While we were on our Alaskan Cruise (you can read about it here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/princess-cruise/ ), we took a few excursions to take advantage of the local tour and yes, feast! Our first excursion in Ketchikan was fun and delicious (you can read about it here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/alaskan-lodge-adventure-seafeast/ ). So, the one we chose in Juneau was also food-based, of course. A bus took us to the Salmon Bake, and the driver gave us a really good information on Juneau and about the Salmon Bake during the ride. 

Before we started our feast, we walked around the back to the trail. At the end of the trail was a waterfall, quite peaceful and beautiful. It is a short trail, less than 10 minutes walk to get to the waterfall. The main entertainment is actually NOT the waterfall, but salmon!

Along the way, you can see salmon swimming upstream! Be careful not to get too close, you don’t want to disturb them trying so hard to swim. There were lots and lots of salmon all over, and they were really HUGE! It was not hard to spot one. And when you spot one, you spot about 10 or 20. It was so exciting to see them right in the action!

After taking in all the wilderness adventure of the salmon, we went back to the feast. They had plenty of seating, mostly the round picnic tables. They also had long tables to the side, but since it was a bit rainy on this day, everyone stayed under the heated dome, where we were completely covered from the rain.

Each table had a pretty flowers in a pot, paper towels, and all the condiments and silverware in the cardboard beer bottle box. It was pretty clean, the staffs here were mostly young kids, maybe it was their Summer job here? They were working hard, cleaning and assisting patrons.

The Gold Creek Salmon Bake has been going on since 1978, and the main dish is of course. Everything here is offered in all-you-can-eat, buffet style. They had a nice variety of food, and the staffs here were working hard to keep the food offering well-stocked.

They had Klondike Cornbread, Chilkoot baked beans, Tongass wild-rice pilaf, hot chowder…

Stampede Scalloped Potatoes, Caesar Chicken, and of course, some salad dishes as well. The one salad in particular was super popular. It looked like a Caesar Salad with grilled salmon in it.

And then, their signature WILD Alaska salmon, grilled over a fragrant alderwood fire. The grill master was really nice, he posed for the photo, and then tilted the grill full of salmon so that I can get a better photo of them. Thank you!

He got a nice salmon piece for me, and asked if I wanted it glazed. I said yes and he poured dark, amber-colored liquid of gold over it. I could not wait to dig in!!!

So, this was my first plate. I wanted to get a little taste of everything, well, not everything but whatever that looked good to me. The glaze over the salmon was sweet, tasted like brown sugar. I like the salmon without covering it with that much of sweet coating, but it was tasty. The meat was firm and yet flaky, completely cooked but that was ok.

The chowder was nice and hot, with a good amount of seafood in it. Very rich and creamy, not watery at all. And the salad! My goodness, after just one bite, I understand the reason why this salad was so popular. It was so delicious! It was fresh and crispy, with loads of salmon chunks. The seasoning was perfect, I could’ve eaten a huge bowlful of this salad…!

My hubby’s plate was more full than mine… He got two pieces of salmon, baked beans, pickles and few other items. He seemed to enjoy every single thing, as he finished off the plate clean and went back for more.

And I certainly did get my second as well. I got more of the delicious salad with salmon, rice pilaf which was quite tasty, cornbread and salmon. The cornbread was moist and sweet, a great companion to…well, anything really. I like cornbread… The grill master gave me two pieces of salmon, even though I didn’t ask for two pieces… He was super nice, and poured a little glaze on them, but not too much, which was much better.

And if you are wondering what did we have to drink in order to wash down all these food, well, we had a pretty nice options. They had tea, hot chocolate, apple cider, and coffee. They do have alcohol like beer and wine, but they are not included, so you need to pay for those. Everything else is included with the feast.

And if you want cold drink, they had lemonade and water under the red house, like a huge bird house. It was so cute! They also had their dessert in another one of those red house. I heard about their popular homemade blueberry cake, so of course we got the cake!

So, here is the popular Homemade Blueberry Cake. It is essentially a cake with lots of blueberries in it, topped off with dusting of powder sugar. It was indeed tasty, but I think my expectation was a bit too high… It was good, but not amazing…

Then the last really fun treat, roasting marshmallows!!! They have a two campfire near the heated dome, but not too close for safety. They had a jar full of marshmallows at their bar on the other side, and some tree branches for roasting by the fire. I wish if they had chocolate and graham crackers so we could have made them into S’mores… but hey, having roasted marshmallow alone was fun too.

They ha d a live music, a one-man-band with a guitar. he was pretty good and talented, he even took some requests from the patrons. Many people who finished feasting would just sit by him and listen to him play. What a nice way to relax after a good meal and full tummy.

So, this excursion was quite nice too. We got see live salmon in action, followed by unlimited amount of food and drink, while listening to live music. There was not much else to do here, but that was what we came for, so that was ok. The price for this excursion was really good and affordable, I say it was worth it for sure. And yes, we kept up our daily walk on the cruise ship so that we won’t gain too much weight during this delicious cruise adventure…

Gold Creek Salmon Bake – 1061 Salmon Creek Ln Juneau, AK 99801