City and Burough of Juneau, Alaska, USA (August 1995)
Ebner Falls
Juneau has multiple hiking opportunities. The Perseverance Trail (map) is perhaps one of the most accessible. The trailhead is close to downtown where Basin Road ends. It was a path once used by Native Americans for hunting, gathering and fishing. It also became one of Alaska’s first roads after gold was discovered in the Silverbow Basin.
The trail passes scenic Ebner Falls (map). It’s not a difficult walk although there are various branches that will lead hikers high up into the mountains if they are particularly adventurous or need more of a challenge. Water rushes from the hillsides down into the valley forming a natural path for the Perseverance Trail. The Perseverance Trail is the former road/trail taken by miners working the Silverbow Basin Gold mine.
This is another view of Ebner Falls, this time taken from the top of the waterfall where it begins its downward drop to the valley floor. It’s heard long before it’s seen and it creates quite a lot of excitement as it smashes into exposed rock.
Readers who have an interest in waterfalls might also want to check my Waterfalls Index page.
Basin
This particular stretch of scenery demonstrates why the area is described as a “basin.” Steep mountainsides cradle a deep valley that funnels water towards Juneau and the Gastineau Channel. Tall green walls of temperate rainforest frame the trail as it snakes along the valley floor.
Gold
History asserts itself in unexpected ways. Abandoned buildings from the old Silverbow gold mines dot hillsides and valleys. Miners a hundred years ago walked along the Perseverance Trail as they carved into the mountainsides. Some gold remains today. As we walked along the trail we saw people searching like the prospectors of old, but now as a weekend hobby.
See the article index from the 1995 Southeast Alaska trip.
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