A summary of our visits to Juneau and Ketchikan: Rain! Rain! Rain!
We visited six ports in Alaska and on two days we cruised up to glaciers. Every one of these eight days it rained, except for Skagway! Even there it was cold and windy - far from ideal. We knew when we signed up for this Pacific Panorama World Cruise that mid-to-late April is early for Alaska touring; so, we weren’t too surprised. We had visited three of the ports and visited the glaciers in the past, but we felt sorry for the large contingent of guests who boarded the ship in Tokyo (including many Asians). Several of them said they signed up for this segment of the World Cruise (Tokyo to San Francisco) because they wanted to see Alaska.
April 30, 2016 - Juneau, Alaska
We just read that the Tongass National Forest covers nearly 17 million acres, including all of Alaska’s Inside Passage, and it’s the largest temperate rainforest in North America. This includes Juneau, which experiences 220 days of precipitation per year. One source said Juneau’s annual total precipitation averages 62 inches - that’s a lot.
Jim now wishes he had taken his camera with him this morning during his early morning 3½-mile walk around the Promenade Deck (5:45 – 6:45 am). It was a pretty cruise up the Gastineau Channel approaching Juneau. The channel is a fjord, with beautiful green, snow-capped mountains rising just offshore. The air was exceptionally clean and invigorating, although skies were cloudy. Water conditions in the channel were very calm.
Juneau was founded during gold rush days in the 1880’s and was named after Joe Juneau, the prospector who first discovered gold in Alaska, not far from town. Juneau went through a period as a rowdy mining camp; but, differently than Skagway, gold remained an economic mainstay of Juneau until the last mine was shut down here in 1944. Recently, efforts at mining are making something of a comeback.
The city has been the seat of government for the territory of Alaska since 1906. When Alaska was granted statehood in 1959, Juneau became the state capital. These days, the city’s population is 32,756 full-time residents. We were told that federal, state and local governments employ nearly half of all Juneau workers. Tourism is the largest private-sector employer. We also understand that commercial fishing is a big component of the local economy, as is Juneau’s role in medical services, education, and retail trade.
Interestingly, Juneau is the only center of U.S. government or state capital with no roads leading into or out of town. It’s reachable only by boat or seaplane.
By breakfast time, the rain and winds started. We waited a few hours in hopes that the rain might subside, but it didn’t. So we set off on a walk - there’s a nice boardwalk that leads along the waterfront and through a small area of fisheries toward town.
Our original plan was to take one of the 60-person trams up to the 1,800-foot level on Mt. Roberts to see views of downtown and the Gastineau Channel. We understand they also have hiking trails, a nature center, wildflowers, café, and gift shop once you get off the tram. It’s a fairly easy walk from where our ship was docked to the tramway base station; but, after we got there, we decided not to do it. We couldn’t see the top of the tramway from the base station. So we assumed the top station on Mt. Roberts was in the clouds, and there wouldn’t be any pretty views. We’ve had problems with this before in Hong Kong and Cape Town and didn’t think it was worth the investment - cost of the tram is $33 per person (roundtrip).
We continued walking into town, despite the rain, along Franklin Street as far as the Red Dog Saloon. We didn’t take many pictures on our walk, as Jim didn’t want to get his camera soaking wet.
Much is available for tourists on Franklin Street – souvenir shops, museums, tour operators, public library, and a few restaurants. Of some interest are several narrow streets off of Franklin Street which lead to steep, wooden stairways that go up to homes perched on the sides of hills. No pictures here, but we did see a few homes that were about five levels up the hills. Some of them were small three or four-story apartment buildings – providing even more walking uphill. These people must have very strong legs!
We were surprised and disappointed to see so many of the same jewelry stores that we see on every Caribbean island - “Diamonds International”, Tanzanite, etc. Then there are a lot of t-shirt and souvenir shops. I suppose they must be successful selling these products to tourists, or they wouldn’t stay in business. But, in our opinion, it takes away from the Alaska experience to see all these common, tacky stores. There were a few made-in-Alaska arts and crafts stores, but we thought these same types of stores were much nicer and more authentic in Skagway.
Ginny stopped at the Red Dog Saloon (actually at the attached Red Dog Mercantile Store).
Jim went a little further into the historic part of town. Many buildings here date from the early 1900’s and have been refurbished as more bars, restaurants, and gift shops. Even Jim decided it wasn’t much fun walking in the rain, so he returned to the Red Dog Saloon to find Ginny who was still in the Mercantile Store. Red Dog is a locally famous “western-nostalgia” type of bar, with sawdust floors, swinging doors, a piano player, etc. They didn’t get any of our money today.
Then we headed back to the ship in time for a late lunch. Here are some interesting facts about Juneau that we learned along the way:
- From the Juneau Convention & Visitors Bureau: “Juneau is home to 262.2 miles of hiking trails. Compare that to Juneau’s 41 miles of roadways and the 22 miles of roads on Douglas Island (across the channel from Juneau).” – Discover Juneau Downtown Map
- Also from the CVB: “It’s not uncommon for black bears, marmots and porcupines to wander into town.”
- Juneau is the gateway to Mendenhall Glacier, the largest Alaskan glacier accessible by road. Mendenhall is 12-miles long, 1½-miles wide, hundreds of feet thick and fed by a 1,500-square-mile ice field. The glacier is only a short distance out of town, and tours to Mendenhall were being offered as shore excursions from the ship. Some were going by either seaplane or helicopter. We don’t know if they went in the rain today or not; probably not, as they wouldn’t see much in this rain and fog.
We went to see trumpet virtuoso Gary Guthman in a concert at the Galaxy Lounge on Friday evening (April 29) - an excellent show.
On Saturday night, we skipped the “My Life – the Music of Billy Joel” show. It’s always lively, and they have James Fox, who starred on Broadway singing these same songs. The problem is, they do this show every segment of the World Cruise. This is the sixth time it’s been performed in the last three months; additionally, we saw this show on an earlier Crystal cruise as well.
May 1, 2016 - Ketchikan, Alaska
Crystal Serenity arrived at Ketchikan, on the southwestern corner of Revillagigedo Island, early this morning after an overnight trip. We’re now 235 miles south of Juneau at the southernmost Alaskan city on the Inside Passage. We were greeted by a fireboat shooting water. We’re not sure why, but maybe we are the first cruise ship of the season (which is true, according to people we talked to on shore).
The rain in Juneau yesterday was just a warmup for what we experienced in Ketchikan today. The weather was miserable - overcast skies, with strong winds and heavy rain all day. The truth is that Ketchikan averages more than 150 inches of rain annually. It’s Alaska’s rain capital!
We visited Ketchikan once before (10 years ago) and got soaked then; so we were prepared, but it doesn’t make it any more fun for sightseeing.
Many people in the marketing business call Ketchikan “Alaska’s First City,” because this is the first port at which cruise ships stop on their south-to-north route from “the lower 48” states or from Canada to Alaska, when following the Inside Passage.
The city’s growth started in the mid-1880’s when the first fish cannery was started. Within about 50 years there were 30 canneries operating, and Ketchikan claimed the title of “Salmon Capital of the world.” We read that eventually the salmon were over-fished and there was a dry period. With some conservation measures, apparently the fish population has made a comeback. Of course, over the last 10 years, tourism (primarily from cruise ships) has now become a larger part of Ketchikan’s business economy.
We waited until about 10:30 to get off the ship, hoping the rain would let up even a little; but it didn’t. We wore water-resistant jackets and ponchos with hoods, while Jim brought his umbrella. All this helped a little, but trekking through standing water was also a problem. We went out, we walked around, and we came back to the ship safely. That’s all that counts!
The one piece of good luck was that the ship was docked right in town. After walking down the gangway and crossing the street, you’re there - at an avenue of Diamond International jewelry stores (among at least a dozen other jewelry stores) and assorted souvenir shops on Front Street. You saw our rant above (Juneau port stop). The same goes for here. Enough said.
As for our visit, we looked at a few souvenir shops and bought our requisite refrigerator magnet. Then we headed for the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, which is only about two blocks away. There were supposed to be exhibits about the rain forest, local wildlife, native culture, and a film about the Tongass National Forest. As luck would have it, the Discovery Center was closed today. A sign on the door said that it’s open only once per week, on Fridays, through April. Today was May 1st, but we assume that Sunday must be a day off for them anyway.
Downtown is only four blocks wide in the city, between the waterfront (facing the Tongass Narrows waterway) and the mountains, but it stretches for miles along the water.
The closest attraction to go to next would have been Creek Street, a pedestrian boardwalk on pilings along Ketchikan Creek, featuring quaint little boutiques, where once there were bars and bordellos during the early 1900’s. We visited Creek Street during our previous visit and decided not to venture over there in the rain. Our next options included Saxman’s Native Village which has a large display of restored native totem poles and a carving center (that we saw our last time in Ketchikan) or the Totem Heritage Center, about 5 miles away, where they have an exhibit of 19th century totem poles. We could have probably taken a taxi out there but didn’t see one right away, so we headed back to the ship instead.
Crystal was offering a lot of interesting shore excursions such as a float plane exploration of Misty Fjords (which is supposed to be quite exciting and pretty – great scenery along the way to landing the plane on an isolated lake or a fjord), nature walks, zip-line rides, and others. We heard from some of our fellow passengers that a lot of these tours were cancelled today.
Ketchikan, under ideal sunny conditions, must be a really nice place. We just haven’t been lucky enough to be here on one of those sunny days. We read a good remark in the Reflections (on-board newsletter we receive every day on the ship) - “A little rain is not considered bad weather in these parts. It is the norm and you can rest assured that if it showers during your visit, you have seen the real Pacific Northwest.”
Next stop, Vancouver, British Columbia on Tuesday, May 3rd.
Jim & Ginny
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