SE Alaska Part 2: Juneau

Over two different stops, we spent a total of about a day and half in Juneau, but also used it as a transit hub so we were in and out of the city several times throughout the week.

After an early morning Alaska Air flight from Sitka to Juneau on a rainy Monday, we spent all of the day touring around the city. We landed about 7am and rented a car at the airport which turned out to be very handy. Our first stop was breakfast at Donna’s and then we headed to the Mendenhall Valley to see the glacier ahead of the majority of the cruise ship traffic.

The glacier is really easy to see with very little effort, but there are some short trails around the area including the Nugget Falls Trail, which goes to the base of the roaring waterfall.

Since we had the car we drove the road to the pavement end north of Juneau and stopped at Eagle Beach on the way. Along with some lovely scenery, there were actually eagles there, sitting along the shoreline and in the trees.

After we got to the end of the road, we turned around and headed into downtown Juneau, parked the car and went in search of some lunch. With all the rain, noodle soup sounded good, so we stopped at Pho Tai.

Next stop was the Alaska State Museum, which covered Alaska state history and had a special exhibition on canneries.

Our last activity for the day was a tour of the AJ Gastineau Mine. It was bit of a last minute decision to go on the tour, but I thought it was really interesting and was glad we did go. We started with a tour inside a small portion of the mine along with a demonstration of some of the mining equipment which required hard hats and ear plugs. And then outside we saw a working stamp mill and then got to try panning for gold.

After that it was definitely dinner time and we walked over to Deckhand Dave’s Fish Tacos food cart and I was happy to have the sampler with 3 different fish tacos (rockfish, salmon, and halibut). And then for dessert I tried out the S’more from Captains S’more & Brew which had a massive marshmallow.

Day 2 in Juneau was at the end of the week on Sunday afternoon before heading home. Our lodging for all three non-consecutive nights in Juneau was at the Best Western near the airport and it was very convenient and easily walkable from the airport.

We had taken the morning ferry from Haines to Juneau and were dropped off at the airport so we were able to drop our bags at the hotel and then take a taxi into downtown for brunch at Salt. They are popular at dinner time and reservations are recommended, but Sunday brunch was pretty mellow and quiet. Each meal automatically came with a platter of breads and yogurt parfait. And then I had a tasty and filling smoked salmon nicoise salad.

After lunch, we wandered around a bit and found our way to the road that led to the Last Chance Mining Museum, so we kept walking and went to check out the museum.