Juneau Webcam – Where Egan Drive Meets Glacier Highway

The Juneau Webcam looks out from Kootznoowoo Plaza over the junction where Egan Drive runs out and Glacier Highway carries on north, less than a kilometer (about half a mile) from Juneau International Airport. The plaza parking lot fills the bottom of the frame, the highway crosses the middle of it with signals and a crosswalk, and a green guide sign sends traffic left for Auke Bay and right for downtown. Spruce and hemlock close off the far side, where the road network stops and the rainforest starts. It is a working view rather than a postcard one: this junction is the hinge of the only road system Alaska’s capital has.

About Juneau

Juneau is the capital of Alaska and the only state capital with no road connection to the rest of its own state or to the contiguous United States. Cars arrive by ferry or barge, people arrive by plane or ship, and the highway they land on runs 62.78 kilometers (39.01 miles) from Franklin Street downtown to a dead end near Berners Bay. The 2020 census counted 32,255 residents and the 2025 estimate is 31,609, spread across a city and borough of 8,430 square kilometers (3,255 square miles), most of it icefield, forest and water that no road reaches.

Gold started it. A mining engineer sent Joe Juneau and Richard Harris north after a local Tlingit man brought him ore samples; they struck gold in 1880 and the camp was founded on October 18 that year. It took the territorial capital from Sitka in 1906, which is how a town of thirty thousand ended up holding the legislature of the largest state in the country.

The building the camera is fixed to has a story of its own. Kootznoowoo, Inc. bought Kootznoowoo Plaza in 1996, a two story block with more than 1,860 square meters (20,000 square feet) of office and retail space on 0.51 hectares (1.27 acres); Tongass Federal Credit Union rents space there and sponsors the feed. Kootznoowoo is the village corporation for Angoon, incorporated on November 9, 1973 under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and named for Admiralty Island, whose Tlingit name translates as Fortress of the Bears. The plaza’s address is Old Dairy Road, and the name fits the ground: dairy farms worked these wetlands from the early 1900s until Juneau’s last one closed in 1965.

Weather and Climate in Juneau

The weather station behind these numbers sits at the airport, 790 meters (0.49 miles) from the camera, so the normals describe this junction rather than a town down the road. January averages 0.6 C (33.1 F) by day and minus 4.6 C (23.8 F) at night, mild for the latitude and wet more often than frozen, so the pavement in frame tends to look dark and shining rather than white. April climbs to 9.3 C (48.7 F), July peaks at 17.8 C (64.0 F) with nights near 10.1 C (50.1 F), and October slides back to 8.5 C (47.3 F). The record high is 32 C (90 F) from July 7, 1975, and the record low is minus 30 C (minus 22 F).

Rain is the constant. The airport records 1,702 millimeters (66.99 inches) of precipitation a year, and September is the wettest month at 232 millimeters (9.15 inches), so a gray frame with headlights on at midday is normal here. Daylight swings as hard as the weather: the June solstice gives Juneau 18 hours and 24 minutes between sunrise and sunset, the December solstice gives 6 hours and 27 minutes, and for much of midwinter the camera is watching streetlights and headlights instead of trees.

Things to Do Near Juneau

The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is 6.3 kilometers (3.9 miles) north of the camera, and a flat trail runs from there along the lakeshore to Nugget Falls. Closer in, Glacier Gardens Rainforest Adventure covers 20 hectares (50 acres) at 7600 Glacier Highway, 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) back down the road the camera is pointed at. It opened to visitors in 1998 and is known for its flower towers, upturned trees planted with blooms in the root ball, plus a viewpoint 177 meters (580 feet) up the slope of Thunder Mountain.

Behind the airport runway lies the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge, roughly 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres) of tidal marsh along Gastineau Channel where about 230 bird species have been recorded. The paved Airport Dike Trail runs 1.9 kilometers (1.2 miles) along its edge and is the easiest birding walk in town. Auke Bay and Statter Harbor are 5.3 kilometers (3.3 miles) up the highway, where whale watching boats and the Alaska Marine Highway ferries tie up. Downtown sits 11.3 kilometers (7 miles) the other way, with the Goldbelt Tram climbing Mount Roberts from the cruise dock.

Similar Webcams You Might Like

Three more Alaska cameras worth a look.

• Mendenhall Glacier Webcam
• Lake Hood Seaplane Base Webcam
• Katmai National Park Webcam

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Juneau Webcam located?

On Kootznoowoo Plaza, Old Dairy Road, Juneau, Alaska. The camera faces the junction where Egan Drive ends and Glacier Highway continues north, 790 meters (0.49 miles) from Juneau International Airport and 11.3 kilometers (7 miles) from downtown.

What can you see on the Juneau Webcam?

The plaza parking lot, both roadways of the highway with their signals and crosswalk, the green guide sign for Auke Bay and downtown, and a wall of spruce and hemlock behind. Traffic moving between the airport, the ferry terminal and the capital passes through the frame all day.

Can you drive to Juneau, Alaska?

Not from outside the borough. Juneau has no road link to the rest of Alaska or to Canada, so vehicles arrive by Alaska Marine Highway ferry or barge. Once there, drivers get 62.78 kilometers (39.01 miles) of Alaska Route 7 and no way off it.

What is the weather like in Juneau?

Wet and mild for the latitude. July averages 17.8 C (64.0 F) by day and January 0.6 C (33.1 F). Rain or snow falls on roughly 230 days a year, and an average winter drops 223 centimeters (87.6 inches) of snow.

How far is the Mendenhall Glacier from this camera?

The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is 6.3 kilometers (3.9 miles) north, reached by turning left at the junction in frame and following Glacier Highway, then Mendenhall Loop Road.

Why is Juneau the capital of Alaska?

The gold strike of 1880 built the town, and the capital moved there from Sitka in 1906. Campaigns to move it again started as early as 1960, when a proposal to shift the government to the Cook Inlet area failed; the most recent attempt was in 2002.

How much daylight does Juneau get in winter?

About 6 hours and 27 minutes at the December solstice, against 18 hours and 24 minutes at the June solstice. Expect the camera to be lit by streetlights for a large part of a December afternoon.

Who runs this camera?

Kootznoowoo, Inc., the Alaska Native village corporation for Angoon, which owns the building it is mounted on. The feed is sponsored by Tongass Federal Credit Union, a tenant in the same plaza.

Source: Kootznoowoo, Inc.