92 Best Sights in Juneau, the Inside Passage, and Southeast Alaska, Alaska

Despite the name, this landmark is more a hill than a peak. Still, it's a steep 15-minute climb up the John Muir Trail from town to the top. The observation platform there provides views of waterways and islands whose names—among them Zarembo, Vank, and Woronkofski—recall the area's Russian history. The trail is named for naturalist John Muir, who, in 1879, made his way up the trail and built a campfire. Locals didn't realize there was anybody up on Mt. Dewey and the light from the fire caused a commotion below. Access the trail, which passes through a second-growth forest, on 3rd Street behind the high school.

The nexus of cultural life in Wrangell, the center houses the town's museum and visitor center as well as convention and performance facilities and a gift shop. Exhibits at the Wrangell Museum chronicle the region's rich history. On display here are the oldest known Tlingit house posts (dating from the late 18th century), decorative posts from Chief Shakes's clan house, petroglyphs, century-old spruce-root and cedar-bark baskets, masks, gold-rush memorabilia, and fascinating photographs. If you're spending any time in town, don't pass this up. The Wrangell Visitor Center, staffed when the museum is open, has information about local touring options.

Scattered among other rocks at this public beach are three dozen or more large stones bearing designs and pictures chiseled by unknown ancient artists. No one knows why the rocks at this curious site were etched the way they were, or even exactly how old the etchings are. You can access the beach via a boardwalk, where you'll find signs describing the site, along with carved replicas of the petroglyphs. Most of the petroglyphs are to the right between the viewing deck and a large outcropping of rock in the tidal beach area. Because the original petroglyphs can be damaged by physical contact, only photographs are permitted. But you are welcome to use the replicas to make a rubbing with rice paper and charcoal or crayons (available in local stores).

Located in Ft. Seward in a renovated old bakery with gorgeous views, the Port Chilkoot Distillery offers craft cocktails and samples of its locally made spirits, including vodka, gin, and bourbon. As in other distilleries around the state, patrons are limited to two drinks on the premises.

Walk along the waterfront and several forested paths to view striking examples of the monumental art form of totem pole carving, which is indigenous to Northwest Coast tribes. In addition to the totems, highlights include a carving shed where you can watch artists continue the work of their ancestors, a tribal house, and a large gift shop showcasing a wide range of authentic Native art. Also on the property are an antique car museum and antique firearm museum. Located adjacent to Totem Bight State Historical Park, Potlatch Park is 10 minutes north of town.

The trail to this scenic waterfall starts across the road from Shoemaker Bay, 5 miles south of Wrangell. A ¾-mile trail climbs uphill through the rain forest, with long stretches of boardwalk steps, ending at an overlook just below the falls. Hikers with more stamina can continue another 3 miles and 1,500 vertical feet to Shoemaker Bay Overlook.

The frontierish quarters of the Red Dog have housed an infamous Juneau watering hole since 1890. Nearly every conceivable surface in this two-story bar is cluttered with graffiti, business cards, and memorabilia, including a pistol that reputedly belonged to Wyatt Earp, who failed to reclaim the piece after checking it in at the U.S. Marshall's office on June 27, 1900. The saloon's food menu includes halibut, reindeer sausage, potato skins, burgers, and locally brewed beers. A little atmospheric sawdust covers the floor, and musicians pump out ragtime piano tunes when cruise ships are docked.

Ketchikan is known for its public art, and this bronze monument by local artist Dave Rubin provides a striking introduction. The Rock (2010) depicts seven life-size figures representative of Ketchikan's history: a Tlingit drummer, a logger, a miner, a fisherman, an aviator, a pioneer woman, and Tlingit chief George Johnson (the sculpture's only specific portrayal). The piece is located on the waterfront next to the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau.

The Russian–American Company built this registered historic landmark for Bishop Innocent Veniaminov. Completed in 1843 and one of Alaska’s few remaining Russian-built log structures, the house, which faces the harbor, contains exhibits on the history of Russian America. In several places, portions of the structure are peeled away to expose Russian building techniques. The ground level is a free museum. The National Park Service operates the house and rangers lead guided tours of the second floor, which holds the residential quarters and a chapel.

Get out your camera and set it for high speed at the fish ladder, a series of pools arranged like steps that allow fish to travel upstream around a dam or falls. When the salmon start running, from June onward, thousands of fish leap the falls or take the easier fish-ladder route. They spawn in Ketchikan Creek's waters farther upstream. Many can also be seen in the creek's eddies above and below the falls. The falls, fish ladder, and a large carving of a jumping salmon are just off Park Avenue on Married Man's Trail. The trail was once used by married men for discreet access to the red-light district on Creek Street.

A 2½-mile paved walking path and bike trail parallels the road from Ketchikan to Saxman Native Village, named for a missionary who drowned while helping Native Alaskans establish a new settlement in the area in 1886. A totem park dominates the center of Saxman, with poles representing clan crest figures, including bears, ravens, whales, and eagles. Saxman's Beaver Clan tribal house, which features a painted house screen by master carvers Nathan Jackson and Lee Wallace, is said to be the largest in Alaska. Carvers still create totem poles and totemic art objects in the adjacent carver's shed. You can visit the totem park on your own (on foot or by taxi, bicycle, or city bus), but to visit the tribal house and theater you must take a tour; book through Cape Fox Lodge.

If the crowds become overwhelming, and you have access to a vehicle, consider a visit to the Shrine of St. Thérèse, "out the road"—it's a peaceful site that's perfect for quiet contemplation. Built in the 1930s, this beautiful stone church and its 15 stations of the cross are the only structures on a serene tiny island accessible via a 400-foot-long pedestrian causeway. Visitors enjoy the Merciful Love Labyrinth, the black-granite Columbarium, and the floral gardens along the Good Shepherd Rosary Trail. Sunday services are held at 1:30 pm from Memorial Day through Labor Day. For those wishing to explore the area for more than a few hours, the shrine offers a lodge and four rental cabins that run the gamut from rustic to resplendent. A round-trip taxi ride may cost $60 or more.

A Tlingit war canoe sits beside this brick building officially named Harrigan Centennial Hall. Check out the museum's collection of Tlingit, Victorian-era, and Alaska-purchase historical artifacts, including spruce-root basketry, nautical instruments, and mining tools.

The exhibits and activities at this waterfront facility highlight Sitka's role as a regional hub for whale biologists, fisheries-management experts, and other specialists. Attractions include touch tanks, six wall-mounted aquariums, an 800-gallon saltwater tank, a killer-whale skeleton, and a fish hatchery. Well-placed signs throughout this working science center describe what's going on, providing a great introduction for kids to hands-on environmental science.

This nicely designed museum—also known as the Trail of '98 Museum—occupies the ground floor of the beautiful building that also houses Skagway City Hall. Inside, you'll find a 19th-century Tlingit canoe (one of only two like it on the West Coast), historic photos, a red-and-black sleigh, and other gold rush–era artifacts, along with a healthy collection of contemporary local art and post–gold-rush history exhibits.

Built in 1912, this large, white, barnlike structure just south of the Hammer Slough is the headquarters of an organization devoted to keeping alive the traditions and culture of Norway. Petersburg's Norwegian roots date back to 1897, when Peter Buschmann arrived and founded the Icy Strait Packing Company cannery. As his business and family flourished, others arrived to join them, many of Norwegian descent. By 1920, they and the area's Tlingit residents had established a year-round community of 600 residents. The hall, its red shutters decorated with colorful Norwegian rosemaling designs, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Outside sits a replica of a Viking ship that is a featured attraction in the annual Little Norway Festival each May. On the building's south side is a bronze tribute to deceased local fishermen.

The buildings on South Franklin Street and neighboring Front Street house curio and crafts shops, snack shops, and a salmon shop. Though some have fallen into disrepair, many reflect the architecture of the 1920s and 1930s; the older structures are located closer to the center of town. When the small Alaskan Hotel opened in 1913, Juneau was home to 30 saloons; the Alaskan gives today's visitors the most authentic glimpse of the town's whiskey-rich history—and, true to that history, is still a bit rough around the edges. Topped by a wood-shingled turret, the 1901 Alaska Steam Laundry Building now houses a toy store and other shops. The Senate Building, another of South Franklin's landmarks, is across the street.

This impressive public lands interpretive center contains exhibits—including one on the rain forest—that focus on the resources, Native cultures, and ecosystems of Southeast. The U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies provide information on Alaska's public lands, and a large gift shop sells natural-history books, maps, and videos about the region's sights. National Park and Federal Recreational Land Passes are accepted and sold.

Completed in 1904 and Ketchikan's oldest house of worship, St. John's has an interior constructed of red cedar cut in the Native-operated sawmill in nearby Saxman. When cruise ships are in town, a docent is on hand to answer questions.

One of Southeast's best-known landmarks, the onion-dome cathedral is so treasured by locals that in 1966, as a fire engulfed the building, townspeople risked their lives and rushed inside to rescue precious Russian icons, religious objects, and vestments. An almost exact replica of St. Michael's was completed in 1976. Today you can view what may well be the largest collection of Russian icons in the United States, among them Our Lady of Sitka (also known as the Sitka Madonna) and the Christ Pantocrator (Christ the World Judge), displayed on the altar screen.

Newly baptized Orthodox Natives and Siberian gold miners built what's now Southeast's oldest Russian church in 1894. Refurbished in the late 1970s, the onion-dome white-and-blue structure is a national historic landmark. Services sung in Slavonic, English, and Tlingit take place on weekends. A small visitor center and gift shop are located next door in the rectory.

Native artifacts and pioneer relics revisit the mining and fishing eras at this interesting museum. Exhibits include a big, brilliantly polished lens from Tree Point Lighthouse, well-presented Native tools and artwork, and photography collections. Thoughtfully developed signage throughout the museum gives visitors a sense of what it was—and is—like to live in this part of the world, and helps bring the objects to life.

Gathered from Tlingit and Haida village sites, many of the Native totems in the center's collection are well over a century old—a rare age for cedar carvings, which are eventually lost to decay in Southeast's exceedingly wet climate. Other work by Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian artists is also on display inside the facility, and outside stand several more poles carved in the three decades since it opened. The center offers guided tours and hosts classes, workshops, and seminars related to Northwest Coast Native art and culture.

On this grassy square across the street from the Sitka Pioneer Home are three anchors discovered in local waters and believed to be of 19th-century British origin. Look for the double-headed eagle of czarist Russia carved into the cedar of the park's totem pole.

The appeal of this hour-long performance is twofold. It provides an introduction to some of the more formal elements of Tlingit culture, such as traditional dancing, regalia (ceremonial clothing), and storytelling, and at the same time offers the audience a vibrant and entertaining performance. The show also highlights the important fact that Tlingit culture is still thriving in Southeast Alaska, in part through the revitalization of traditions such as the ones on view in this theater. Performers share a story from Tlingit oral tradition, such as "How Raven Stole the Sun," and at the end, members of the audience are invited up on stage to try a few dance steps.

This small park on a traffic island across from St. John's Episcopal Church is the site of the Chief Kyan totem pole, now in its third incarnation. The current replica, carved by Israel Shotridge, was erected in 1993 and then restored and re-raised in 2005. The original was carved in the 1890s, but over the decades it deteriorated and it was replaced in the 1960s. The 1960s edition is housed in the Totem Heritage Center.

This small waterside park sits in the trees 4 miles east of Sitka right off Sawmill Creek Road. Boardwalk paths lead to five viewing platforms and steps lead down to the rocky shoreline. A gazebo next to the parking area contains signs describing the whales that visit Silver Bay, and you can listen to their sounds from recordings and an offshore hydrophone.

At the top of the hill behind the capitol, on a rise sometimes known as "Chicken Ridge," stands the former residence of James Wickersham, pioneer judge, delegate to Congress, prolific author, and gutsy outdoorsman. The white New England–style home, constructed in 1898, contains memorabilia from the judge's travels throughout Alaska—from rare Native basketry and ivory carvings to historic photos and a Chickering grand piano that came "'round the Horn" to Alaska in the 1870s. The tour provides a glimpse into the life of this dynamic man.

Although wildlife-viewing is a possibility on any excursion, several tours are geared specifically toward this purpose, including the Spasski River Valley Wildlife and Bear Search, which entails a bus trip to a nearby meadow, and the Whale and Marine Mammals Cruise to Point Adolphus. Bears are sighted about 70 percent of the time, according to staff, and with whales, that figure climbs to 100 percent (if they don't spot any, you get a refund). Both excursions take about 2½ hours. If you've got more time, the 5-hour Whales, Wildlife and Brown Bear Search allows you to do both tours back-to-back.

This clapboard church is one of tiny Metlakatla's nine churches. The original burned in 1948. The current version, topped with two steeples, was rebuilt several years later. Nearby, Father Duncan's Cottage, maintained to appear exactly as it would have in 1891, contains original furnishings, personal items, and a collection of turn-of-the-20th-century music boxes.