Things to Do in Juneau, United States: Walking Guide

The best things to do in Juneau combine Alaska’s gold-mining past, Indigenous cultures, historic churches and extraordinary landscapes. The capital is surrounded by mountains, rainforest and waterways, and its position along the Inside Passage gives it a close connection to the sea. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Juneau with 27 narrated places, so you can explore the city while hearing the story of each stop.

Juneau is part of Alaska, one of the most distinctive destinations in the United States. Its attractions range from museums and historic houses to the ice and forests of the Mendenhall Glacier area.

What to see in Juneau

The places below bring together the city’s political history, gold-rush heritage, religious traditions, Native cultures and natural environment.

Alaska State Centennial Museum

Also known as the Alaska State Museum, the Alaska State Centennial Museum presents Alaska through cultural heritage, history, natural sciences and art. Congress established the museum on June 6, 1900, with the mission of collecting, preserving and displaying materials connected with the region’s human and natural history.

Its collection was first shown publicly in 1920, in Juneau’s Arctic Brotherhood Building. The museum later took on research, guided tours and educational work. In 2016, it reopened after a 139 million dollar refurbishment as part of the Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff State Library, Archives, and Museum building, known as the APK.

Sealaska Heritage Institute

The Walter Soboleff Building is home to the Sealaska Heritage Institute, established in 1980 to preserve and share the cultures of Southeast Alaska Native peoples. The institute focuses on the traditions, languages and artistic practices of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples.

Opened in 2015, the building incorporates large carved and painted works by Native artists, including David A. Boxley, Preston Singletary and Robert Davidson. Inside, a replica clan house provides a setting for stories and cultural programs. The Sealaska Heritage Store sells Alaska Native artwork, jewelry, carvings, books and locally inspired gifts.

Wickersham House

In the Chicken Ridge neighborhood, the House of Wickersham preserves the home and legacy of James Wickersham, an influential political leader in early twentieth-century Alaska. Period furnishings, personal artifacts and exhibits show both his life and the wider history of the territory.

Frank Hammond, the owner of a mining company, built the two-and-a-half-story frame house in 1899. Wickersham bought it in 1928 and lived there until his death in 1939. The house became a museum and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Juneau-Douglas City Museum

Across from the Alaska State Capitol, the Juneau-Douglas City Museum explores the city’s history through gold mining, hydropower, skiing, outdoor recreation, fishing and politics.

The building itself is part of the story. Constructed in 1950 and 1951 as the Juneau Memorial Library, it is designed in the Classical Revival style, with concrete walls and red marble trim. It served as the city library until the 1980s, when it became a museum. In 2006, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Alaska State Capitol and Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Alaska State Capitol is one of the city’s key civic landmarks. Nearby, the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of Juneau’s oldest Catholic churches.

The parish was established in 1885 for the growing mining communities of the Silverbow Basin. The present building was completed in 1910 and became the cathedral of the Diocese of Juneau in 1951. The church later became a co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau, sharing that status with Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral in Anchorage. The building is currently closed for planned structural and interior work.

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church reflects the meeting of Tlingit traditions and Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Southeast Alaska. Members of the local Tlingit community founded the church after becoming interested in Orthodoxy through contact with the faith established in Sitka.

Unlike many Orthodox churches in Alaska, it was created primarily for an Indigenous congregation rather than Russian settlers. Its octagonal design and traditional Orthodox icons reflect its religious heritage, while financial support and religious materials came from Russia. A local tradition also connects the church’s dedication to Saint Nicholas with a vision shared by several Tlingit leaders.

Holy Trinity Church

Holy Trinity Church continues an Episcopal presence in Juneau that reaches back to the nineteenth century. The current building was completed in 2009 after the earlier church, built in 1896, was destroyed by fire on March 12, 2006.

The original structure was designed in the Carpenter Gothic style, with a wood frame, steeply pitched roofs and pointed lancet windows. The congregation rebuilt on the same site, preserving the church’s role as an active center of Episcopal worship.

Frances House

At 137 Sixth Street, Frances House is a three-story wood-frame building with a lively Queen Anne design. Its busy roofline, varied siding and narrow Italianate windows make it a notable example of Juneau’s historic residential architecture.

Jerry Eicherly, Juneau’s postmaster, built the house in 1898. John Rustgard, who later became attorney general of the Alaska Territory, purchased it in 1911.

Last Chance Mining Museum

Just outside Juneau, the Last Chance Mining Museum occupies the main building of a former gold-mining camp. The site, known as the Jualpa Mining Camp or Last Chance Basin Camp, was established between 1910 and 1913 by the Alaska-Juneau Gold Mining Company.

The camp operated until 1944 and produced more than 80 million dollars’ worth of gold. Surviving industrial features include the air compressor building, railroad resources, an electrical transformer house, a powder magazine and a cable hoist. The compressor building is 84 feet, or 26 meters, long and still houses the company’s compressor.

Tahku

Tahku is a life-size bronze sculpture of a humpback whale. Erected in 2018, it brings a representation of one of the region’s great marine animals into the city and makes a memorable stop on a walk through Juneau.

Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center

The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center offers views across Mendenhall Lake toward the glacier’s blue face, where ice meets water and forest. The glacier stretches twelve miles from the Juneau Icefield and measures one and a half miles across at its face. It lies within Tongass National Forest and is one of the area’s most accessible glaciers.

Inside, exhibits explain glaciology and the glacier’s retreat. Visitors can study a relief map of the Juneau Icefield, use telescopes in the observatory and watch the film Magnificent Mendenhall. Six hiking trails lead from the area, ranging from easy walks to more challenging routes approaching the glacier’s west side.

More places beyond central Juneau

Several other sites add context to the wider Juneau area. Chapel by the Lake is a Presbyterian church in Auke Bay, designed by Juneau-based architects Harold Foss and Linn A. Forrest and built between 1954 and 1958. The National Shrine of St. Thérèse occupies 46 acres overlooking the Lynn Canal and includes a stone chapel, crypt, labyrinth, columbarium, lodge, cabin and retreat.

On Douglas Island, Perseverance Theatre is Alaska’s only professional theater. Founded in 1979 by Molly Smith, it has premiered more than 50 new plays by Alaskan and national playwrights. Douglas is also connected with the story of Saint Sava Church, created for Serbian worshippers in the mining community and destroyed in the 1937 fire that swept through much of the town.

Explore Juneau with Neywo

A Juneau self-guided walking tour lets you discover the city without joining a group or following a fixed timetable. Neywo has two walking tours in Juneau:

• Capitol Hill: Governors, Totem Poles and a Tlingit Orthodox Church — 1.48 km, 65 minutes and 9 narrated stops.
• Gold Rush Juneau: Miners’ Cabins, Saloons and a Steam Laundry — 4.31 km, 92 minutes and 7 narrated stops.

The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages. Download Neywo and explore Juneau through its museums, churches, historic buildings and gold-rush landmarks.