Which glacier is about 12 miles from downtown Juneau, Alaska?

The glacier about 12 miles from downtown Juneau, Alaska, is Mendenhall Glacier. It occupies Mendenhall Valley in the Coast Range and is one of the most accessible major glaciers in Alaska’s capital region.

Mendenhall Glacier is an outlet of the Juneau Icefield, a vast ice-covered mountain area that feeds numerous glaciers in southeastern Alaska. The glacier itself is about 13.6 miles long and ends in Mendenhall Lake, a proglacial lake formed as the ice retreated. Its location near Juneau has made it a major destination for visitors, researchers, and local conservation programs.

The surrounding 5,815-acre Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area is part of the Tongass National Forest. A frequent mix-up is choosing Taku Glacier, another Juneau-area glacier; Taku is also associated with the Juneau Icefield but lies in a different setting and is not the glacier identified by the downtown-distance clue. Mendenhall has retreated markedly since the lake formed in 1929, and monitoring has documented continued ice loss.