Type Cascade and Fan Total width 100 feet (30 m) Height 115 m Number of drops 2 Watercourse Nugget Creek | Total height 377 feet (115 m) Average
flow rate Perennial Width 30 m Longest drop 85 m | |
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Location East of Mendenhall Glacier, Auke Bay, Alaska Address Nugget Creek, Juneau, AK 99801, United States Similar Glacier Gardens Rainfores, DIPAC Macaulay Salmon H, Mendenhall Glacier, Mount Roberts Tramway, Alaska State Museum | ||
Nugget falls trail to mendenhall glacier
Nugget Falls, also known as Nugget Creek Falls or Mendenhall Glacier Falls, is a waterfall downstream of the Nugget Glacier, in the U.S. state of Alaska. Formed by the creek from the Nugget Glacier, the waterfall drops 377 feet (115 m) in two tiers of 99 feet (30 m) and 278 feet (85 m) onto a sandbar in Mendenhall Lake, which is the freshwater pool at the face of the Mendenhall glacier. The lake then drains via Mendenhall River into the Inside Passage. The waterfall is fed by Nugget Creek, which is in turn fed by the Nugget Glacier, a tributary glacier on the mountainside east of Auke Bay. The creek cascades down towards Mendenhall Lake, forming a hanging valley, then plunges over the falls to the lake. Prior to the recession of Mendenhall Glacier, it was said that the falls would drop "directly on the glacier", or that the "glacier covered the waterfall".