Walk into the Glacier Gardens Rainforest Adventure in Juneau and you’ll think someone had a very strange accident with a bulldozer. Or maybe a giant played a game of lawn darts with Sitka spruces. It’s weird. It’s jarring. You’re looking at these massive, moss-covered trunks sticking straight up into the air, while their sprawling root balls—which should be deep underground—are perched toward the sky like some kind of alien chandelier. People call them Alaska upside down trees, and honestly, they look like something straight out of a Tim Burton fever dream.
They aren't a freak of nature. They aren't some ancient botanical mutation.
They’re actually the result of a guy named Steve Bowhay having a bit of a "Eureka" moment after a frustrating landslide. Back in the 1980s, a massive mudslide devastated a portion of Thunder Mountain. Steve and his wife, Cindy, bought the land with the intent of rehabilitating it. While clearing out the debris and fallen timber with a heavy loader, Steve accidentally upended a tree. The roots got caught in the mud, the trunk stood tall, and he realized he’d just created a natural planter.
That was the birth of the Flower Towers.
The Science of Living Planters
You might wonder how a tree survives being flipped on its head. It doesn't. Not as a tree, anyway. The Alaska upside down trees are technically dead wood acting as a structural base for a living ecosystem. When Steve Bowhay planted that first spruce upside down, he buried the top about seven feet deep into the ground. This provides the stability needed to hold tons of weight.
The "top" of the monument is the root ball. Because Sitka spruces have relatively shallow, sprawling root systems, they create a natural bowl shape.
The gardeners at Glacier Gardens fill these root bowls with a mix of compost and soil. They then plant thousands of flowers—petunias, fuchsias, begonias—that cascade down the sides of the trunk. It’s a literal explosion of color against the deep, damp green of the Tongass National Forest.
Why the Tongass Matters
The environment here is key. Juneau is part of a temperate rainforest. It’s wet. Really wet. We’re talking over 60 inches of rain a year in some spots, though Glacier Gardens sits in a microclimate that can get even more.
- The humidity keeps the moss alive.
- The moss covers the bark of the inverted trees.
- This creates a "net" that holds moisture for the flowers on top.
Without the constant Alaskan mist, these towers would just be rotting logs. Instead, they become vertical gardens that look more like art installations than landscaping.
A Mistake Turned Into a Landmark
Most people think there's some spiritual or indigenous meaning behind the Alaska upside down trees, but that's just not the case. It’s pure Alaskan ingenuity. After the 1984 landslide, the Bowhay family spent years moving rocks and reclaiming the scarred mountainside.
The story goes that Steve was using the loader to move a stump and it just landed that way. Rather than "fixing" it, he saw the potential.
It’s a lesson in what Alaskans do best: making something useful out of a mess. Today, the gardens span about 50 acres. You take a little shuttle bus up the mountain to see the towers, and the higher you go, the more the view opens up. You aren't just looking at weird trees; you're looking at the Gastineau Channel and Douglas Island through a frame of upside-down roots.
The Logistics of Maintenance
It is a massive amount of work. These aren't "set it and forget it" gardens.
The staff starts thousands of plants in greenhouses early in the year. Once the frost risk passes, they have to physically climb or use ladders to reach the top of the Alaska upside down trees to plant them. Think about the weight. A fully saturated root ball filled with soil and trailing flowers weighs a significant amount.
The engineering has to be precise. If the trunk isn't buried deep enough, or if the soil isn't balanced, the whole thing could topple. But because they use the native Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock, the wood is incredibly hardy. The sap and the natural density of the wood slow down the decay process, meaning a single "Flower Tower" can stand for decades before the trunk finally gives way to the forest floor.
Common Misconceptions About the Inverted Forest
I've heard tourists ask if the trees grew that way. No. Trees don't defy gravity. They don't practice geotropism in reverse.
Another one? That these are found all over Alaska. Nope. While you might see a few imitators in people's front yards around Juneau or maybe a stray one in a quirky garden in Anchorage, the "forest" of them is exclusive to Glacier Gardens.
Some people also get confused and think these are related to the "sunken trees" or "ghost forests" you see in other parts of the state. Those are different. Ghost forests, like the ones near Girdwood, were created by the 1964 earthquake when the ground dropped and saltwater flooded the roots, killing the trees but leaving them standing. The Alaska upside down trees are a human-made celebration, not a natural disaster leftover.
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Planning a Visit: What You Actually Need to Know
If you’re heading to Juneau on a cruise, this is one of the big "triple threat" stops alongside Mendenhall Glacier and the Mount Roberts Tramway.
- Timing is everything. If you go in May, the flowers are just starting. If you go in July or August, the "towers" are at their peak, dripping with color.
- It’s a steep climb. You generally don't walk the whole thing. You'll board a covered shuttle that winds up the mountain trails.
- Prepare for rain. It’s a rainforest. If you wait for a sunny day to visit the Alaska upside down trees, you might never see them.
- Look for the eagles. The gardens are a massive nesting ground. Keep your eyes on the tops of the right-side-up trees while you're looking at the upside-down ones.
The boardwalks at the top of the tour provide a view that most people miss because they're too busy staring at the flower towers. You can see the Juneau airport and the Mendenhall Valley spread out below. It's one of the best vantage points in the city that doesn't require a grueling three-hour hike.
The Impact on Local Tourism
Juneau lives and breathes tourism, and Glacier Gardens has become a cornerstone of that. It’s a weird niche. It bridges the gap between "botanical garden" and "roadside attraction."
The Bowhays managed to turn a literal landslide—a property owner's worst nightmare—into a multimillion-dollar attraction. It shows a level of resilience that mirrors the forest itself. The Tongass is a place of constant turnover; trees fall, nurse logs provide life for new saplings, and the cycle repeats. Steve just sped up the process and flipped the orientation.
How to Get the Best Photos
Photography here is tricky because of the light. The canopy is thick.
- Don't use a flash. It’ll bounce off the wet leaves and ruin the vibe.
- Focus on the texture. The contrast between the rough, upside-down bark and the delicate flower petals is what makes the shot.
- Go wide. To capture the scale of the Alaska upside down trees, you need to stand back. They are much taller than they look in brochures—some are 15 feet or more above the ground.
Actionable Steps for Your Visit
If you want to see the Alaska upside down trees without the massive crowds, try to book a tour time that doesn't align with the "mega-ship" arrivals. Check the Juneau cruise schedule. If there are five ships in port, the gardens will be packed. If there are only two, you'll have a much more peaceful experience.
Bring a lens cloth. The mist will get on your camera or phone lens within minutes. Also, talk to the guides. Most of them are locals who have worked the mountain for years and can tell you which specific flower species are currently thriving in the root balls.
Once you finish the shuttle tour, spend some time in the lower gardens. There’s a water feature and a greenhouse that houses some of the more delicate species before they get moved "upstairs" to the towers. It's a masterclass in temperate gardening that you won't find anywhere else on the planet.
Final takeaway: don't just look at the roots. Look at the way the forest has reclaimed the landslide. The Alaska upside down trees are the stars, but the real story is the recovery of the mountain itself. Steve Bowhay didn't just plant trees upside down; he gave a destroyed ecosystem a second chance to be beautiful.
To make the most of your trip, head to the Glacier Gardens gift shop to grab a map of the different "towers"—each one has a slightly different personality based on the tree shape and the flowers chosen for that season. Wear sturdy shoes, even for the shuttle, as the viewing platforms can be slick. Most importantly, give yourself at least two hours to really soak in the weirdness of a forest where the roots reach for the clouds.