Juneau

Juneau is the only state capital in the United States unreachable by road — a distinction that speaks to Alaska's staggering scale and untamed wilderness. Founded in 1881 after gold was discovered in Gold Creek by prospectors Joe Juneau and Richard Harris (guided by Tlingit chief Kowee), the city sits wedged between the Gastineau Channel and mountains that rise abruptly to over a thousand metres, their upper slopes draped in the Juneau Icefield, one of the largest non-polar ice masses in the world. The Mendenhall Glacier, a river of blue-white ice flowing from this vast field, terminates in a lake just thirteen miles from downtown.

Alaska's capital is a study in contrasts: government buildings and craft breweries occupy the compact downtown grid, while bears fish for salmon in streams at the city's edge and humpback whales breach in channels visible from waterfront restaurants. The Alaska State Museum weaves together the cultures of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples with the stories of Russian colonists, gold rush prospectors, and modern Alaskans. The Red Dog Saloon, with its sawdust floors and frontier memorabilia, remains a mandatory pilgrimage for visitors seeking a taste of the Last Frontier's rollicking heritage.

Alaskan cuisine draws on the extraordinary bounty of cold northern waters. King salmon, caught in the waters surrounding Juneau from May through September, is the crown jewel — whether smoked over alder wood, pan-seared with a crispy skin, or cured into lox. Dungeness crab and king crab legs, cracked tableside and dipped in drawn butter, are celebratory indulgences. Halibut appears in fish and chips, ceviche, and elegant pan-roasted preparations. Local craft breweries — Alaskan Brewing Company has been operating since 1986 — pair well with all of the above.

Juneau is the staging ground for some of Alaska's most awe-inspiring excursions. Helicopter tours land on the Juneau Icefield for glacier trekking and dog sledding. Tracy Arm Fjord, a thirty-mile-long inlet flanked by thousand-foot granite walls and calving glaciers, is accessible by day-cruise. Whale-watching tours in the Stephens Passage almost guarantee sightings of humpbacks during summer. The Tongass National Forest, the largest in the United States at nearly seventeen million acres, surrounds the city with old-growth Sitka spruce, black bears, and bald eagles.

Juneau's cruise dock receives an impressive array of lines: Azamara, Carnival Cruise Line, Cunard, Disney Cruise Line, Explora Journeys, Holland America Line, Lindblad Expeditions, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, Silversea, The Boat Company, Viking, Virgin Voyages, and Windstar Cruises. Nearby ports include Skagway, Ketchikan, Sitka, and Glacier Bay National Park. The Alaska cruise season runs from May through September.