- Moderate
- 8+ years old
- 3.25 hours
The Walkabout offers a personalized experience and the unique opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the Mendenhall Glacier’s most stunning features.
Quick Details
The Bucket-list Alaskan Adventure
Upon arrival at our seaside base on Douglas Island, you will be outfitted with glacier overboots and a floatation device. Our professional staff will provide a thorough safety briefing before helping you load into one of our A-Star helicopters.
Your pilot will choose one of many scenic routes to fly you to our dog camp, providing stunning views of the Tongass National Forest and Juneau Icefield along the way on your very own Juneau helicopter tour. You might even get lucky enough to spot wildlife or a calving glacier!
Upon landing at our dog camp, you will be greeted by your guide, a professional musher with years of experience dog sledding in Alaska. Our guides are eager to share their lifestyle and teach you the basics of dogsled handling and dog commands, along with leading you on an exciting mush for up to two miles.
You will be mushing with Alaskan sled dogs raised in the interior of Alaska. You will be able to observe, firsthand, how the dogs respond to the tour guides with love, a wagging tail, and an unshakable desire to take guests with them down the trail.
You will have a full hour on the glacier and the opportunity to view your dogsledding photos before the helicopters return for your gorgeous flight back to base. There will be a brief opportunity to visit our gift shop before our comfortable vans escort you back to your pickup location.
Please see FAQ’s page for general information about our tours and safety, here.
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- The total tour duration is 3.25 hours
- Tour includes approximately 30 minutes of helicopter time and 1 hour on the glacier
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Enjoy a bird’s-eye view of up to four glaciers and the world’s largest temperate rainforest en-route to dog camp.
Learn the history and basics of dog sledding from professional Iditarod and Yukon Quest dog racers.
Mush across a snow-capped glacier behind a team of well-cared-for, excitable sled dogs.
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- Must be at least 2 years old to participate.
- For liability reasons, our NorthStar employees cannot lift guests into or out of the helicopter. Our staff will be there to assist, though guests are responsible for handling these steps on their own.
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We will provide over boots that comfortably fit over your shoes.
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You should dress for a 10-15°F temperature decrease from sea-level (at the cruise ship docks) to the glacier. We recommend that you dress in long socks, warm layers, and sunglasses.
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NorthStar’s policies prohibit the following items on our aircraft/tour:
- Bags or cases of any kind
- iPads or tablets, tripods
- Selfie sticks or other extendible items
- Drone
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Due to weight and balance limitations, as well as guest safety and comfort, passengers weighing 250 pounds (113kg or 18 Stone) or more will be charged an additional $150.00 to reserve adequate space on board the helicopter. Total weight includes shoes and clothing. Surcharge must be paid at time of booking.
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We arrange seating based on the weight, balance, safety, and comfort of the whole departure, and cannot guarantee that we will be able to keep groups together on the aircraft. Please note that we will do everything possible to keep groups together for the flight portion of the tour, but we are sometimes required to split a group between multiple helicopters. All groups will be together for the glacier portion of the tour.
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If you decide to cancel more than 24 hours before departure, you will receive a refund minus a 10% cancellation fee. If you cancel less than 24 hours before departure, you will not receive a refund.
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Weather in Juneau can often be overcast and rainy. Decisions to operate tours are based on safety and tour quality. Should we decide not to operate your scheduled tour we will do our best to reschedule. If this is not possible, you will be refunded in full. In most cases we will not make the decision to cancel a tour until within an hour of departure, as the weather can quickly change and we do not want to preemptively cancel a tour – if it is at all possible it will run.
