Alaska 2013 – First stop Juneau
Quick Facts:
Juneau is the capital of Alaska, but is only accessible by boat or plane. There are no roads linking it to the rest of Alaska or Canada.
The economy of Juneau is based on state, local and federal government, tourism, mining, and fishing.
Only 30,500 people reside in Juneau, but southeast Alaska is home to over 20,000 bald eagles.
The world’s largest concentration of brown bear lives on Admiralty Island, located just 10 minutes from Juneau.
3 flights, 2 time changes and an overnight stopover in Seattle saw us arrive in Juneau, the Capital of Alaska...... Its was raining ... and continued to rain for the 2 days we here!
Once we'd checked in the Driftwood Lodge, we headed next door to the Sandpiper cafe for a bite to eat. The cafe turned out to be a real gem in Juneau, if it had be open in the evening we would probably have eaten there exclusively, great menu (vegetarian and vegan options) with a really good corned beef hash for breakfast.
Fortified and weather prepared we wandered to downtown Juneau, to be confronted with 4 huge cruise ships - apparently up to 10,000 passengers disembark each day, swelling the population by 25%. Helicopters buzzed by on there way to glaciers, whilst seaplanes landed in procession as we walked along the jetty.
Downtown was typical of any major cruise line destination, a mixture of generic gift shops, eateries and tour hawkers competing for the lucrative tourist dollar. They say there’s only 3 ways of getting into Juneau ( there’s no roads linking it to the outside world),you arrive by cruise ship, plane or birth ! Even if you arrive by plane its only to join a cruise,not many people seem to travel to Juneau for Juneau itself. We passed the famous red dog saloon (Wyatt Earp apparently left one of his guns here which is still on display), however I don't think any of the early prospectors would have recognised it, as the gift shop was now bigger than the saloon itself. We wandered in the odd store before heading back to Driftwood Lodge. Jet lag and a lack of sleep were kicking in, so we closed the thick drapes to daylight (5 hours of dark each day at this time of year) and quickly fell asleep.
Our body clocks still hadn't quite adjusted, so after an early breakfast we braved the continuing rain and sought out a shuttle to take us to Mendenhall Glacier. We ended up taking a shuttle which combined a city tour,the guide basically gave us a little history,pointing out the odd building here and there (including where Sarah Palin used to live as governor of Alaska). It was about a 20 minute ride to the glacier and we were rewarded with sightings of bald eagles along the way. The first view of the glacier from the road was breathtaking, dwarfing the mountain valley through which it flowed; the ice was a mesmerizing blue.
Once dropped off we walked to the edge of Mendenhall lake, taking in the view of the glacier in the distance and the much closer icebergs floating in the lake and Nuggett falls. There were quite a number of people around, however as usual we found that make the effort to leave the well beaten track and you soon find yourself alone. We walked along the East Glacier trail (3 mile loop) which meandered through the temperate rainforest, passing babbling streams and waterfalls and met less than a dozen people during the entire walk. Arriving back at the visitor centre, the clouds had come in obscuring the views of the glacier that we had been treated to just a few hours earlier, then the skies opened up and cold rain forced us to retreat to shelter and wait for the shuttle back to town.
Cold and hungry we retired to 'The Hanger' restaurant and over a pint of Alaskan Amber sampled our first Fresh Alaskan fish - crab cakes, followed by Alaskan cod and chips.
We recharged our batteries for a few hours before heading to the Alaska Hotel and Bar to listen to a local band 'Deering and Down'. There was a great atmosphere in the bar which was almost entirely comprised of locals, the band were entertaining, playing country style music and the Guinness washed down well. The town was alive and buzzing with people preparing to see in 4th July; fireworks filled the night skies and the rain didn't seem to detract from peoples enjoyment. A pit stop for Russian dumplings and then we decided to call it a night.
Next morning our luggage was collected and at 11am we presented ourselves at the harbour, ready to board 'MV Discovery', our floating home for the next 7 days.
