A typical whale-watch trip often includes (depending on routing and whale locations) viewing up to three separate glaciers.

Juneau is "surrounded" by an ice field approximate 100 miles (160 km) long and 45 miles (70 km) wide, and covers about 1,500 square miles (390,000 hectares). Since the mid-1700's, the Juneau ice-field has been slowly dwindling in total size. Currently the ice field above Juneau accumulates over a hundred feet (35 m) of snow annually to continue to "feed" these glaciers. 

This does not mean that all glaciers flowing from the Juneau ice field are in retreat. Indeed, the Taku Glacier (the largest of all the glaiers of the Juneau ice field. It is located north-east of Juneau and is so rapidly advancing that scientists last year expressed concern that it might totally block the Taku river and create an ice-bound lake stretching all the way to Canada. Since the Taku River is a MAJOR King Salmon spawning system, this is of great concern. The Taku glacier system advances and retreats cyclically every thousand years or so.

The blue appearance of glaciers is produced because of the high density of glacial ice (compared to "regular" ice). Glacial ice absorbs all color of the light spectrum except blue, which is reflected.