Descending into the Juneau International Airport is its own highlight. You fly over the Gastineau Channel looking out your window or your neighbor’s window at the mountain tops above you. All around is the green of the mossy woods, some white mountain tops, and the blue of the water below. It’s a dramatic introduction to a small slice of city settled in the wilderness with no road connections to the outside world. A pilot friend told me this is the most frightening airport he’s flown into.
Sea Shanty intermission at Red Dog Saloon
Juneau (Tlingit name: Dzánti K'ihéeni) has surprised me as a festival town. This was my second trip to visit friends. The first trip was for Juneau’s big drag celebration, Glitz, put on by Juneau Drag. It was a huge event filling up the main convention center with crowds watching drag artists from all over Alaska, and a few from the lower 48.
This year I went for the Alaska Folk Festival. Everyone comes out and supports their local artists and visiting performers. During the Folk Festival the town fills up with musicians. Seemingly everyone but me on the flight carried on an instrument. Bands play their 15 minute sets at the convention center and then book shows around town the rest of the week. The songs range from a lady on piano playing a simple tune made up in her head on a hike, to a stage full of old timers playing bluegrass classics. I’m hoping to come back in 2025 for Áakʼw Rock, an indigenous music festival. Each time I come I’m surprised by how many people come out to celebrate. For the big events it sometimes feels like all 32,000 residents are out.
Drag performance at Glitz
It’s the kind of place where my favorite cafe, a Filipino cafe with Occult Magic themes, Black Moon Koven, closed because the owner moved on to become a death doula. A new cookie shop opened, Brujeria Cookiery, with a witchy theme and cute bunnies with pentagrams on their foreheads in the window. There is plenty of the outdoorsy, Arc'teryx wearing crowd here, but there’s a magic loving side to this town I see pop up that I love. Maybe they overlap? I don’t know. I will say I’m a white guy from out of town coming into a place with a strong indigenous culture. Finding magic here may just be me coming up from Los Angeles and reacting to everyone else’s everyday. I’m doing my best to not romanticize a culture while also giving my honest reaction.
If you live there you seem to run into your friends everywhere you go. Neighbors pop in to each other’s houses to walk their dogs, they let each other know when they’re walking to the market in case they want them to pick up something, it feels like the communal promise found only in sitcoms. (Ugh, I need to get out of LA.) That’s probably just small town life that I, as a big city dweller, am romanticizing. Everyone knows each others’ dirty laundry, but in that knowing of it they seem to accept it. Not much is hidden.
River along the flume trail just above the city
Spruce Tips
Every time I’m in Juneau I get excited to find anything flavored with Spruce Tips. Foraged in the Spring, spruce tips are the new growth on spruce trees. All types of spruce trees produce them, but some are better tasting and less bitter than others. It has a lemony citrus taste with a bit of pine and it is full of Vitamin C. It makes a great syrup to then flavor whatever you want with. I particularly love it in beer or gin, but that’s where I’ve found it the most. Part of its appeal for me is it’s seasonality. You forage it in the spring and then start making stuff with it.
Animals
Keep your eyes open for bears and porcupines. The trash cans are all bear proof. You can tell if one isn’t by the trash scattered around it. Everywhere you look there are giant ravens going about their day like it’s their city. The dump is covered in bald eagles. Juneau is not on the edge of the wilderness, it’s in it.
Amongst all of this, outside of downtown, most dogs are off leash. Dogs here have to learn quick not to approach a porcupine otherwise they spend the day getting quills carefully removed from their face.
Places to go:
Sealaska Heritage Institute - A non profit promoting Southeast Alaska Native Arts. First floor has a shop with Native arts and an exhibit space.
Amalga - Gin distillery with cocktails on draft. Look our for their seasonal spruce tip gin.
Devil’s Club - Brewery with good hazy IPAs and addictive popcorn.
Griz Bar - Outdoor bar with the highest prices in the town, but a view of the channel or a cruise ship.
In Bocca al Lupo - Italian restaurant on NY Time’s 2023 list of top 50 restaurants. It’s good.
Pel’meni - Russian dumplings (potato or meat) in a butter sauce. Get it with everything, but only after leaving a bar after midnight.
Red Dog Saloon and/or Crystal Saloon - Bars with live music. Go to whichever one is playing music you want to hear.
Treetop Tees - Get your souvenir t-shirt here instead of down by the cruise ship area. They’re super soft with fun designs.
Alaska Robotics - Great shop with books, art from local artists, comics, and board games. They put on a mini-con and occasionally have in store gaming.
Google Map of Juneau with recommended locations
Details:
Walkability: The downtown area is very walkable. Most everything is in the same four blocks. You can walk to hikes that take you out into the middle of nowhere. From Marine Park along the harbor to the Mt. Roberts Trailhead is a 25 minute walk. If you want to go anywhere outside of that, though, you’ll need a car. If a cruise ship is in port, taxis will be hard to come by. They’re having some issues with tourists crowding the busses causing locals to struggle to get around, so be mindful!
Coffee scene: I mostly found those dark roast, toasty and chocolatey beans popular in Mountain Towns. Rookery serves Stumptown. I had a fun Spruce Tip Americano at Coppa. This is not an exhaustive list.
Beers to look out for: Anything with spruce tip, pine bark, or anything from a tree. Devil’s Club is a micro-brewery in town and Alaskan is the big brewery. Devil’s has some solid Hazy IPAs. I have yet to try Forbidden Peak or Barnaby’s, but I have heard good things! Alaska Brewery makes a hard seltzer with spruce tips sold all over town.
Events to plan a trip around: I think going to places for events, especially if they aren’t huge, world-renowned events can be a great way to meet locals and see a cool place in ways you normally may not be able to. Here’s some cool events in Juneau: Glitz. Alaska Folk Festival. Áakʼw Rock. Platypus Gaming.
Where to stay: I have no idea, I stay with friends. I recommend getting a hotel downtown instead of an Airbnb. Like a lot of towns, Juneau is having problems with Airbnb taking rentals off the market, decreasing the housing supply.
Food discoveries: Barnacle Foods is a Juneau based maker of hot sauces, pickles, jams, and more using locally sourced sea vegetables. Their Bullwhip Piri-Piri Hot Sauce is a favorite in our house. The added kelp gives it a deep, umami flavor we put on all our pizza.
When in season you can find spruce tip in many different drinks and treats all over town.
Food thoughts: I’m sure people have tried it, but I want to taste a kelp pizza. Potentially as a replacement of clams in a New Haven kelp white pie. Would that be good, or gross?
Hikes
My dog at the beach in North Douglas along the Rainforest Trail
Rainforest Trail - Great series of well maintained trails with beaver dams. If the tide is low and you are prepared to potentially camp overnight you can walk out to Shaman Island.
Mt. Juneau - Steep trail with a great view up top.
Mendenhall Glacier - Hurry before it’s all melted. Easy hike with a visitor’s center. When a cruise ship is in port it is packed.
Gold Creek Flume - Easy trail just above town with dogs roaming around off leash.
What did I miss? Anyplace in Juneau I should go to next time I’m there?