Juneau, Alaska

“John Muir, the famous naturalist, wrote in his journal that you should never go to Alaska as a young man because you’ll never be satisfied with any other place as long as you live. And there’s a lot of truth to that.”

Tom Bodett

The cruise ship, the Norwegian Star cruised slowly up the Inside Passage to the city of Juneau, Alaska. Coming into port, on both sides of the Inside Passage for miles and miles was heavily forested. This whole area of Alaska’s Inside Passage is a part of Tongass National Forrest which covers about 17 million acres. What a beautiful area with snow covered mountain tops, waterfalls, glaciers, and trees that skyrocketed straight up towards the heavens.

Off in the distance, the city of Juneau appeared in view as we entered the Gastineau Channel. The city of Juneau is nestled snugly between Mount Juneau, Mount Roberts, and Gastineau Channel which is a part of the Inside Passage. This city is the capital of the state of Alaska and is the only capital that is located on an international border. Juneau is the largest capital by land mass in the country and is larger than the state of Delaware. And that is not all. This capital has no roads connecting it to anywhere else in the state or even Canada and can only be reached only by boat or airplane. Oddly, Juneau has more hiking trails than it has roads. This seems odd for this city that is the second most populated city in Alaska after Anchorage with over 30,000 residents.

We exited the ship and headed straight to the Mount Roberts Tramway located just south of downtown while it was early with no big crowds yet. This is an aerial tramway is enclosed and can hold 60 passengers is located in downtown Juneau and has been operating since 1996. It ascends up the steep mountain in 6 minutes going up to a height of 1800 feet. When we got on it, the weather was overcast with low lying clouds and it had rained all ready that day. While in the tram, on our way up the mountain it began raining again. Before we got out of the tram, we got a great view of the harbor, our cruise ship, and the surrounding mountains.

When we exited the tram, we were looking at a souvenir shop. We walked around there and picked up a couple items before continuing. There was also a restaurant, theater, nature center, beautiful garden, and many trails to walk. Mount Roberts or Roberts Peak is a 3819 foot mountain so once you get off the tram, you have to walk up the rest of the way to get to the peak or their were trails to the bottom of the mountain.

We took one of the trails which lead us to great views and a large wooden cross. There was a plaque stating in the early 1900’s a Roman Catholic priest, named Father Brown was a trailblazer on Mount Roberts. When he got to the top of the mountain, he decided to erect a cross to commemorate the work they had done at 2.5 miles up the trail. The original cross had deteriorated so they built a replica cross which still rests here. What a beautiful serene sight. We also passed some tree totems. 

While hiking, we saw many species of birds we had never seen before and many beautiful plants. We were surprised there was such beautiful flowers in this cold climate but we saw plenty. There are black and brown bear present up in these mountains but fortunately while hiking, we didn’t see any. We enjoyed the trails up on top of the mountain as they were well marked, peaceful, and not crowded. It ended up being a nice day and not to cold only needing sweatshirts and a light jacket to keep the chill off us. On top of the mountain, it was a little colder but still nothing like we expected.

After our hike, we rode the tram back down to the town and walked around the city. The city itself seems divided with one part of the city having an old west frontier feeling and the other part a modern city. We loved the older part of the city with the narrow roads and seeing the store fronts which featured 19th century architecture left over from Juneau’s gold mining days. We enjoyed walking through the shops with many of the workers in old fashioned dress and playing the part. The backdrop of this town was the large mountains with waterfalls which appeared to be etched into the green mountains misty topped mountains. The houses in that area are quaint with balconies and graced with flowers.

Of course, we had to stop at the Red Dog Saloon on South Franklin Street. We were drawn in from the fun turn of the century saloon with music bellowing out and the sound of laughter coming from within. The saloon has been designated as being the oldest man made tourist attraction in Juneau and was founded during the gold mining era. We walked through the swinging red doors and into the saw dust covered floor and grabbed a seat. They serve pub food with great entertainment and with unique items on the walls. They even had one of Wyatt Earp's guns mounted on display. It is a must stop and we had great time while we were there.

On March 30, 1867, the United States purchased Alaska for 7.2 million dollars from Russia. What a deal. The Auke and Taku tribes had lived in the Juneau area for thousands of years and later their descendants the Tlingit people continued to lived here. Then in 1880, a local Tlingit Indian Chief lead two gold prospectors, Joe Juneau and Richard Harris to a creek where they found gold nuggets just laying on the ground. After that happened the creek took on the name of Gold Creek. This was also the first city founded after the purchase of Alaska by the US and was established prior to the Big Klondike Gold Rush of 1898.

When it was first forming, it originally was named Rockwell and later Harrisburg but the people decided it was a good idea to name this city after one of the initial gold prospectors, Joe Juneau. During those early times, Juneau had the largest rock gold mine in the world called the Treadwell Mine. Then going way forward, Alaska became the 49th states on January 3, 1959.

The average temperature in Juneau in January is 32 degrees while September’s average temperature is about 50 degrees. The average snowfall is about 87 inches a year, during the months of November through March. Juneau has 220 days of rain each year. The best time to visit Juneau is the in the spring and early summer since it is driest. Every year on June 21^st – Juneau has 18 hours plus 18 minutes of daylight so even as the sun goes down from 11:30 pm to 2:30 am but the suns rays still shine down on the city. That must be an interesting time to visit. During the summer months the population during the day can increase up to 6,000 when the cruise ships come in. During the winter months, it is just the local residence and mainly government workers.

We enjoyed our stop at Juneau and glad we got to visit such a unique city.  After we left Juneau, we saw a magnificent rainbow.   It was gorgeous.   What a great way to end our day.   

Take care and bye for now.