 to 8 hours to reach by foot. The trip requires a guide and the correct supplies (ice axe, crampons, warm gear, etc.) but trust me it is all worth it when you walk into the cool blue confines of an ice cave.
Some of the Mendenhall Ice Caves accessible by kayak or boat. One must travel across the dangerously cold waters of Mendenhall Lake and pass dangerously close to the toe of the glacier. Trust me folks, glacial caving is no joke - please be safe if you're going to take this route.
The biggest appeal about the ice caves is the chilly blue interior. Many people wonder why the caves are so strikingly blue and the reason is because blue is the only color that ice transmits. You'll often see white ice, but that is simply ice filled with enough air pockets to distort its true blue color.
The ice caves melt as the glacier recedes and this, sadly, causes them to collapse. However, there is a silver lining concerning the rapidly melting glacier; as the ice melts away, land that has been covered for thousands of years slowly starts to appear. Apparently a lost forest is being uncovered slowly with stumps that date back as far as 2,000 years!
So, though the famous western ice cave has already collapsed, there still exist many other entrancing ice caves in the Mendenhall Glacier. If you plan a trip, please use a guide, and remember safety is your number one priority.
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