We booked a whale watch for Juneau.  I have not been hugely successful seeing whales on tours, but we took a chance.  The tour we booked also included a stop at the Mendenhall Glacier as well.  You could just book the whale watch alone.  

Our tour was at 10am.  We signed in with the group not far from where the cruise ship docked.  We took a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier.  Our driver (I think his name was Fred) was full of information.  He told us all about the area as he drove.  I counted bald eagles.  They were all sitting on top of telephone poles.  There were 25 on the way to the glacier.  Fred was super helpful explaining what we would see at the glacier.  He let us know if we were going to walk out to the waterfalls that it would take awhile because of other people. It was good to know all our options before we got there. 

We had an hour to explore the glacier area.  We decided not to take the trail to the waterfalls.  We took a few pictures and then walked up the ramp to the visitor’s center.  We took more pictures outside of both the glacier and the waterfalls.  

We walked down the stairs and over to the water to take a few more pictures.  Then we took the elevator up to the visitor center again and watched the video.  It was pretty packed so we had to watch it standing up and looking at the exhibit was also tough due to the volume of people. 

The bus picked us up with more people on it already for the whale watch.  Two of the three crew met us at the bus to walk us to the boat. We had to sit inside the boat on the way out to see the whales.  Griffin told us all about humpback whales on the way.  He stressed that humpback whales (unlike other whales) are solitary. There are signs to look for when sighting whales: the blow spout, the whale surfacing, or a number of boats together.  We needed to call out the number of the clock where we spotted any of these signs. 

We saw all the boats gathered first and then we saw many blow spouts.  Griffin was so excited that I thought he was going to have a heart attack.  He told us that we were going to get to see the whales bubble net fishing.  Only 2% of humpback whales to do this. There is one whale that knows what to do, gathers the other whales, and they fish together.  They basically gather up under a bait ball (a big school of fish) and come up to the top with their mouths open.  

The boat got to a good spot and we watched as multiple whales broke the surface.  It was beautiful.  It actually made me teary eyed to see such an amazing thing in nature.  Griffin was crying.  

After they surface, then you see their pectoral fins break the surface and later, their tails.  There were so many whales that we got to see multiple things at one time.  

Griffin counted 12 whales, naming each of them, which I thought was very impressive.  After the tails went under, there was a period of time where they had to regroup.  Sometimes they moved the boat to try to be closer to the whales surfacing and sometimes we didn’t need to move because they didn’t go very far. 

I was able to record a session of their fishing.  You can hear them trumpeting while they do it.  I can’t explain how cool it is to hear a whale making noise.  The crew put a microphone in the water so that it would amplify the sound and we got to hear them even more clearly.  

At one point, the whales switched directions and headed right toward the boat.  They are regulated to stay at least so many feet away from the whales, but if the whales come toward the boat, they must shut off all the engines.  I’m not going to lie, it was pretty daunting to see these school bus sized animals swimming toward the boat.  I got some amazing close up pictures and watching them swim next to and under the boat!  

We had asked Griffin how many whales they usually see on a trip.  One or two whales!  We saw 12 swimming together!  My husband asked how often you see a whale breaching the water (like you see on tv).  Griffin said that was very rare.  We saw them do it multiple times and one time they landed on their chin instead of their back, which hardly ever happens!

When our time was up, we all got back into the inside of the boat and Griffin briefed us on all the amazing things we got to see.  I also spotted another whale’s blow hole as we were driving back to shore. In total that was 13 whales in one trip!  The crew begged us not to say anything to the next group that were boarding the boat.  They doubted they would see the bubble net fishing again.  I looked on their website reviews and it only happens once each year, as far as I could tell.  

I don’t think that I need to go whale watching anytime soon. That was the excursion of a lifetime!