Sights in Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan, Alaska

Juneau is the capital of Alaska and Sitka and Ketchikan are nearby cities part of the popular Inside Passage, a frequent stop for cruise ships. These cities have interesting attractions, rich cultural landmarks, beautiful parks, historic sites, and museums worth checking out.

• Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center—a glacier and visitor center that shows a film about the glacier, has a bookstore, and has exhibits on wildlife, history, and glacial and geological changes; 8150 Mendenhall Loop Road, Tongass National Forest
• Alaskan Brewing Company—the largest brewery in the state that is known for its amber ale; 5364 Commercial Boulevard
• Mount Roberts Trail—a hiking trail that is ideal for beginners and novices with activities and displays at the summit; ½ mile from cruise ship dock
• Goldbelt Mount Roberts Tramway—an aerial tramway that take visitors 1,800 feet above sea level in five minutes and allows for great views of the Chilkat mountain range, the Gastineau Channel, and Admiralty Island with a mountain house that has a gift shop and gallery, a theater, and a nature center; 490 South Franklin Street
• Alaska State Museum—an interesting museum that provides insights into Alaskan history and diverse cultures through its exhibits on fine art, mining, fishing, forestry, and tourism and a science theater; 395 Whittier Street
• Glacier Gardens Rainforest Adventure—a rainforest and series of gardens that have bright flower arrangements, beautiful landscapes, cascading waterfalls, and a visitors’ center with a live video feed of a bald eagle nest; 7600 Glacier Highway
• The Whale Project—a life-size bronze statue of a breaching humpback whale with information nearby on whales; 350 Whittier Street
• Juneau Rainforest Garden—a garden and information center that displays native Alaskan plants such as Sitka spruce (state tree) and forget-me-nots (state flower) as well as wildflowers, swamp cabbage, and devil’s club and has a pavilion that provides refreshments and natural science and floral displays; 10445 Glacier Highway
• Sealaska Heritage-Walter Soboleff Building—a cultural and research center that is dedicated to sharing and studying the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of southeastern Alaska with space for art demonstrations, archives, exhibits, and a traditional cedar clan house; 105 South Seward Street, Suite 201
• Juneau-Douglas City Museum—a museum that has exhibits on local history, art, and culture; 114 West 4^th Street
• Last Chance Mining Museum—a museum with a collection of artifacts that explores the history of the region’s mining history; 1001 Basin Road
• Jensen-Olson Arboretum—a garden with nicely landscaped grounds with an area dedicated as a food garden, native plants, and a grove of old growth forest; 23035 Glacier Highway
• Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum—a recently renovated state library and museum that has artifacts, books, photographs, and historical documents; 395 Whittier Street
• DIPAC Macaulay Salmon Hatchery—a fishery that allows visitors to learn why salmon are so important to Alaskans and the environmental concerns of commercial fishermen; 2697 Channel Drive
• Marine Park—a small park with benches, shady trees, shelter, and street vendors; Marine Way
• Sitka National Historical Park—a 113-acre park that has a small museum that features historical exhibits and photos of Tlingit native cultures, a theater that shows a film about Russia-Tlingit conflict in the 19^th century, a centennial totem pole, and native artisans who demonstrate silversmithing, weaving, wood carving, and basketry; 106 Metlakatla Street, Sitka
• Totem Bight State Historical Park—a park that has many totem poles and a hand-carved native clan house with a raven painting on the front with small faces in each eye; Ketchikan
• Alaska Raptor Center—Alaska’s only full-service avian hospital that rehabilitates 100 to 200 birds annually that allows visitors to visit the birds, see an enclosed 20,000-foot flight training center where injured eagles relearn survival skills, and an open-air enclosure for eagles and other raptors who are too injured to return to the wild; 1000 Raptor Way, Sitka
• Castle Hill—a hill where Alaska became a US territory in 1867 and later a state in 1959; Harbor Road, Sitka
• Creek Street Footbridge—a bridge over Ketchikan Creek that provides great views of salmon, steelhead and rainbow trout, and sea lions
• Fortress of the Bear—an animal rescue center that is home to brown and black bears who live in large enclosures; 4639 Sawmill Creek Road, Sitka
• Saxman Totem Park—a village with a totem park with poles representing human and animal-inspired figures; Ketchikan
• Sheldon Jackson Museum—an octagonal museum that dates back to 1895 that has Native Alaskan items collected by Dr. Sheldon Jackson who traveled through remote areas of Alaska as an educator and missionary with the collection representing every Native Alaskan culture; items include carved masks, Chilkat blankets, dogsleds, and kayaks; 104 College Drive, Sitka
• Sitka Historical Society and Museum—a brick museum that has a collection of Tlingit, Victorian-era, and Alaskan purchase artifacts; 330 Harbor Drive, Sitka
• Sitka Sound Science Center—a waterfront facility that has exhibits and activities that describe Sitka’s role as a hub for whale biologists, fishery management experts, and other specialists with touch tanks, five wall-mounted aquariums, a killer whale skeleton, and a fish hatchery; 834 Lincoln Street, Sitka
• Southeast Alaska Discovery Center—an interpretive center that has exhibits on the rain forest, natural resources, Native cultures, and ecosystems of southeastern Alaska; 50 Main Street, Ketchikan
• Totem Heritage Center—a center with Native totem poles made by Tlingit and Haida cultures with crafts from these and the Tsimshian culture on display as well; 601 Deermount Street, Ketchikan
• Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary—a 40-acre wildlife reserve that has a raptor center, old sawmill, and a working Alaska Native totem-carving house; South Tongass Highway, Ketchikan
• Russian Bishop’s Home—one of the last surviving examples of Russian colonial architecture in the country; Lincoln and Monastery streets, Sitka
• Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall—a hall with a variety of totem poles, Tlingit dancers, and an exhibit on Alaskan culture; 223 Katlian Street, Sitka
• Island Artists Gallery—a gallery with handmade items, jewelry, and photos for sale; 205B Lincoln Street, Sitka
• Artist Cove Gallery—a small locally owned art gallery with a focus on handmade art, jewelry, and gifts from Alaskan, local, and native Alaskans with some artists from around the world; 241 Lincoln Street, Sitka
• Alaska Arts Southeast—a historic campus that once served as an Alaskan native boarding school and later a college and was the birthplace of the Alaskan Native brotherhood and sisterhood that now offers art programs; 110 College Drive, Sitka
• Misty Fjords National Monument—a large wilderness area with hundreds of rivers and streams fed by melting glaciers each spring; Ketchikan
• Tongass National Forest—the country’s largest national forest that stretches for a million acres with rainforest, walking and hiking trails, trees, and animals; Ketchikan
• Potlatch Totem Park—a park with totem poles, a gun museum, and a gift shop; 9809 Totem Bight Road, Ketchikan
• Tongass Historical Museum—a small museum that explores native Alaskan cultures and the fishing industry in the area; 629 Dock Street, Ketchikan
• Scanlon Gallery—an art gallery with paintings, carvings, prints, sculptures, posters, and fine art books; 318 Mission Street, Ketchikan
• Guard Island Lighthouse—a 100-year-old lighthouse that is the most accessible lighthouse in the state; South Point Higgins Road, Ketchikan
• The Rock—a bronze sculpture that depicts various people from the history of the state; 210 Front Street, Ketchikan

Sights in Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery is the capital of Alabama and is one of the state’s more popular cities to visit. It has diverse museums, parks, unique attractions, historic sites, and cultural attractions worth checking out.

• Legacy Museum—a museum that illustrates Black history in the United States through facts, testimonies, artifacts, videos, audiovisual displays, and artwork; 115 Coosa Street
• National Memorial for Peace and Justice—a stunning and stark memorial that depicts the history of lynching in the US and injustice to African-Americans; 417 Caroline Street
• Rosa Parks Library and Museum—a tribute to Rosa Parks, the black woman who in 1955 refused to give her seat on a bus to a white man, and a museum that illustrates the Civil Rights movement and her story with a video, artifacts, historical documents, a life-size statue of Parks, and a replica of the bus she sat in that day; 251 Montgomery Street
• Dexter Parsonage Museum—Dr. Martin Luther King home—the residence of Dr. Martin Luther King from 1954 to 1960; 315 South Jackson Street
• Civil Rights Memorial Center—a museum sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center that provides information about the Civil Rights movement, shows a video about the movement, and has a memorial; 400 Washington Avenue
• Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church—a red brick church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as pastor and led the Montgomery bus boycott from 1955 to 1956 as well as holding civil rights meetings; 454 Dexter Avenue
• First White House of the Confederacy—a home built in 1835 that was the home of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy; 644 Washington Street
• Montgomery Zoo—a zoo that stretches across 40 acres and is home to over 700 animals from five continents including a Bengal tiger; 2301 Coliseum Parkway
• Alabama Department of Archives and History—the country’s oldest state-funded independent archival and historical agency that is home to a research facility, a private collections library, and the Museum of Alabama; the Museum of Alabama has permanent exhibitions on the geology and natural resources in Alabama, native cultures in Alabama, and an exhibition on the dramatic history of the state told through artifacts, images, and documents; 624 Washington Avenue
• Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts—a museum with a large and diverse collection of artwork including blown glass, African sculptures, and an outdoor sculpture garden; 1 Museum Drive
• Hank Williams Museum—a museum that pays tribute to country music icon, Hank Williams, who died at the young age of 29 in a car crash; the museum has artifacts such as the 1952 Cadillac he died in, 17 stage suits, custom made boots, cowboy hats, family memorabilia, and personal film footage; 118 Commerce Street
• The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum—an historic house that was the final home this famous couple shared where Scott worked on Tender is the Night and Zelda worked on Save Me the Waltz; 919 Felder Avenue
• Old Alabama Town—a historic site that recreates the past history of Alabama with a one-room schoolhouse, grist mill, cotton gin, log cabin, the oldest building in the city (Lucas Tavern), and a slave dwelling; 301 Columbus Street
• Freedom Rides Museum—a small museum that recounts the story of the 1961 Freedom Rides that ended racial segregation in public transportation with exterior exhibits illustrating the history of the rides and the events that happened in Montgomery and interior exhibits including art, architecture, oral histories, and a video kiosk; 210 South Court Street
• Civil Rights Memorial—a round, flat granite sculpture designed by Maya Lin who also created the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that has the names of 40 people killed in the fight for civil rights between 1954 and 1968; 400 Washington Avenue
• Alabama Safari Park—a wildlife attraction where visitors can drive through and feed animals such as kangaroos and camels along the way; 1664 Venable Road, Hope Hull
• Equal Justice Initiative—a well-designed museum that documents the African-American experience regarding slavery, racial injustice, and the criminal justice system; 122 Commerce Street
• W.A Gayle Planetarium—an astronomy education center and multimedia theater that displays films, lectures, live music, and digital art performances; 1010 Forest Avenue
• The MooSeum—a children’s museum that allows visitors to learn more about Alabama’s beef cattle industry; 201 South Bainbridge Street
• Huntingdon College—a 58-acre college campus that hosts community events, dance performances, concerts, and college ceremonies; 1500 East Fairview Avenue
• Confederate Monument—a monument dedicated to the 122,000 Alabama soldiers who died fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War; 19-79 South Bainbridge Street

And…on to the US! Sights in Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is a major city in Alabama and has a number of interesting sights worth exploring, museums, parks, a zoo, an aquarium, national landmarks, and other places worth checking out.

• Sloss Furnaces—a National Historic Landmark that was a pig iron-producing blast furnace from 1882 to 1971 and now is a mass of steel and girders rusted into a tribute to American industry with workshops and production lines as well as a small museum that explores the history of the furnaces; 20 32^nd Street North
• Birmingham Civil Rights Institute—a museum that explores the story of segregation and the Civil Rights movement through audio, video, and photographic exhibits with a large exhibit on the 16^th Street Baptist Church across the street that was bombed in 1963; 520 16^th Street North
• Vulcan Park—a park that is home to the world’s largest cast-iron statue of the Roman god of metalworking, an observation tower, and a small museum that explores the history of Birmingham; 1701 Valley View Drive
• Birmingham Museum of Art—an art museum with works from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas and a sculpture garden with pieces by Rodin, Botero, and Dali; 2000 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr. Boulevard
• Kelly Ingram Park—a park that was a crucial site during the Civil Rights movement where police set attack dogs on students advocating for desegregation and firefighters aimed water cannons at the protesters; the park is now a gathering space for the local homeless and indigent community with sculptures depicting moments from the Civil Rights movement; 1600 5^th Avenue North
• 16^th Street Baptist Church—a church and memorial to the four girls who died when the Ku Klux Klan bombed the church which had been a gathering space for organizational meetings and protests in 1963 during a large-scale desegregation campaign; corner of 16^th Street and 6^th Avenue North
• Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum—a museum that displays 750 vintage and modern motorcycles on walls, platforms, and other spaces; 6030 Barber Motorsports
• McWane Science Center—a nonprofit hands-on museum with an IMAX dome theater that has four floors of interactive exhibits including collections featuring dinosaurs, environmental showcases, early childhood playgrounds, and an aquarium; 200 19^th Street North
• Birmingham Zoo—an educational zoo home to 170 animals including endangered species, an alligator swamp, a tropical rain forest, a carousel, and a zoo train; 2630 Cahaba Road
• Red Mountain Park—a park featuring zip lining, a dog park, a ropes course, treehouses, and biking and hiking trails; 281 Lyon Lane
• Southern Museum of Flight—a museum with exhibits of old airplanes; 4343 73^rd Street North
• Ruffner Mountain—a 1,040-acre urban nature preserve that has educational science and nature programs, 14 miles of trails, and a protected area for thousands of species of native plants and animals; 1214 81^st Street South
• Civil Rights District—the neighborhood that was the hub of the 1960s Civil Rights movement that is now a historic district and home to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
• Iron City—a 22,000-square-foot grill, bar, and entertainment venue; 513 22^nd Street South
• The Market at Pepper Place—the state’s largest producers’ farmers market with vendors including local farmers, food vendors, makers, and artisans that runs from the middle of April to the middle of December every Saturday; 2829 2^nd Avenue South
• Negro Southern League Museum—a museum that tells the story of African Americans in baseball in black major and minor leagues and in integrated major league baseball; 120 16^th Street South
• Statue of Liberty Replica—a bronze replica 1/5^th of the size of the Statue of Liberty in New York City; Liberty Parkway, Liberty Park
• Arlington Antebellum Home and Gardens—an historic home with beautiful gardens; 331 Cotton Avenue SW
• Rickwood Field Park—the country’s oldest baseball park that was once the home of the Birmingham Barons; 1137 2^nd Avenue West
• Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and Museum—a museum that pays tribute to athletes from a variety of sports and successful Alabamian athletes; 2150 Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard North, Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center
• Five Points South—a well-known culinary district with over 45 award-winning eateries and bars
• Alabama Veterans Memorial Park—a park that pays tribute to those who have died in the line of military service; I-459 at Liberty Parkway exit
• Sims Cave Park—a park where visitors can explore caves through an interesting tour; 2374 White Oak Trail
• Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame—a museum that celebrates jazz music and over 170 native jazz musicians; 1631 4^th Avenue North
• Christenberry Planetarium—a planetarium where presentations are held on astronomical topics in a family-oriented and interactive format; 800 Lakeshore Drive