Do Jū-neau About Juneau?

Juneau, Alaska

May 15, 2025

If you are wondering about the title, this was a joke our bus driver told us. Pronounce it like do "you know" about Juneau.

The Arctic Tern on the sign was priceless and too perfect to resist. See below for the nesting tern and more birds!

Fun Facts about Juneau

• The world’s largest concentration of brown bear lives on Admiralty Island, just 10 minutes from Juneau by floatplane.

• Juneau is the only U.S. state capital to border another country (Juneau shares its eastern border with the Canadian province of British Columbia.)

• The State Office Building is affectionately called the “S.O.B.” by locals.

• Orcas (killer whales) kill and eat moose. True! Moose wade into the water to eat the vegetation and the killer whales attack them.

  
  

Today we had a leisurely morning on the ship, and then went into town to look around. We had a fun walk, visited the State Capitol, bought some fudge, and then walked back to the ship to have hamburgers by the pool.

Visiting Juneau

The pictures below show that present day Juneau is still strongly influenced by its past. The Klondike Gold Rush began in Juneau in 1889. At that time Tlingit Chief Kowee led prospectors Joe Juneau and Richard Harris to the mouth of a stream they called Gold Creek.  There they discovered gold nuggets “as large as beans.”  This find was the first major Alaskan gold discovery. It didn’t take long for the prospectors to establish a small town nearby to support the miners that came to the area to look for gold. That was the birth of Juneau.

There is still gold mining going on in the area around Juneau, and a few other areas of Alaska. In 2019, Alaska produced 8.4% of the total national production, second only to Nevada.

The town of Juneau today has a population of about 32,000 people. Tourism is a major contributor the city's economy. During the height of the summer season, up to five cruise ships could be in town at the same time.

The first picture is of the Juneau Capital building, the other three are pictures of the town taken from different places on our walk.

The Mendenhall Glacier (Tlingit: Áak'w T'áak Sít')

After lunch we took a trip out to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.

Frank, Nancy, Karen, and Loren with the glacier behind us.

The Mendenhall Glacier is located in the Mendenhall Valley and is approximately 13.6 miles long. The glacier is currently receding due to environmental warming. Below are two pictures taken from approximately the same spot. The picture on the left was taken in 2014 on our honeymoon and the one on the right was taken today. Data shows the glacier has retreated approximately one mile between 1984 and 2023, and is also narrowing and thinning.

Here is a close up of the end of the glacier showing the beautiful blue hues of the glacier.

Near the glacier is a beautiful waterfall:

The Mendenhall Visitor Center

More Birds!

Arctic Tern on nest

American Robin

Black Guillemot

Tonight we are cruising to Skagway, our next stop, and another gold rush town. On our excursion tomorrow we will follow in the footsteps of thousands of Klondike stampeders and fortune seekers. If we don't make it back to San Diego, perhaps it's because we found our own gold rush! Everyone, please stay safe!