Tongass Treehouse

Today!

Do you have questions about glaciers like... what the heck even is a glacier? Join Ranger Hillary and get back to the basics to ask all of your questions! . Meet in the visitor center by the big map of the Juneau Icefield!

Fall in love with the moments. It is these moments that mean the most in life. -Tyler Eddy

A humpback whale in Southeast Alaska.

Photo Credit: Tyler Eddy

We love our every day commute, as it goes past places like Auke Lake.

Auke Lake

🌲 Service September with Trail Mix! 🌲

Get ready for a month of trail-tastic volunteer events with Trail Mix, Inc.! Join us every Saturday to help out on different trails, with a special celebration for National Public Lands Day on the last Saturday! 🚶‍♂️🌟

🥾September 7: Jumbo Reroute Trail, 9 AM - 3 PM
🌿September 14: Black Bear Trail, 9 AM - 3 PM
🥾September 21: Peterson Lake Trail, 9 AM - 3 PM
🌿September 28: Lena Point Trail, 9 AM - 3 PM

No experience needed—just your enthusiasm and willingness to get a bit dirty. See you on the trail! 🌟🚀

Pucker Wilson's after a hike is hard to beat!

It has been an amazing year. We had the opportunity to expand the business, with a third location at Deckhand Dave’s food court downtown. With the tourist season in its final month, our Valley Ranch is ramping up for a LOCAL APPRECIATION BBQ FEAST to celebrate the successful summer season.
Mark your calendars for October 1st when we’ll be smoking up a few hundred pounds of brisket and serving the community free brisket sandwiches.
The expansion has also provided the opportunity to add some amazing folks to our crew, which means later hours at the Valley Ranch. Puckers will be open until 9pm starting in October. Another reason to celebrate!
We are blessed to have the continued support of this exceptional community. Feeding you is what we love most. Thank you!

Tlingit & Haida's Seacoast Indigenous Guardians Network-SIGN plans to assist NOAA Fisheries and Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services (AVPS) in efforts to conduct a field necropsy of a humpback whale that washed up dead on a local beach over Labor Day weekend. NOAA Fisheries Stranding Network Member Response activities are authorized under the Stranding Agreement NOAA SA-AKR-2023-02.

If you see a stranded, injured, entangled, or dead marine mammal, please call the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Statewide 24-hour Stranding Hotline: (877) 925-7773.

Pretty much the entirety of downtown! :)

4 AM views of Downtown Juneau

This place is so unreal that it looks fake...except that it isn't! Some awesome photo tours this summer in some of the best caves I've ever seen.

Our most famous endurance athletes are back! Pacific salmon, the keystone species of Tongass National Forest, have returned to Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area. There are 5 different Pacific salmon species: King (Chinook), Coho (Silver), Sockeye (Red), Humpback (Pink), and Chum (Dog). We mainly receive Sockeye and Coho salmon in Steep Creek, at different points of the summer season.

Sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka), also known as 'red' salmon, might spend their first year or two in fresh water, developing from eggs to smaller fish before heading out to the ocean. After a few years out in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, they migrate home to the precise waterway they were born in. How? By their sense of smell!

As Sockeye transition back to life and breathing in fresh water, they stop eating and creating the slime layer that protects their scales. This allows them to put on their best dress for mating season! Silver scales are absorbed and replaced by colorful green heads and red bodies. And prominent humps grow while 'noses' get longer. This is especially noticeable on males!

While remaining energy is conserved for swimming upstream and finding mates, these physiological changes can lead to fungal growth or even chunks of flesh decomposing and falling off their bodies. Zombies are real! The bodies of these salmon actually help to feed the generation that follows, along with countless other species. Even the plants of the forest benefit from their rich nutrients! What a beautiful circle of life.

Local Sockeye counts (Steep creek) this season:
7/17: 75 7/25: 78 8/1: 171

USFS Photo / H.Hunter

Tidepooling is one of our favorite activities. Really cool seeing these over/under photos!

Just behind the mountains in our view (the Chilkats) is Glacier Bay National Park!

Looks like the drizzle is going to become more intense. Time to cozy up with tea and a book in front of the electric fireplace. We at the Treehouse can watch the whale, otter, eagles and other critters continue on as usual in the rain from the comforts of inside.

Heavy Rain for SE AK - August 29, 2024 Weather Update ...RAINY FRIDAY AND WEEKEND...A PAIR OF WEATHER SYSTEMS WILL MOVE THROUGH SOUTHEAST ALASKA, DELIVERING HEAVY RAIN TO PARTS OF THE PANHANDLE.THE FIRST SYSTEM ...

It's always an icy blast of an experience to explore an ice cave in Juneau. It does take a bit of effort to get here, but totally worth it!

A Juneau Sunset

📷 - Alaskan Life Photography images by David Kirby

Mendenhall Ice Caves: Juneau,

Wow! Real summer weather. :)