Day 3 - Juneau, cable car

[sashura]

Right across the cruise ships pier there is a cable car going up to the top of a mountain, so after lunch we went to try it out.

There was a line, but it was moving pretty fast — the guy selling tickets said it will be a 20 min wait and he was right.

The tram brings you to 1800 ft above sea level and the view from there is great!

At the top there is a visitor center with a restaurant, bar, some sort of museum, and a trail.



The loop that they show is pretty wide and easy with great views.

























But when you got to the furthest point of the loop, the cross, there was a trail that continued towards the snow. And since it looked close enough, we went on. And on. And a bit more on.







The path stopped being nice and easy, but the incentive to get to the snow was too big to turn around. And we made it there! I went to build a snowman



And to find twigs for the arms:



Here he is:











The way back down was faster, but scarry at times. We made it was no falls, so it's all good.

It was interesting to see how fast the climate zones were changing: at 1800 ft there were tall trees, bent by the winter snow, then they got smaller and smaller, then trees disappeared, and it was all the alpine flowers. And then by the snow line there was just grass left. Usually, it takes a car ride to see these changes, but here everything was compressed into an hour-long climb.