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The Inside Passage & Juneau

Alaska, USA · North America · northern hemisphere

WildlifeLakes & CoastlineHiking

The Inside Passage & Juneau is at its best for lakes & coastline in June to August. Good but not prime in May and September. Crowds peak in July and bottom out in October.

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Wildlife
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Lakes & Coastline
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Hiking
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Crowds

Swipe the table sideways for the rest of the year.

primegoodpossibleoff-seasoncrowds, on this place’s own scale

The short version

A state capital with no road to it — you arrive by ferry, cruise ship or plane — and humpbacks bubble-net feeding in these channels is one of the genuine wildlife spectacles of North America

What the walking is like

Rainforest and alpine day walks, wet underfoot. No guide needed, bear awareness essential.

When not to come

Judging Juneau on a heavy cruise day. The daily cap is 16,000 passengers into a town of 32,000; the same streets in the evening, after they sail, are a different place.

Busiest

June through August, and specifically the hours when several cruise ships are in port — the cap is 16,000 passengers a day, 12,000 on Saturdays

With children

Whale-watching boats, the Mendenhall Glacier and the tram are all straightforward. It rains a great deal — around 1,500mm a year — and the ferry distances are long.

Where to stay

Downtown Juneau is walkable and books out through the cruise season, late April to early October. The Mendenhall Valley is cheaper and closer to the glacier — and the Alaska Marine Highway ferry is a genuinely good way to see the passage at a fraction of a cruise fare.

What can go wrong

Winter storms

There is no road to Juneau, so a storm that grounds flights and ferries genuinely strands you.Jan · Feb · Mar · Oct · Nov · Dec

Kept out of the score on purpose. Averaging a rare catastrophe into a monthly number would tell you something false; the warning is the honest form.

Dates that matter

  • Humpback bubble-net feeding (Jun–Aug)
  • Salmon runs and the bears that follow them (Jul–Sep)
  • Cruise season (roughly late Apr to early Oct)

Walks

  • Mount Roberts — take the tram up and walk the alpine ridge above town
  • Perseverance Trail — an old mining route up a valley from the edge of downtown
  • West Glacier Trail — along the side of Mendenhall Glacier, far better than the visitor-centre view

Everything here is wet, and the trails are rooty and slick well into summer. Bears are common on the Mendenhall trails during the salmon run, which is exactly when most people walk them.

Crowds, month by month

216323166100743501168

0 is this destination’s own quietest month and 100 its busiest. The scale never compares one destination to another. Source: Wikipedia — Juneau, Alaska

See everything else at its best in Jul

Elsewhere in North America

Napa & SonomaFinger LakesBig Sur & MontereyOlympic National ParkKenai FjordsLake TahoeWhistler BlackcombChurchill