Fast Facts
- Population
- 32,255 (2020 census); about 31,600 (2025 est.)
- Elevation
- 33 ft; downtown is at sea level
- Best Season
- May–September
- Getting here
- Fly or sail — there is no road in
- All-American Road
- Alaska Marine Highway, 3,500 miles
What to Know Before You Arrive
The town site was marked on 18 October 1880 by Richard Harris and Joe Juneau, and at a miners' meeting on 14 December 1881 it was decided to name the settlement after the prospector Joe Juneau. Before that it had been called Rockwell, and then Harrisburg. It became the capital of Alaska in 1906.
The road question is the defining fact. Wikipedia's entry on Juneau says the city is one of two U.S. state capitals without roads connecting it to the rest of the state or to the contiguous United States (Honolulu is the other), and that all goods coming in and out must be transported by plane or boat. Travel Juneau, the city's visitor bureau, makes the same point for travellers: any road trip to Juneau needs a leg at sea, and it lists daily Alaska Airlines flights from Seattle and Anchorage alongside the Alaska Marine Highway ferry. The practical position on the ground is that you arrive by air or water.
The Mendenhall Glacier flows from the Juneau Icefield and is visible from the local road system, which makes it one of the more accessible glaciers in the state. It is also changing: it “has been gradually retreating,” its front face shrinking in width and height, and glacial outburst floods from the basin above it caused damage estimated at $2.8 million to $5.6 million in 2024.
The Road Trip Stop
The Mendenhall Glacier is the anchor, and for a guide about driving it has a rare quality in Alaska: it is reachable on the local road system rather than by boat or aircraft. It is one of the glaciers flowing off the Juneau Icefield.
Reachable by road, but check the current arrangements
- It is on the road system you can actually use. Having flown or sailed in, this is the drive that justifies hiring a car in Juneau at all.
- Visitor centre hours, season and fees, from the US Forest Service (read 2026-10-14). The Forest Service lists summer hours of 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., seven days a week, from May to September, and says a pass is required to enter the visitor center from 1 May to 30 September: a day pass is $5* per person, a season pass is $15* for the card holder and one guest, and ages 15 and younger are free. A Forest Service news release dated 25 September 2026 says the visitor center was to close for the winter from 7 October 2026 for maintenance and re-open for the visitor season on 1 May. The grounds are listed as open from 6:00 a.m. to midnight year-round, and the visitor center's phone number on the Forest Service page is 907-789-0097.
- The glacier is retreating and the access changes with it. Viewpoints and trail routes that worked in past seasons may not now; this is not a fixed landscape.
- Be aware of outburst flooding. Glacial outburst floods from the basin above the glacier caused several million dollars of damage in 2024. The National Weather Service office in Juneau keeps a Suicide Basin page: on 13 October 2026 it reported that the basin released for a second time on 2 October 2026, with the Mendenhall lake cresting at 10.18 feet, and that it will continue to monitor the basin through the fall and winter.
*Fees subject to change, please check fs.usda.gov for updated information.
From the Park Service
Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve
- Entrance fee
- None — free to enter
- Park hours
- Open around the clock, every day. There are no entrance gates at Glacier Bay National Park, so the park is technically open 24-hours a day; however, services may be extremely limited depending on the time of your visit.
- Visitor centres
- Glacier Bay National Park Visitor Center · Visitor Information Station - Backcountry Office. Open 11:00AM - 5:30PM daily.
- Campgrounds
- 1 in the park, about 33 sites in total. Reservations required at one or more.
- Passport stamp
- Glacier Bay National Park Visitor Center
- Webcams
- 4 live views on the park’s own site
National Park Service Data API, pulled 2026-10-12
Neighborhoods
Downtown
At sea level below the mountain, with the capitol, the docks and the older streets packed into a narrow shelf.
The Mendenhall Valley
North-west of downtown, where most of the population lives and where the glacier road runs.
Douglas
Across Gastineau Channel on Douglas Island. According to Alaska's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the Juneau-Douglas Bridge links the mainland to the island's communities of Douglas, North Douglas and West Juneau.
The cruise dock
The downtown waterfront where cruise ships dock. KTOO reported in April 2026 that Juneau expected about 1.69 million passengers arriving on ships up to 6 October, and that daily limits of 16,000 passengers on most days and 12,000 on Saturdays were being introduced for the 2026 season.
The Food Stop
We were unable to confirm a specific Juneau restaurant for this guide, and this guide does not name a business without checking that business's own site. On 6 October 2026, the last cruise-ship day of the season, the Juneau Independent quoted a visitor saying that tour and restaurant options were limited because many had shut down for the season. Check a venue's own page or phone line for current opening hours.
3 breweries within 10 miles of Juneau, one of them a brewpub with a kitchen.
See all 3
- Devil's Club Brewing100 N Franklin St, Juneau
- Alaskan Brewing Co.5429 Shaune Dr, Juneauproduction site*
- Barnaby Brewing Company165 Shattuck Way, Juneauproduction site*
*Check before you go. This list says what the source records as open and where it is — nothing more. Opening hours, whether a kitchen is serving, and whether anywhere suits your family are not in this data and change without notice. A production site may have no public room at all. Please confirm with the venue.
Brewpub locations from Open Brewery DB (MIT)
The Home Teams
No MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL or MLS team plays in Juneau, and at around 32,000 people in a town with no road access the question does not really arise.
Day Trips
| Destination | Time | Distance | How we got it |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Mendenhall Glacier | 19 min | 12 mi | routed |
| North-west on the local road system to the glacier and its trails. | |||
| The end of the road north | 1 hr 5 min | 39 mi | routed |
| Out past Auke Bay to where the highway stops, with no onward connection. | |||
| Douglas Island | 33 min | 12 mi | routed |
| Across the Juneau-Douglas Bridge to Douglas Island, whose communities are Douglas, North Douglas and West Juneau. | |||
| Tracy Arm | Boat excursion, most of a day | 45 mi by water | estimated |
| South of Juneau, in the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness, which the Alaska Department of Fish and Game places about 40 miles south of Juneau. Wilderness.net describes two narrow, deep, sheer-walled fjords, Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm, with tidewater glaciers at the head of each, and says day trips to the fjords are available from Juneau by motorized boat. | |||
| Glacier Bay National Park | — | — | |
| West of Juneau. The National Park Service says Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve lies west of Juneau and is reached by plane or boat, and lists daily Alaska Airlines jet service from Juneau to Gustavus in the summer season. | |||
Routed figures are computed over map data at free-flowing speeds, between map points rather than street addresses, so a real drive runs longer. Rows marked estimated are this guide’s own figure and have not been routed.
Distances routed by OSRM and places geocoded by Nominatim, over map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
Distilleries Nearby
1 producer we have checked near here. These are the ones from our research we could check against their own site — not every producer there is.
Amalga Distillery
Describes itself as Juneau's first distillery.
- HoursSun-Thu 12-8pm; Fri-Sat 12-9pm
134 N Franklin St, Juneau, AK 99801
*Check before you go. Every producer here links to its own site, which is where we read these details on the date we checked. Opening hours, tour times, tasting fees and who may come in change without notice and belong to the producer. A blank is something we did not confirm, not something they lack. None of these say anything about children, so do not plan around it without asking them.
Practical Road Trip Info
There is no road in, so plan backwards from the ferry or the flight. Vehicle hire in Juneau is for the local road system only.
Visitor services keep seasonal schedules. KTOO reported that the 2026 cruise season began on 27 April and was scheduled to end on 6 October. The Forest Service lists separate summer (May to September) and winter (November to March) hours for the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, and the Goldbelt Tram lists itself as open May through September.
Check glacier advisories. Outburst flooding from above the Mendenhall caused millions in damage in 2024, and conditions there are actively monitored.
Rain is the normal state. Travel Juneau, the city's visitor bureau, gives Juneau 230 days of precipitation and says to expect rain at some point during a stay; its weather page lists a waterproof outer layer and waterproof footwear for all seasons. The US Forest Service describes the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska as nearly 17 million acres of temperate rainforest.
6 public campgrounds within 25 miles of Juneau, all bookable ahead. Public campgrounds run by federal agencies. State-park and private campgrounds are not included.
The Local Debate
Family-Friendly
Seeing a glacier from a car park
The Mendenhall is reachable on the road system, which is the easiest glacier access in the state for a family.
Driving to the end of the road
A road that simply stops, with no continuation anywhere, is a concrete way to explain what an island-like capital means.
The tramway up Mount Roberts
The Goldbelt Tram climbs Mount Roberts from the cruise ship docks on South Franklin Street: its website describes a six-minute ascent to a height of about 1,800 feet, and lists the tram as open May through September. As of 2026-10-14 the operator's website states that the tram is temporarily closed as assessments continue, with its lobby open daily from 8am to 6pm.
Whale watching from Auke Bay
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says half-day and full-day whale watching cruises depart from Auke Bay, with humpback whales seen consistently, and that many leave from the Don Statter Harbor in Auke Bay. Travel Juneau gives April to November as the period when humpback whales inhabit the waters of the northern Inside Passage.
Plan Your Visit
Mendenhall Glacier
- Where
- North-west of downtown Juneau, visible from and reachable on the local road system
- What it is
- One of the glaciers flowing from the Juneau Icefield
- Condition
- Gradually retreating, with the front face shrinking in width and height
- Hazard
- Glacial outburst floods from the basin above caused several million dollars of damage in 2024 — check local advisories
- Hours and fees
- Summer hours 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily, May to September; a day pass is $5* per person, with ages 15 and younger free; closed for the winter from 7 October 2026 for maintenance, per a 25 September 2026 release (US Forest Service, read 2026-10-14)
*Fees subject to change, please check fs.usda.gov for updated information.
We checked fees, seasonal opening, operating status, opening hours and closures on 2026-10-12. These change without notice — confirm with fs.usda.gov, lam.alaska.gov, nps.gov, alaskacapitol.gov, goldbelttram.com, ktoo.org, juneauindependent.com, traveljuneau.com, weather.gov, adfg.alaska.gov and wilderness.net the week you travel.
Sources — 35 claims, 32 checked against the source on 2026-10-12
| Claim | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Juneau is one of two U.S. state capitals without roads connecting it to the rest of the state or to the contiguous United States (Honolulu is the other), and all goods coming in and out must be transported by plane or boat (checked 2026-10-15) | Juneau, Alaska — Wikipedia | Checked |
| Population 32,255 at the 2020 census; the page gives inconsistent later figures including a 2025 estimate of 31,609 and a lead figure of 31,454, so this guide uses “about 31,600”; elevation 33 feet with downtown at sea level | Juneau, Alaska — Wikipedia | Checked |
| The town site was marked on 18 October 1880 by Richard Harris and Joe Juneau; a miners' meeting on 14 December 1881 decided “to name the settlement Juneau, after prospector Joe Juneau”; it was earlier called Rockwell and then Harrisburg | Juneau, Alaska — Wikipedia | Checked |
| “Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906”; capital-move votes: 1960 rejected by 56%, 1974 approved by 56%, Willow chosen in 1976, funding rejected in 1978, and further votes in 1984 and 1996 failed | Juneau, Alaska — Wikipedia | Checked |
| The Mendenhall Glacier is one of the glaciers flowing from the Juneau Icefield and is visible from the local road system; “The Mendenhall Glacier has been gradually retreating”, its front face shrinking in width and height; glacial outburst floods from the basin above caused damage estimated at $2.8 to $5.6 million in 2024 | Juneau, Alaska — Wikipedia | Checked |
| A pass is required to enter the visitor center from 1 May to 30 September: day pass $5 per person; season pass $15 for the card holder and one guest; ages 15 and younger are free (checked 2026-10-14) | Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center — US Forest Service (fees) | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| 2026 free guided tours Monday to Friday at 1:30 pm and 3 pm from 1 June to 24 September (no tours on 19 June, 3 July, 12 August, 24 August, 7 September), volunteer-hosted with sign-up on the day in the lobby; self-guided audio tours also offered (checked 2026-10-14) | Alaska State Capitol tours — Alaska Legislature | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| A named, verified Juneau restaurant for the food stop | No source accepted yet | Not confirmed |
| Where the Juneau road system ends to the north and its total length | No source accepted yet | Not confirmed |
| Six-minute ascent up Mount Roberts to about 1,800 feet from the base terminal on the cruise ship docks on South Franklin Street; listed as open May through September (checked 2026-10-14) | Goldbelt Tram — about (operator) | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Daily Alaska Airlines flights from Seattle and Anchorage serve Juneau International Airport; the Alaska Marine Highway ferry is the road-trip route in; most rental car companies have a summer location downtown or a year-round option at the airport (checked 2026-10-14) | Getting to Juneau — Travel Juneau | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Juneau has 230 days of precipitation; layers, a waterproof outer layer and waterproof footwear are listed for all seasons (checked 2026-10-14) | Weather in Juneau — Travel Juneau | Checked |
| Day-trip distances and drive times on the Juneau road system | No source accepted yet | Not confirmed |
| Summer hours (May to September) 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. seven days a week; winter hours (November to March) 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; grounds open 6:00 a.m. to midnight year-round; visitor center phone 907-789-0097 (checked 2026-10-14) | Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center — US Forest Service (hours) | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Release dated 25 September 2026: the visitor center closes for the winter from 7 October 2026 for maintenance and re-opens for the visitor season 1 May to 30 September, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily (checked 2026-10-14) | Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center closing for maintenance — US Forest Service news release | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Page last updated 13 October 2026: Suicide Basin released a second time on 2 October 2026 and the Mendenhall lake crested at 10.18 ft; the National Weather Service will continue to monitor the basin through fall and winter and review the August 2026 event data (checked 2026-10-14) | Suicide Basin — National Weather Service Juneau | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| The Juneau-Douglas Bridge links the mainland to the Douglas Island communities of Douglas, North Douglas and West Juneau; residents formerly crossed Gastineau Channel by rowing or ferry (checked 2026-10-14) | Juneau-Douglas Bridge — Alaska DOT&PF | Checked |
| Article of 27 April 2026: about 1.69 million cruise passengers expected up to 6 October; daily limits of 16,000 passengers on most days and 12,000 on Saturdays negotiated with cruise lines (checked 2026-10-14) | Juneau cruise season 2026 — KTOO | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Building hours Monday to Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm; closed Saturday, Sunday and state holidays (checked 2026-10-14) | Alaska State Capitol building hours — Alaska Legislature | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Built in 1931; the Legislature's site describes a neoclassical design; address 120 4th St, Juneau (checked 2026-10-14) | Alaska State Capitol — Alaska Legislature | Checked |
| Originally the Federal and Territorial Building, dedicated 14 February 1931; the page says it lacks large landscaped grounds and could appear to be simply an office building, and does not feature a dome (checked 2026-10-14) | Alaska State Capitol — Wikipedia | Checked |
| Alaska State Museum, Andrew P. Kashevaroff Building, 395 Whittier Street, Juneau: hours Tuesday to Saturday 10 am to 4 pm; page last updated 6 October 2026 (checked 2026-10-14) | Alaska State Museum — State of Alaska libraries, archives and museums (hours) | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| General admission $9; seniors (65 and up) $8; active-duty military and family free; youth 18 and under free (checked 2026-10-14) | Alaska State Museum — State of Alaska libraries, archives and museums (fees) | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Report of 6 October 2026, the last cruise ship day: a visitor said tour and restaurant options were limited since many have shut down for the season (checked 2026-10-14) | Final cruise ship of 2026 — Juneau Independent | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Half and full day whale watching cruises depart from Auke Bay, with humpback whales seen consistently; many leave from the Don Statter Harbor in Auke Bay (checked 2026-10-14) | Juneau whale watching — Alaska Department of Fish and Game | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Travel Juneau gives April to November as the period when humpback whales inhabit the waters of the northern Inside Passage (checked 2026-10-14) | Whale watching & wildlife viewing — Travel Juneau | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness Area is located about 40 miles south of Juneau; daily cruises depart from Juneau (checked 2026-10-14) | Tracy Arm — Alaska Department of Fish and Game | Checked |
| Two sheer-walled fjords, Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm, with tidewater glaciers at the head of each; day trips to the fjords are available from Juneau by motorized boat (checked 2026-10-14) | Tracy Arm – Fords Terror Wilderness — Wilderness.net | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| The park lies west of Juneau and is reached by plane or boat; Alaska Airlines lists daily jet service Juneau to Gustavus in the summer season (checked 2026-10-14) | Glacier Bay National Park — getting there (National Park Service) | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| The Mendenhall Glacier is stated to be 13 miles from downtown; the Juneau ferry terminal is on Glacier Highway at Auke Bay, 13 miles from town (checked 2026-10-14) | Juneau community page — Alaska Marine Highway System | Checked |
| The Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska covers nearly 17 million acres of temperate rainforest (checked 2026-10-14) | About the Tongass National Forest — US Forest Service | Checked |
| The tram is temporarily closed as assessments continue; the lobby is open daily from 8am to 6pm (checked 2026-10-14) | Goldbelt Tram — update (operator) | Checked monitored · 2026-10-14 |
| To get "out the road", follow Glacier Highway away from town and past Auke Bay (checked 2026-10-14) | Out the road — Alaska Department of Fish and Game | Checked |
| Article of 25 June 2013: the Glacier Highway was extended three miles from Echo Cove to Cascade Point; the road now ends at Cascade Point (a 2013 report; current end of road not re-checked with an official page) (checked 2026-10-14) | Glacier Highway extension — KTOO | Checked |
| Designated an All-American Road by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation; 3,500 miles in AK; FHWA suggests: There are possibilities for one-day excursions, two- to five-day itineraries, or see the entire byway over the course of several weeks; fees: Check with the Alaska Marine Highway for up-to-date prices. (checked 2026-10-29) | Federal Highway Administration: Alaska Marine Highway | Checked |
Road Trippin’ with the Harts
The Highway Heads books turn the miles between stops into a game the whole car can play.
See the booksLive Conditions
Wildlife Spotted Nearby
Nearest Airports
Straight-line distance from Juneau, not drive time.
- Juneau International (JNU) — 7 miles
- Funter Bay Seaplane Base (FNR), seaplane base — 18 miles
- Point Retreat CG Light Station Helipad, heliport — 21 miles
Explore the Full Road Trip
Return to the Highway Heads map and discover the next family-ready stop.
Explore the Map