Juneau, AK. June 2023

Hey there adventurers! The Sidekick and I ended up in Juneau in June this year! Most people cruise to Juneau and can only stay 8 hours or so, but we flew and stayed a week to see the whole area and to optimize the chance for good weather. This trip also included a day trip to Glacier Bay National Park. Feel free to visit that entry and check it out! *It took way to long to get this one out, I already had this done but apparently hitting save did not actually save because I had left the window open too long before hitting save, and lost it all. Ugh. Also, some life situations hit….several more trip logs should be coming in short order!*

Before I get into the entry, I will give a quick geography lesson of the area! Southeast Alaska, which is predominantly mountainous rainforest, is cut off from the rest of Alaska, and mostly even from neighboring Canada. Many people visit Juneau as one stop on a cruise that visits several towns in what is called the Inner Passage. Despite being Alaska’s capital city, it is only accessible by plane or one of those cruise ships. Juneau sits to the east of a channel of water called the Gastineau Channel. Downtown is the touristy area where the cruise ships dock. The main road travels north a few miles to the “midtown” area, then continues further north through the Mendenhall Valley, where the airport and University of Alaska Southeast is located, as well as the namesake Mendenhall Glacier. The road continues north quite a ways into the sparse surroundings before ending. The road also continues south of downtown for a little bit as well. From downtown there is a bridge across the channel to Douglas Island. Douglas Island is a mountain that is mostly just the road from the smaller town of Douglas that wraps about halfway around the northern part of the island passing homes along the road and a ski resort at the top. If you care to travel elsewhere you need boat or plane access!

We landed on Wednesday, as scheduled and were off on the adventure! We settled into our AirBnb, a really nifty cabin on Douglas Island, right across the Gastineau Channel from downtown Juneau. The area and cabin were perfect for the peaceful setting, but the spot was only a few minutes from downtown Juneau and also from Douglas, the little town at the south end of the Douglas road. There aren’t many things to do on the island other than the ski resort. There is a Sandy Beach (that’s its name!) and a few restaurants and shops in Douglas. Other than that, it’s mostly residential with some hiking opportunities, but made for a convenient base camp for the first half of the trip. Heading into Juneau, we made a stop at the Red Dog Saloon in downtown. This is a very kitschy place that seems to be a “must do” for tourists in downtown. I am glad we did it, although the place was a little too touristy for me, but they did offer a proper duck fart (it’s a shot)! Next up we meandered a bit and took in the sites of downtown. Juneau is the 2nd largest “city” in the state, and also the capitol, but it’s still quite small with a population of 32,000. The scenery is great, so simply walking around was cool! After dinner we checked out the Alaskan Hotel and Bar, an old school hotel and saloon style bar, with a stage and karaoke that night. After some fun there it was time to catch some shut eye. Mind you …June in Alaska: even though pretty far south, still, June in Alaska (bring eye masks!)

Thursday saw us begin the day by visiting the Sandy Beach in Douglas. Here we walked on an actual …well…Sandy Beach! There was some kind of structure sitting up high out of the water (it was low tide) and a bald eagle was chilling on top with the mountain serving the perfect backdrop. It was a great peaceful spot to take in the surrounding scenery. From there we headed into Juneau and did some more exploring! Juneau has a cruise ship port so we checked that out: pretty much what you would expect with shops and restaurants for the cruise passengers. We stopped at a couple breweries: Alaskan Brewing Company and Forbidden Peak Brewery. FYI, there are weird alcohol laws in Alaska. A brewery can only serve what they make, and only like 32 ounces to anyone in any one day, yet you can go to the bar down the road and drink as much as you want. They also have to close at 8, and there is some weird rule against games and music in a brewery as well. Really bizarre! Alaskan Brewing Company is located in an industrial type spot in the midtown area, although they do have a tap room near the cruise terminal. They had the better beer, and you can actually find their beer in a lot of the lower 48. Forbidden Peak is in the Mendenhall Valley, and has a nice covered outdoor area with fires, overlooking Auke Bay, so the scenery was much better. We departed from there and drove the road north about 15 miles to a quaint church called The Shrine to St. Therese. It’s a particularly well known photogenic spot, but at this point it was raining and starting to get cold so the visit was brief and we headed back to downtown. A very enjoyable place to hang down by the cruise ships is a place called the Hangar. The bar here overlooks the marina and you have a huge cruise ship staring down at you, but the sea planes depart from right below the Hangar…hence the name! The Hangar had some pretty banging fried mushroom “fries” with sweet chili sauce…I highly recommend! We did some additional recon for activities later in the trip and stopped for dinner at a delicious Indian place called Spice, and by “nightfall” we found ourselves at another old school saloon type tavern called The Crystal Saloon. There is also a stage there and it was open mic night, so good entertainment was had!

While Thursday was a litle suspect, weather-wise, Friday was a good old fashioned southeast Alaska day: heavy rain and 50 degrees. This was also the day that I had initially intended to check out Glacier Bay National Park. Thankfully during the layover on the way up, I was able to get everything rebooked for a Sunday visit! So, instead we did rainy day things! After a nice breakfast at The Rookery Cafe, not too early, we headed to another brewery nearby in downtown called Devil’s Club Brewing Company. They have some damn fine beers as well, check it out for sure! As you can imagine, with all the mountains around there are many trails to explore. Even with the rain, we did a simple, not terribly long, yet pretty hike called the Gold Creek Flume Trail. This trail is accessed pretty much from the downtown area and follows an old creek that I bet used to be a gold panning creek (big brain!?). The trail itself looks to have been an old transport rail and is generally flat and very easy. After the hike and a revisit to the Hangar, we drove back to Douglas Island and drove the road north a bit. We explored a bit of the ski resort area, closed for the season, of course, and found a cool waterfall near the end of the road!

Saturday was the first of three absolutely stunning days! We planned to explore the Mendenhall Glacier, the real Juneau showstopper, and planned accordingly to spend half of the trip in lodging nearby, so this was the day to change locations. The glacier was neat to view, but it has retreated so much that the best view is from the visitor center viewing platform. To access the glacier you need to kayak, as trails only take you to other viewpoints. There is however, one cool feature to hike to: Nugget Falls. This waterfall is pretty impressive! It only exists because of the glacier’s retreat and is found at the end of a pretty easy, mile or so hike. If you want to see the area without a huge crowd, get there early to beat the cruise ship crowd! After adventuring around the we headed back downtown to check out another must do in Juneau: Deckhand Dave’s Fish Taco food truck. Legit, this is a must do in the area! The Sidekick is vegetarian, so while the place is called a ‘fish taco” joint, this is actually a food truck/bar “area” with several options that suited her, while I got shrimp tacos that had been harvested that morning from Skagway! When I say get there at opening at 11 AM, you should! We were there a bit early and still had to wait in line. At 11 the line for the fish taco truck was about 20 deep! Next up was the bigger more strenuous hike: Mt. Roberts. This trail is actually a continuation of the Gold Creek Flume trail we hiked earlier in the trip. This trail leads up the mountain that overlooks the Gastineau Channel above Juneau. There is an aerial tram that also leads up to the mountain from the cruise ship terminal. It is quite pricey at 50 dollars up, but if you hike up, and tram down it’s 10 bucks, or FREE if you spend money at the restaurant/bar/gift shop at the top. Most people do that, and so we did as well. After reaching the tram station, the Sidekick decided to chill at the restaurant and I continued about another half mile or so up the trail to a beautiful scenic spot called Nolan’s cross. This spot is gorgeous in every way! Definitely a highlight for the entire trip! The trail actually goes on for many more miles but this was my ultimate destination, so I met up with the Sidekick and we called it a day to prepare for an early morning.

Sunday was yet another stunning day! The Sidekick and I hopped on bush plane and flew out to Gustavus, AK to visit Glacier Bay National Park. This is one of the 63 “big” National Parks, and one of 8 found in Alaska. This one requires some hoops to get through, but due to its proximity to Juneau, other than some money, it’s not terribly inaccessible. Follow the link to read the separate entry for this side adventure!

Monday was our final full day in Juneau and it was another day of amazing weather. We rented kayaks for a 4 hour self paddle through Auke Bay. The rental was an ocean kayak. I own one of these myself, it’s about 18 feet long, and they absolutely do not handle like a sit on top or a canoe. I only mention this because the bay is home to active yachts, fishing boats, and pleasure boats. As far as we understood there is no wake-free area in the bay, so attentive navigating is needed to deal with those swells in sub-50 degree water. I am happy to report that the “8 Days Without a Capsize” sign the outfitter displayed did not need to reset when we returned! The kayak trip was a couple miles and took us to an island for a snack and a beer. The tide comes in CRAZY fast here, so our stop was brief before the shore disappeared! After an uneventful return paddle and a low key afternoon, it was early to bed before a midnight wake up call for the airport and this trip was in the books!

Overall Impressions: I found Juneau to be super cool and a perfect place to visit. I strongly feel a visit here needs to be longer that a mere cruise ship stop. There are definitely enough things to occupy several days and if you have to contend with weather issues, you will want those extra days for sure! Be prepared to open your wallet. Alaska is expensive in general, but getting to Juneau seems to be even more so. I would absolutely love to come back, but I also absolutely want to visit some of the other little towns scattered around, so unless a stop over in Juneau is a part of that trip, I am uncertain that I will make it back here. It’s a beautiful place though, so go check it out if you can!

The Adventurer’s Rating: 5 Arrowheads!