Western Expedition Stop 7: Juneau, Alaska

The first port on the Alaskan Cruise portion of our epic road trip west, is Juneau, Alaska.

A Bit About Juneau

Juneau is the capital of Alaska, which I find totally weird because there are no roads leading in & out of the city! The mountain range behind the town is so big, the only way in and out is by boat or plane.

Top Things to Do in Juneau

Just walking around the city is fun–there are places to eat over the water, a large Alaskan Heritage center, saloons, and boutique shops. I found lots of quirky stores and even the post office had some really cute things for sale! I mean it, I almost bought some earrings in there. You just have to keep walking past all the super-touristy stores right at the dock.

Mount Roberts Tramway

The Mount Roberts Tramway rises right out of downtown to a spectacular overlook. It was way too cloudy on our visit to even attempt it, but if it’s clear, you can get an all-day pass costing $35 for adults, $18 for kids 3-12, and FREE for kids 2 and under.

Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier is a 13-mile long glacier you can drive right up to. There’s a large parking area, a big visitor’s center, and a few trails to get you a closer look of the glacier and Nugget Falls. Nearby is a boardwalk that crisscrosses a salmon run. It’s a really shallow creek, so it’s easy to see the salmon swimming upstream!

You can take a shuttle to the glacier for about $45, a bus for $30, or a taxi for $35. But you can’t use an Uber or Lyft for the 12-mile, half hour ride.

The Mendenhall Glacier is part of the larger Juneau Icefield with over 40 glaciers. You can purchase a helicopter tour of the icefield (including landing and walking around on a glacier) for about $300.

Whale Watching

Whale Watching is big business in Juneau and there are several outfits that will take you to the Inside Passage to view migrating humpback whales. The most popular seems to be Juneau Whale Watch, which is the excursion we booked through the cruise line.

Salmon fishing and wildlife viewing (especially bears) are also popular. Straight off the ship, you can find many booths with young men trying to get you to buy this or that tour. I’m not saying that’s the smartest way to go–I suspect they are overpriced–but it seems you can have an adventure in Juneau with absolutely zero planning beforehand.

Juneau Whale Watch

We booked an excursion with Juneau Whale Watch to see humpback whales and the Mendenhall Glacier. It cost $120 (plus $6 in tax) through the cruise line, which was the same price through the website as well. Now it looks like the cost has gone up to $135 for adults, $120 for kids. The whole experience takes about 5 hours.

Mendenhall Glacier

On our trip, the tour company picked us up downtown in a shuttle and drove us out to Mendenhall Glacier first, passing MANY bald eagles on the way. I have never seen so many eagles in one spot! They dropped us off and gave us about two-ish hours to look around.

There’s a fantastic outlook in the visitor’s center and fun exhibits, like a chunk of glacier ice that you can touch. A walk to an outlook point takes about 40 minutes, and a longer trail to Nugget Falls takes an hour and a half.

Whale Watching

The shuttle picked us up again and took us up to Auke Bay for our whale watching experience. It’s not a big boat, only about 25 people or so, and they knew exactly where to find the whales. On board, two young and fun tour guides educated us on the whales we were about to see.

You can’t motor right up to a whale, but you can stop and drift or let them come to you. Most of the time they were a little bit distant with most of our views being their backs and fluted tails. And that’s about all you should expect to see, really. To see one “breach” or come fully out of the water is a rare sight. Regardless, we were obviously right in the middle of a huge pod of whales and it was really cool!

The best part came near the end of our time when a mother and her (almost full-sized) calf came right up to one side of the boat then dove underneath and re-appeared on the other side. I was able to get some pretty pictures with a rainbow in the spray of their blowholes.

I’ll tell you one unexpected thing about whales, though. They stink! If they breathe on you, you’ll get a face of shrimpy, fishy, whale breath and it is not fun. The whole experience is truly amazing, but you know, hold your breath if they get close.

Back on the Ship

Our port time in Juneau lasted until 10 pm, so you have plenty of time to eat a meal in town and even party it up a little in the saloon. But as for me and my parents, we got back from our tour at about dinner time and headed back on board for “free” food on the ship.

After dinner, we relaxed to a Dixieland jazz band in the Piazza and a silly “North to Alaska” song-and-dance skit. Some sort of Klondike-themed dance party happened after that, so we took that as our cue to call it a night.

Next Up

The second port to explore is the nearby town of Skagway, which feels a little bit like Alaskan Disneyland. I’ll explain why I think that in the next post.