Week in Juneau???? (updated 8/15)

[Q child]

Take a sleeping pad, I’ve been there half a dozen times and 4 of those times, flights out got cancelled so I had to stay the night in the airport.

There was some satanic/witchcraft themed restaraunt down town that had a killer breakfast.

I saw a blue/glacier bear on a hike there once.

Haha. Classic. Reliability isn't too bad in August, but yeah, Southeast AK air travel can always go sideways in a hurry.
That place was called Black Moon Koven, and it is sadly no more. Closed.
Wow. That's an awesome thing to see. Crazy bears.

 

[mtwarden]

Well—thanks again for everyone who posted; it really helped a ton!

Six days wasn't near enough, but we got a lot in.

We took the boat tour to Tracy Arm, well worth it—the captain got us to within spitting distance of the main glacier! We saw several humpbacks, including a pretty close cow and calf. Saw some Dall's porpoises, didn't even know there was such a thing.

We hiked Perseverance trail up to the overlook into Silverbow Basin.

We hiked the short Rainforest Trail on Douglas Island one evening; our rental was on Douglas Island.

We hiked up to Gastineau Peak and the short finger ridge (Gold Ridge) with breathtaking views of Gold and Silverbow Basins (wife and daughter took the tram cutting the elevation gain in half, thinking I should have too ). Saw several goats and a black bear about a mile off (brought my binoculars everywhere).

We toured the ski area; wife is thinking we should go back for a Winter trip

We hiked the West Glacier trail that overlooks Mendenhall Glacier; trail got really tough (there were ropes here and there, but not enough) about three- four miles in so we gave up going to the top of McGinnis (if we go back, I hope to bag that one).

We hiked the Boy Scout trail (after doing Gastineau to let the legs recover); salmon were running and we lost count of the eagles we saw.

Our last day the ladies wanted to shop (and not hike! ). I toured the SeaAlaska native museum and then climbed Mount Juneau- 3500' in 4 miles is no joke. Saw goats up there too. It whetted my appetite to do the loop down the ridge to the head end of Gold Ck and back out.

We ate pizza at Island Pub (twice!!!). Ate halibut tacos at Deckhand Dave's. We ate a ton of Russian dumplings at Pel'meni's. We got several Dungeness crabs and cooked them at the rental. We picked the meat of the ones we didn't eat and then got a large halibut fillet the next night for stuffed halibut.

We packed our raingear religiously, but only donned it once on the boat tour—weather was as close to perfect as you could get.

 

[Q child]

Well—thanks again for everyone who posted; it really helped a ton!

Six days wasn't near enough, but we got a lot in.

We took the boat tour to Tracy Arm, well worth it—the captain got us to within spitting distance of the main glacier! We saw several humpbacks, including a pretty close cow and calf. Saw some Dall's porpoises, didn't even know there was such a thing.

We hiked Perseverance trail up to the overlook into Silverbow Basin.

We hiked the short Rainforest Trail on Douglas Island one evening; our rental was on Douglas Island.

We hiked up to Gastineau Peak and the short finger ridge (Gold Ridge) with breathtaking views of Gold and Silverbow Basins (wife and daughter took the tram cutting the elevation gain in half, thinking I should have too ). Saw several goats and a black bear about a mile off (brought my binoculars everywhere).

We toured the ski area; wife is thinking we should go back for a Winter trip

We hiked the West Glacier trail that overlooks Mendenhall Glacier; trail got really tough (there were ropes here and there, but not enough) about three- four miles in so we gave up going to the top of McGinnis (if we go back, I hope to bag that one).

We hiked the Boy Scout trail (after doing Gastineau to let the legs recover); salmon were running and we lost count of the eagles we saw.

Our last day the ladies wanted to shop (and not hike! ). I toured the SeaAlaska native museum and then climbed Mount Juneau- 3500' in 4 miles is no joke. Saw goats up there too. It whetted my appetite to do the loop down the ridge to the head end of Gold Ck and back out.

We ate pizza at Island Pub (twice!!!). Ate halibut tacos at Deckhand Dave's. We ate a ton of Russian dumplings at Pel'meni's. We got several Dungeness crabs and cooked them at the rental. We picked the meat of the ones we didn't eat and then got a large halibut fillet the next night for stuffed halibut.

We packed our raingear religiously, but only donned it once on the boat tour—weather was as close to perfect as you could get.

Yes! Glad you guys had a good time. Good weather too. I was pessimistic after July, but August has been pretty nice.

 

[3Esski]

Glad you had a good time. There was apparently lots of flooding there recently and I was curious if it affected your trip, but sounds like it did not. Would have been a bummer to make the trip and have it be disrupted by nature, but that is part of the adventure.

 

[mtwarden]

Thanks!

Glad you had a good time. There was apparently lots of flooding there recently and I was curious if it affected your trip, but sounds like it did not. Would have been a bummer to make the trip and have it be disrupted by nature, but that is part of the adventure.

Well it actually flooded bad the day before we got there. An ice dam broke in the Mendenhall Glacier and the river rose well above flood stage, a house (maybe more) went into the river! We pushed the Mendenhall area towards the later part of our trip and we were fine.

 

[TXHunt]

Gents- looks we’re headed to Juneau for a week (early to mid August). Have to get out of this hell hole for awhile.

If anyone wants to chime in on places to see, places to eat, places to stay, things to do (and things to avoid) would be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Mike

This sentence caught my eye. I thought boy he must live in Texas, where it is quite literally hot as HELL right now. Then I saw you are from Montana. You don't know how bad I would love to live in Montana.

 

[mtwarden]

I'm pretty sure this was the hottest July on record (records go back to the 1890's) for us- 17 days in a row of 95-100+ heat and no rain.

30-40 years almost no one in Montana had AC, now almost everyone does

 

[flathead#2]

It's Costa Rica Hot down here.
It;s about this time every year I start telling my
wife we should move to AK.

 

[mtwarden]

Unlike the majority of folks who get a "winter" home somewhere south, we're looking at a "summer" home somewhere north (north of Montana for sure)- they're called snowbirds, not sure what we would be called, maybe sunbirds

 

[weekender7]

Glad you and your family had a great trip. Awesome pics you shared as usual. Some folks retire and do nothing. You are living the dream and doing all you can while you are able. Good on ya.

 

[mtwarden]

Glad you and your family had a great trip. Awesome pics you shared as usual. Some folks retire and do nothing. You are living the dream and doing all you can while you are able. Good on ya.

Thanks man!

Like most folks I busted my hump for 40-ish year; best to take full advantage of retirement—a person has earned it, so don't want to squander it