Juneau, Alaska
Population: 32,000
Located in Juneau Borough
When you arrive in Alaska's capital, you know you've come to a different place. For starters, there are no roads to Juneau ... you have arrived by boat or airplane. Maybe it is this isolation that gives those who live here a sense of community and a sense of oneness with our natural surroundings. Juneau, Alaska's capital is the third largest city in the state. Like Alaska, Juneau is full of contrasts, a sophisticated cosmopolitan city in the heart of the Tongass National Forest. Nestled at the base of towering mountains overlooking the Gastineau Channel, the community's rich culture and history is displayed throughout the town and in several local museums. Travelers can hike miles of scenic trails through temperate rainforest, tidal beaches and up mountains capped by alpine meadows. The area's stunning beauty is best viewed from the air and sea. Helicopters and fixed-wing air craft whisk visitors up to the spectacular Juneau Icefield. While fleets of marine vessels stand ready to provide personal encounters with Southeast Alaska abundant aquatic wildlife. View the Mendenhall Glacier, the state's top attraction. Its impressive face is roughly 100 feet high and 1.5 mile wide. The U.S. Forest Service observatory provides visitors with rare insight to glacial movements. Juneau is easy to get to. Whether you want to fly, drive, walk or cruise, you'll find many choices and convenient schedules. Because of Juneau location, the area offers convenient access to Glacier Bay National Park, Tracy Arm Fjord, the Taku River, Admiralty Island & Pack Creek Bear Preserve, as well as a host of secluded wilderness resorts. Whether it's the serenity of an alpine meadow or the thrill of witnessing a breaching whale, adventure runs wild in Juneau. Juneau's most popular attraction is the mighty, magnificent Mendenhall Glacier, located just 13 miles from downtown Juneau. Everything about the Mendenhall is massive: it's face is 100 feet tall and 1.5 miles wide, it's length is over 6 miles, and it's handiwork, the Mendenhall Valley, is immense. Take a look around Juneau at the mountain peaks. Some are sharp and jagged, others are rounded. During the Wisconsin Ice age, the smooth mountains were underneath a massive glacier, whose movement ground them down and shaped their peaks. The Icefield of today is a remnant of that time. Juneau is in the middle of the northernmost rainforest in the world. Water, whether in the form of ice, the flow of a river, or the calm ocean waters of the Inside Passage, forms the critical link that ties everything together. Coming to Juneau and not enjoying a variety of water activities would be akin to visiting Paris and not eating, or visiting New York and not shopping. Juneau has some of the most spectacular wildlife viewing in the world. The viewing of whales, brown bear and eagles is just minutes away. A variety of wildlife tours can get you up close to black bear, Dall porpoise, sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, mountain goats and Sitka black tail deer. From April to November, approximately 600 humpback whales inhabit the waters of the northern Inside Passage. They migrate annually to Alaska to feed on the abundant plankton and small fish which thrive in this area. During the winter months the humpbacks head to their winter homes in the waters off Hawaii and Mexico to breed and bear their young. Whale watching tours are offered in Juneau and near Glacier Bay, and daily boat tours to Tracy Arm rarely return without whale sightings. The other type of whale common to the area is the Orca, or killer whales. These whales, though much smaller than humpbacks have been known to pursue much bigger prey. Salmon, seals and even moose and other whales have been hunted down by these wolves of the sea. While humpbacks often travel alone, or in small groups, orcas travel in large packs, known as "pods" and since they swim very fast, a single pod can occupy a very large territory. Juneau is located in the Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rainforest in North America. The rainforest does give Juneau its fair share of rain, however it also keeps the temperatures fairly mild with highs in the mid 30's in the winter, and high 60's in the summer . Juneau also enjoys very long summer days with nearly 18 hours of daylight during early summer!
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