Hike
Nugget Falls Trail & Mendenhall Glacier
An easy two-mile round trip through cottonwood forest from the visitor center to a waterfall dropping beside the glacier's face. The $5 recreation fee covers the trail and viewing decks.
America's only roadless state capital sits at the foot of an icefield, a short flight from a national park where tidewater glaciers calve straight into salt water. Humpbacks feed in the shallows, brown bears work the shoreline, and nothing here is reachable by road.
A timing note — Glacier Bay & Juneau's best window is May–Sep: Late May to early September; the Gustavus jet, Glacier Bay Lodge and most tour boats all run Memorial Day to Labor Day only.
Where you'll base yourself
Downtown JuneauAuke BayGustavusBartlett Cove
Things to do
Mornings
Hike
Perseverance Trail to Ebner Falls
A historic mining road turned trail climbs the Silverbow Basin past collapsed shafts and marmots to Ebner Falls. Free, well-graded, and reachable by city bus from downtown.
Cruise
Glacier Bay day boat tour
The only tour boat allowed inside the park runs once daily from Bartlett Cove past Marble Island's sea lions to a tidewater glacier face, with a ranger narrating throughout.
Cruise
Endicott Arm Fjord & Dawes Glacier cruise
With Tracy Arm closed since a 2025 landslide, Allen Marine now runs this route to Dawes Glacier instead: granite walls, waterfalls and calving ice, roundtrip from downtown Juneau.
Adventure
Helicopter & dog sled camp on the icefield
A short flight over the Juneau Icefield lands at a camp of sled dogs living on the ice year-round; mushers give a run across the snowfield. Operates May through August.
Kayak
Guided sea kayak paddle, Bartlett Cove
Glacier Bay Sea Kayaks leads a half-day paddle along the cove's forested shoreline, past harbor seals and nesting eagles, with a real chance of a passing humpback.
Wildlife
DIPAC Macaulay Salmon Hatchery
A working hatchery on Channel Drive with viewing decks over the fish ladder, touch tanks and a large aquarium. From mid-June, salmon crowd the ladder to spawn.
Afternoons
Wildlife
Whale watching by jet boat from Auke Bay
Alaska Travel Adventures runs a heated jet boat out of Auke Bay Harbor into feeding grounds where naturalists report sightings on nearly every trip, late April to early October.
Nature
Glacier Gardens Rainforest Adventure
An open-air cart winds two miles through old-growth Tongass rainforest hung with upside-down 'flower towers,' ending at a mountainside overlook above the Mendenhall Valley.
Wildlife
Point Adolphus whale watching with the TAZ
A small boat crosses Icy Strait to Point Adolphus, among the most reliable humpback feeding grounds in Alaska, with hot drinks and binoculars aboard. Departs Gustavus at 10am.
Nature
Ranger-led forest walk, Bartlett Cove
A free walk with a National Park Service ranger through spruce and hemlock rebounding on land the glacier uncovered barely two centuries ago, ending at the tidal flats.
Museum
Alaska State Museum
Northwest Coast art, a two-story eagle nest tree replica and Russian-America exhibits fill this Whittier Street museum, an easy rainy-afternoon stop in downtown Juneau.
Cycling
Bike the Gustavus flats
Flat gravel roads through second-growth spruce and open homestead meadows make Gustavus one of the few easy places in Southeast Alaska to explore by bike, rented from most lodges.
Nature
Beachcombing the Gustavus shoreline
A Nature Conservancy-protected strand of sand and driftwood along Icy Strait, wide open at low tide, with bald eagles working the tideline and the Fairweather Range across the water.
Evenings
Dining
Gold Creek Salmon Bake
An open-air alder-grilled salmon dinner by a creek and waterfall outside downtown, running since 1978 with live folk music and a shuttle from the cruise dock.
Talk
Ranger evening program, Glacier Bay Lodge
A free 30-minute NPS program in the lodge theater each summer evening, topics changing nightly — glacier history one night, whale research or Tlingit stories the next.
Views
Sunset over the Fairweather Range
From the dock at Bartlett Cove, the peaks of the Fairweather Range catch the last light across the bay; in June the glow lingers until nearly midnight.
Historic Bar
A drink at the Alaskan Hotel & Bar
Alaska's oldest hotel, open since 1913 — condemned and shuttered for a stretch in the 1970s before a full restoration — anchors a stained-glass saloon on South Franklin Street.
Views
Sunset at Auke Bay harbor
Fishing boats and whale-watching skiffs tie up as the light goes gold over the Chilkat Range; a quiet, free way to close a Juneau day.
Nature
Midnight-light beach walk, Icy Strait
Long June evenings leave hours of soft light over the Gustavus shoreline after dinner; an easy walk with sea otters offshore and almost no one else around.
Brewery
Flight of beers, Devil's Club Brewing
A downtown taproom on Franklin Street pouring its own ales and lagers in a converted storefront, a straightforward end to a long day on the water.
