Juneau - Mendenhall Glacier

[packedandready]

We have a whale watching tour booked through an independent company. Should be back by 1pm and ship leaves at 5. So guessing will need to be back onboard by 4:30. Is that enough time to see Mendenhall Glacier on our own? I'm thinking not, but checking anyway. 

[Madam Butterfly Ahoy]

4 hours ago, packedandready said:

We have a whale watching tour booked through an independent company. Should be back by 1pm and ship leaves at 5. So guessing will need to be back onboard by 4:30. Is that enough time to see Mendenhall Glacier on our own? I'm thinking not, but checking anyway. 

[travelbuds]

13 hours ago, packedandready said:

We have a whale watching tour booked through an independent company. Should be back by 1pm and ship leaves at 5. So guessing will need to be back onboard by 4:30. Is that enough time to see Mendenhall Glacier on our own? I'm thinking not, but checking anyway. 

The past two summers we had to be onboard by 3:30pm for a 4pm departure. We did whale watching with Harv and Marv and got back to Auke Bay by 11:45am. We had made arrangements with Evergreen Taxi to pick us up at noon at the Auke Bay harbor (Statter Harbor) for the 10 minute drive over to Mendenhall. The other 4 on the boat were taken back to the ship. That saved us 40-50 minutes by not going back to the ship. We had time to go to Photo Point and hike to Nugget Falls. Didn't go inside visitor center as we had done that on other trips. Got the Blue Bus to go back to the ship. Blue Bus tickets from VC had to be purchased (half price of RT fare) directly from company (Tammy) via phone. Not sure how that schedule works now because of permit shortage. Could also make arrangement with taxi.  Left the VC at 2pm and still had time to shop for fudge near dock. Guess it just depends on what you feel comfortable with.