Last summer, we went on a cruise to see Southeast Alaska. When planning possible activities in the port of Juneau, one that struck my teens’ attention was taking a helicopter to a glacier and dog sledding there. Here, we write up the experience, and our thoughts.

We fully realize that taking a helicopter to take a dog sled ride on a glacier is a kind of a gratuitous activity. This wasn’t a particularly inexpensive excursion, and there are plenty of other things to do in Juneau. Still, it was intriguing enough that we decided to try it. Like many of the excursions, this is something that should be booked in well advance, since they can book up in the peak summer season.

Flying to the Glacier

The actual excursion started with a pick up near the docks; the company had a van that took our group to the Juneau airport. At the airport, they gave us some safety briefings and prepped us for the trip. It seemed like they scheduled people to effectively come in groups of about 15-20 per half hour, enough to fit in their fleet of 3 or 4 helicopters. From there, we took off in a yellow helicopter, getting scenic views of surrounding Juneau.

The entire helicopter ride was maybe only 10 minutes, long enough to get to the nearby glacier. Once we got there, they led us away from the helicopter, and had another group waiting to take our place, and be shuttled back to the airport.

On the Glacier

Right after we got there, they showed us the dogs’ base camp. The dogs each had little dog shelters, as well as feeding area and such. I imagine some people might not like the idea of using dogs for transportation; that said, the dogs seemed to love running and being active, and the care-takers seemed to be animal lovers who genuinely cared about them. But if you’re not comfortable with that, you might want to skip.

From there, we boarded the dog sled, which was the right size for the 4 of us. The dogs were clearly eager to run, if not wanting to win the Iditarod. Our guide/driver had the dog sled effectively tied down; as soon as she pulled out the knot on the rope, we fly off quite quickly.

There was an effectively a set circle route that we went on around the glacier. Roughly half-way along the route, we paused for a few minutes to stand up and look around. We also had the opportunity to pet some of the dogs. Most of them were friendly – though we were told which ones would best appreciate human attention.

From there, we completed the rest of the loop with the dogs. We were maybe up there for an hour or so total? Even so, it was quite memorable. After we had gotten off the dog sled, we had a few minutes to admire the glacier, to take pictures, and say good bye to the dogs before we got back on the helicopter.

I will say that the glacier dog sledding, while perhaps a little gratuitous, was definitely a fun excursion! I don’t think we necessarily need to do it again, but it was a neat thing to try once, and I think our teens will have fond memories of the experience.

Elsewhere in Juneau

Juneau has many other things to do. If you don’t do something like this dog sledding trip, do consider taking the bus to the Mendenhall Glacier. Other people recommend the Goldbelt Tramway for its panoramic view.

For us, we spent time in the morning before our excursion at the Alaska State Museum, which was quite extensive. The city had plenty of enjoyable shops. We also saw a Russian Orthodox church, from when Russia controlled Alaska. We found ourselves a little short on photos to do a decent Juneau-only blog post, but were very happy with our Juneau port stop.

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