Nugget Falls - Mendenhall Glacier - Juneau, Alaska

date hiked: July 26, 2007
distance: 1 mile
highest elevation: unknown
elevation gain: unknown
time: approximately 1 hour

Tyler has decided that he doesn’t hate all hiking. In fact, he loved the hike to Nugget Falls. Somehow, instead of being thrilled, I’m filled with apprehension. It figures.

Nugget Falls sits just next to Mendenhall Glacier roaring down into Mendenhall Lake. You can get to the bottom of the falls from the visitor center, by walking along the beach of the lake. Kind of. When you leave the visitor center to make your way along the beach, you come upon several signs. “Going to Nugget Falls is not a trail! You may have to wade in water. There is a recent rock avalanche to climb! Every week people need to be rescued! It will take over an hour to reach you! This is not a trail!”

I look to Tyler. I ask, “You want to go?” He says, full of excitement, “Yeah, absolutely!” So off we go. Inside, I secretly wonder if this is one of those things I’m going to be kicking myself about later. I mean…neither one of us could be considered very graceful. I’m pretty sure I have an affinity for hazardous situations. Throw my equally accident prone awkward teen in the mix…and you could have a SAR. Yet, here we are, hiking on a non-trail to a waterfall a half-mile away.

The first challenge we came to was a choice: climb a rock wall or cross the water. I let Tyler choose. He chose the water.

Tyler thought it was great. Water up to my knees (he’s taller than me). We both thought it was freezing! We had to cross the water three more times (although since Tyler was leading and he liked it so much, it could have been on purpose). After that, we walked along the beach for a while. Then we came to the rock avalanche. It was massive. We climbed huge boulders, over and over, slowly making our way across. I looked back at Tyler and he was smiling so big. My heart leapt. We were having so much fun. After the rock avalanche, we made it to the falls.

Nugget Falls is amazing. You are so close; the spray soaks you with freezing cold water. Sitting right next to the falls, is the glacier. The icebergs are floating so large and massive in the lake. Tyler and I had to yell at each other over the roar of the falls, even then we could barely hear.

Heading back, we climbed the boulders, crossed the water…and laughed a lot. Tyler says he’d hike like this anytime. I said…okay we’ll just have to keeping finding trails that aren’t there.

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