Although Juneau is usually ranked at the top of the list for most beautiful state capital cities due to the natural beauty all around, the capitol building is often ranked as one of the ugliest in the USA. Pretty much looks like an office building.Statue of former Secretary of State William Seward, who negotiated and completed the acquisition of Alaska from Russia in 1867. At the time it was considered a big waste of money, at a cost of $7 million, or about 2 cents per acre. The purchase cause a great deal opposition, becoming known as “Seward’s Folly”, but the Congress did approve the purchase overwhelmingly.Bear statue outside the capitol.House of Representatives chamber. The Senate chamber was closed for renovation.Alaska became our 49th state in 1959, a few months before Hawaii joined as our 50th state. Quick trivia quiz (don’t Google it!): what state was our 48th?Lobby to the governor’s office.Some beautiful artwork in the capitol. Here is Mt. Denali.
Mendenhall Glacier is just a few miles north of Juneau, and is the most accessible of all Alaska glaciers. It is 13 miles long and over 1500 acres. To the right is Nugget Falls. This area is part of the Tongass National Forest.Nugget Falls. Notice how small the people are who are standing next to it. The falls are about 377 high.Icebergs that broke off from the glacier float in Mendenhall Lake.Mountains surrounding Mendenhall Lake.Over many years the glacier scoured the rocks with grit and other rocks to create these lines in this large rock, even transporting rocks down the mountainside.This is a lush rainforest near Juneau, very green, with a lot of moss.An actual piece of glacier ice.
One of over 27,000 glaciers in Alaska. This is Herbert Glacier, part of the Juneau Ice Field.Another glacier.Beautiful scenes on the way out to see some whales.Sentinel Island Lighthouse, built in the 1930s in the Art Deco style. There have been numerous shipwrecks near Sentinel Island from the early 1900s.Sea lions sleeping on a buoy.Thar she blows!We didn’t get very close to the whales (except one), and we did not see any whales breach, but we did see several tails as they dove! These were all humpback whales.…and another.This one came right next to our boat, but I was not prepared with my camera, so I caught him a little late.
Leaving Ketchikan and heading toward Juneau on the Inside Passage, very smooth ride. Alaska’s Inside Passage is hundreds of miles from Puget Sound, Washington, through the British Columbia coast and into the Gulf of Alaska, the Inside Passage includes more than 1,000 islands, seemingly endless shoreline and thousands of idyllic coves and bays. Beautiful and serene.Mountains on both sides.Sunset in the Inside Passage.
Our first port of call was Ketchikan, known as the Alaska’s First City, and the Salmon Capital of the World. This is the view from our cabin as we headed into port.This is where we disembarked. They scanned our medallions for us to leave, and we needed to go through security like an airport, plus have our medallions scanned again, to embark.We are officially in Alaska!Float planes are everywhere. It is one of the major ways of travel all over the state, along with bush planes.Our excursion in Ketchikan was on the Bering Sea crab fishermen’s boat the Aleutian Ballad. This boat was featured in the TV show Deadliest Catch a few years back. It is famous for being slammed by a 60-foot rogue wave, turning it on its side. The video is still available on Youtube.Captain Kevin and tourist Kevin.These guys told many fascinating stories about crab fishing while demonstrating their craft.Beautiful Alaska shoreline.Some of the Inside Passage of Alaska, calm water.Crabbing gear. Industrial crabbing is big business.Sea Star.Box King Crab.Snow Crab.King Crab.After the crab fishermen’s tour, we walked around town a bit. A scenic tourist trap.Creek Street was once a bustling Red Light district, now a tourist spot.This what salmon spawning looks like. I was like this for the entire creek above the waterfalls. It was an incredible sight. Once the fish lay their eggs, they die, so the creek banks were full of dead salmon!Raven Stealing the Sun totem pole.The Rock sculpture – a depiction of Ketchikan’s history: Tlingit Chief Johnson, Tlingit storytelling woman, logger, miner, fisherman and pioneer woman.
