Exploring Alaska by Ferry: The Alaska Marine Highway to Juneau
By Becky Janes | Glacier Nalu Campground
If you live in Southeast Alaska, the Alaska Marine Highway is more than just a ferry system. It’s part of how we get around.
Here in Juneau, we don’t have a road connecting us to the rest of Alaska or the Lower 48. For generations, ferries have helped connect Southeast Alaska’s communities, carrying people, cars, RVs, equipment, groceries and just about everything else you can imagine.
That’s why we were so excited when Travel + Leisure recently published a feature about traveling Alaska’s 3,500-mile Marine Highway. Glacier Nalu had the opportunity to share some of our local perspective and experiences with ferry travel, and we were honored to be included in the story.
Read the Travel + Leisure feature
Then, after the article came out, a family member found something pretty incredible.
A Look Back at the Marine Highway in 1965
A family member came across an old issue of National Geographic from June 1965. Inside was an article called “Alaska’s Marine Highway.”
It was fun to see how people were writing about this way of traveling Southeast Alaska more than 60 years ago. A lot has changed since 1965, but the experience of traveling Alaska by ferry is still pretty special. You get to slow down, watch the scenery go by and visit communities that you simply can’t reach by driving down a highway.
For those of us who call Southeast Alaska home, the ferry has another meaning. It has always been part of life here.
Take a look at the June 1965 National Geographic issue
Growing Up With the Ferry
For many people who grow up in Southeast Alaska, the ferry becomes part of your story. It’s how families travel between communities, how vehicles and supplies move around the region, and how students get to sporting events and competitions in neighboring towns.
That was certainly part of our experience growing up in Juneau.
Some of our favorite ferry memories come from school trips throughout Southeast Alaska. The ferry was an affordable way for sports teams to travel to competitions, which meant spending a lot of time onboard with teammates. Those trips gave us a chance to visit other communities, spend time together and make some pretty great memories along the way.
Plus, taking the ferry usually meant a longer trip and a few extra days away from school. Nobody was complaining about that!
Experiences like these are one reason the Alaska Marine Highway continues to have such a special place in our lives today.
Life Onboard
One of the things we love about a longer ferry trip is that you have time to settle in and enjoy where you are.
You aren’t simply waiting to arrive at your destination. You can watch the mountains and islands go by, look for wildlife and meet other people making their way through Alaska.
If you want privacy on a longer trip, booking a stateroom can be worth it. But some of our favorite ferry experiences have been much simpler. Bring a sleeping bag and tent and settle in on the back deck, or find a spot beneath the heaters in the solarium.
It can be a really social experience, too. You meet people from all over the world, and everyone seems to have a story about where they came from and where they’re headed next.
Food options depend on the vessel and route. We have plenty of memories of looking forward to a hot meal in the ferry cafeteria while traveling around Southeast Alaska. On shorter trips, options can be more limited, so bringing your own snacks and food is always a good idea.
Is Ferry Travel for You?
We think the Alaska Marine Highway is a great fit for independent travelers who have some extra time and don’t mind being flexible.
Depending on the sailing, you can travel on foot or bring your car, camper or RV. There is definitely some planning involved. You need to coordinate your trip around sailing schedules, and schedules can change because of weather, maintenance and other circumstances.
We always recommend leaving some flexibility in your itinerary. If you’re open to a little adventure and don’t need every part of your trip to happen on a rigid schedule, the ferry can be an incredible way to experience Southeast Alaska.
Bringing Your RV to Juneau
This surprises a lot of first-time visitors. Even though you can’t drive directly to Juneau, you can still include Juneau in an Alaska road trip.
Travelers bring cars, camper vans, RVs, travel trailers and fifth wheels to Juneau using the ferry system. We see it every summer at Glacier Nalu.
Some travelers arrive by ferry from Bellingham, while others drive through Canada and incorporate a ferry sailing into their route to Juneau.
Not everyone is just passing through, either. We also welcome seasonal guests who bring their RVs or campers to Juneau and make Glacier Nalu their home base for an extended stay. It gives them a chance to settle in, experience a full Southeast Alaska summer and explore Juneau at a much more relaxed pace.
The ferry has even been part of Glacier Nalu’s own story. A few years ago, one of our tiny homes made its way to Juneau aboard the ferry.
There’s something pretty great about an Alaska road trip where part of the road happens to be water.
A Few Things We’ve Learned Along the Way
Get there early. If you’re traveling as a walk-on passenger, getting there early gives you a better chance of finding a comfortable spot for the trip.
Find a window seat near an outlet. When you first get onboard, take a little time to find a comfortable spot along the wall with a good window view and, if you can, a nearby power outlet. You can charge your phone or other devices while still watching the scenery and keeping an eye out for wildlife along the way.
Check out the solarium. This has always been one of our favorite places on the ferry. On a longer trip, it’s a great place to settle in and watch Alaska go by.
Give yourself room to get comfortable. If you’re going to be onboard for a while, having space for a blanket or sleeping bag can make the journey a lot more relaxing.
Bring some food. Food options vary depending on the vessel and sailing, so it never hurts to have your own snacks and something to eat.
Stay flexible. Ferry schedules can change, especially when weather gets involved. Give yourself some extra time and try to enjoy the adventure when plans shift.
Give Yourself Time in Juneau
If you’re traveling the Marine Highway and stopping in Juneau, don’t just get off one ferry and wait for the next one. If your schedule allows, we recommend giving yourself at least four or five days here.
Of course, the Mendenhall Glacier is a must-see, and it’s only about a 10-minute drive from Glacier Nalu. But there is so much more to explore around Juneau.
We have incredible hiking, whale watching, fishing, beaches, wildlife viewing and miles of trails through old-growth forest.
One of our favorite things to do is walk the beaches at low tide. You can find sea stars, sea urchins, anemones, chitons, sea cucumbers and all kinds of other intertidal life.
There’s an old Alaska saying, “When the tide is out, the table is set.”
Low tide brings all kinds of wildlife to the shoreline, from bald eagles and shorebirds to bears looking for something to eat.
If you’re here in July or August, Steep Creek near the Mendenhall Glacier can also be a great place to watch for black bears when the salmon are running.
And if hiking is your thing, you’ve come to the right place. Juneau has more miles of trails than roads. Once the snow melts, you can hike through wildflowers, berry patches, muskeg and old-growth forest, past waterfalls and plenty of mountain views.
Make Glacier Nalu Your Basecamp
One of the reasons we love the ferry is that it brings the kind of travelers we love welcoming to Glacier Nalu. People who are curious, want to explore and want to get outside and experience Alaska for themselves.
Whether you arrive in Juneau with an RV, camper, car, motorcycle, bicycle or just your backpack, we have a place for you.
Glacier Nalu offers full-service RV sites, tiny cabin vacation rentals, our Pond House Suite vacation rental, furnished glamping tents and covered deluxe tent sites where you can pitch your own tent.
We also have our rainforest sauna, which is a pretty great place to end the day after hiking and exploring around Juneau.
More than anything, we want our guests to have enough time to really experience this place. Get out on the trails, walk the beaches, see the glacier, watch for whales, explore the forest and talk to locals.
And leave some room in your itinerary for something you didn’t plan. That’s usually where some of the best Alaska memories come from.
Still Part of the Journey
It’s pretty amazing to look at that National Geographic article from 1965 and then read the new Travel + Leisure story more than 60 years later.
A lot has changed in that time. The ferries have changed. Juneau has changed. The Mendenhall Glacier looks very different today than it did in photos from 1965. But it’s still here, it’s still part of the Juneau experience, and it’s still beautiful.
People are still loading cars and campers onto the ferry, settling in for the ride and watching the mountains go by. They’re still traveling these same waterways between Southeast Alaska communities and discovering that getting there can be just as memorable as where they’re going.
For Glacier Nalu, the ferry is woven into our story too. It connects our own experiences growing up and traveling around Southeast Alaska with the travelers we welcome today.
Maybe that’s why people are still writing about the Alaska Marine Highway all these years later. The scenery may change and the communities may grow, but there is still something pretty incredible about seeing Southeast Alaska from the water.
It’s not just about where the ferry takes you. It’s everything you get to experience along the way.
Live for Adventure. Stay for the Experience.
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Read the Travel + Leisure feature
