Juneau Alaska Part 3: Sightseeing

After my trip to the Yukon I spent another four days in Juneau, visiting (mooching from) my relatives.  Maddy and I hiked up Mt. Roberts one afternoon.  We were hoping for a view looking down on Juneau, but instead this was all we could see:

But the hike was worth it even without a view.  It was strange to start out at sea-level with green trees and bare ground and be able to build a very nice snowman after only an hour of hiking.  Here's Maddy and our snowman friend:

The next day we went to Douglas Island at low tide and played catch on the rocky tidal flats while some seals swam around just offshore, then had a campfire on the beach to roast hotdogs and marshmallows for dinner.  Yum yum!  (Yum, but cold - when it gets dark at 4:30 and dips below freezing as soon as the sun goes down, a campfire becomes very necessary!  This was no tropical summertime evening on the beach...) I spent another afternoon visiting the tidal flats just north of Juneau, watching the sunset.  The view was unbelievable:

The water is the inside passage, and the mountains are on one of the outer islands.  Turning around to look back towards the mainland, this was the view:

I walked around the tidal flats until just before sunset:

Just like all of the places I have visited on this trip, I was sad to be leaving Juneau.  Just when I feel like I have started to really explore the area, it is time to leave!  But Alaska is also a turning point on this trip: the Yukon was my northern-most stop, and Juneau was the western-most.  From here on I'm heading south and east back across the continent, and towards the end of this particular adventure.  And I still don't know what's next!  Fortunately for me, the flight from Juneau back to Seattle included two dramatic landings at small towns along the southern Alaskan coast, with lots of turbulance and beautiful views of volcanic islands to keep me distracted from too many deep thoughts on the grand scheme of life and what my next steps should be.  Here's a picture of one of those volcanos: