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BackMendenhall Glacier
The Mendenhall Glacier reached its point of maximum advance in the mid-1700s, and its terminus rested almost 2.5 miles down the valley from its present position. It started retreating in the mid-1700s because its annual rate of melt began to exceed its annual total accumulation. The glacier's terminus currently calves into Mendenhall Lake, where the water is 220 feet deep. The ice is retreating at a rate of 100 to 150 feet a year. At this rate, the glacier would take several centuries to completely disappear.
The Juneau Icefield located in the Coast Mountain Range, North America's fifth largest icefield blankets over 1,500 square miles of land, and stretches nearly 85 miles north to south and 45 miles east to west. It feeds 38 large glaciers, including the Mendenhall, on the road system just north of Alaska's capital city, Juneau, and the Taku, the largest, visible only by boat or plane.
Although the Juneau Icefield is at least 3,000 years old, the ice itself remains relatively young because it is perpetually renewed through snowfall at upper elevations as it flows downhill in its glaciers. Glacial ice at the terminus of Mendenhall Glacier has flowed for 200-250 years on its 13-mile trek to Mendenhall Lake across from the visitor center.
The Juneau Icefield
The Juneau Icefield is a massive accumulation of ice and snow stretching from upper Taku Inlet north to Skagway. Scientists estimate the icefield's snow and ice depth to be from 800 to over 4,500 feet. It lies around peaks called nunataks which push through the ice. Devil's Paw, the icefield's highest peak, straddles the Alaska-Canada border and stands 8,584 feet tall. Like a parent, the Juneau Icefield sends its offspring down from the heights to find their way inexorably down between the peaks in the many glaciers it feeds.