Back From Alaska

We spent a couple of days in Juneau, and we revisited the Glacier Gardens Rainforest Adventure. The photo is from our 2019 trip when it was abnormally warm and sunny. This time it was normally cool and rainy. Either way, the garden merits a stop. Originally a plant nursery, the owner has converted it into a show garden. You have an opportunity to walk around the garden, which won’t take too long–there is a stream with a waterfall, and nice plantings of annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees. It attracts birds as well, so we saw juncos and jays on this trip.

You then ride in an open-but-covered electric cart driven by a local up a dirt/gravel road to the top of a mountain (about 600 feet). It gives you a chance to see the rainforest if you aren’t able or inclined toward hiking vertically, and it’s quite pretty. At the top, on a clear day you can view over the airport to the water and islands in the distance. On a rainy day, you can see what it’s like to be in a cloud in the temperate rainforest (spoiler alert: chilly and wet, with limited visibility).

The claim to fame is the upside-down tree planters scattered throughout the garden area. These are trees that have had to be removed for some reason; yanked out of the thin topsoil by a big tree-puller-outer piece of equipment, like a backhoe. The top is removed, a hole is dug (perhaps requiring drilling into the bedrock, which is close to the surface). The tree is placed upside down in the hole at a depth about equal to the part sticking out. The roots are then covered with landscape fabric, soil, and planted with ornamentals. They are quite striking.

If you are spending some time in Juneau and need to get away from the cruise passenger shops downtown, Glacier Gardens makes a nice couple of hour outing.