Tag Archives: Juneau

Juneau, Alaska

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I have been in Juneau for several days now, and I have had a chance to walk around historic and not completely historic downtown quite a bit. Juneau reminds me of many older cities where they still have some of the historic buildings, which in many cases have been restored and repurposed, and they have new buildings mixed in with the old ones. There is a Main Street, but the main street seems to be more Franklin Street, although with so many shops closed because of lack of cruises, downtown is slightly not normal. However because there are no cruise ships, Juneau is easy and pleasant to walk around, as in not crowded, and you can actually stand on the docks and look across the water to Douglas Island. Near downtown, Juneau has a seawalk, which is nice walk to view the water and tidal flats. Ravens are everywhere, but bald eagles are not as easily sighted.

Old Alaska Electric Light & Power building

Looking down Seward Street

Sealaska

Franklin Street

Docks

Seawalk

The Whale Project

Looking to Juneau from Douglas Island across Gastineau Channel

Gold Creek Flume Trail

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The rain stopped for just a little bit this afternoon, so we went hiking on the Gold Creek Flume Trail, which is close to downtown Juneau. As far as I can tell, the entire trail is on top of a flume that takes water from the Gold Creek to a hydroelectric plant. With the exception of a small segment where a rock slide seems to be on top of the flume, it is a really easy trail to walk on, as you are on wooden planks. It is a nice hike through the woods with views of Gold Creek below and the mountains above. The western end is where the flume heads down the mountain. The eastern end seems to be where the flume separates from Gold Creek.

The western end of the trail has a very Alaska warning sign because Alaska. Only missing warning about bears.

Flume flows down the mountain

Trail is on top of the flume through the woods

Small waterfalls everywhere

Rock slide area

Waterfalls are visible in the mountains and streams are frequent near trail

Eastern end appears to be where flume is separated from Gold Creek

Gold Creek at western end of trail

Alaska State Capitol

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With this Alaska trip, I was able to accomplish one of the more difficult tasks in my quest to see all 50 state capitols, as Juneau is not the easiest capital to travel to. I also lucked out because it only opened less than a week ago before which it was closed because of COVID. The Alaska State Capitol is one of the, or perhaps the, least fancy state capitols. The building was formerly a courthouse, and then they turned it into the capitol. There is no dome or other fancy halls. It is an office building. It is lucky for the state, in a way, that they have so few residents because the senate and house chambers are small and used to be courtrooms. There are also quite a few old photos and lots of Alaska Native art, which are quite nice to see.

Alaska State Capitol exterior

House of Representatives Chamber

Senate Chamber

Senate Finance Committee Room

Alaska Natives carved door

Map of Alaska cut from piece of 48 inch pipe used to construct Trans-Alaska pipeline. Weld represents 800-mile route of the pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.

Phone booths (phones do not work, I checked)

Elevator bay

Tracy Arm Fjord

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During my first full day in Juneau, I took a day cruise to Tracy Arm to see the fjord and glaciers. We saw two glaciers, Sawyer Glacier and South Sawyer Glacier, which really used to be the same glacier. Along the way to see the glaciers, we traveled through the beautiful Tracy Arm Fjord. The fjord has numerous former glacier valleys, river valleys, and water falls. The fjord has numerous icebergs, generally rather small icebergs, that have broken off the glaciers. Many of the larger icebergs serve as resting places for harbor seals. We also were lucky enough to see a black bear eating mollusks or something on the shore. Later, while headed back to Juneau, there were Steller sea lions and more harbor seals on the Midway Islands.

Iceberg

Tracy Arm fjord

Sawyer Glacier

Up close view of Sawyer Glacier

South Sawyer Glacier

South Sawyer Glacier

Up close view of South Sawyer Glacier

Harbor seal

Harbor seals

Black bear

Steller sea lions