JUNEAU AK

Juneau has a population of about 30,000 year round residents. It gets about 118-140” of snow (at sea level) during the winter and lots of rain. Our days here brought 84 degrees and lots of sunshine. The average income is about $90,000. A modest 3 bedroom about $350,000. Juneau was not affected by the recession. Main industry - government, tourism and fishing. Gov’t employes about 70 percent of the population. Mining was a big industry starting in 1882, and Juneau has a rich and varied mining past. Mining was replaced by the expansion of government during the war and afterwards, when Alaska became the 49th state in January 1959. Juneau has more hiking trails than its 40 miles of paved roads. Much of the waterfront area is landfill, created from the earlier mining which expanded the available land since Juneau is tucked next to very steep 45+ degree mountains. As a result there are many stairways between buildings to get to higher levels of homes. Several days we walked up and down 200-500 steps just to get where we wanted to go!!! The only way to get to Juneau is by sea or air.

The Mount Roberts Tramway with an 1800’ accent provided us with beautiful views of Juneau and the surrounding area. We also took a short 2 mile hike with great views of Mt Juneau which sits behind the city.