Ketchikan
June 26, 2022
We had a leisurely morning and drove north out of Sitka to the end of the paved road, about ten miles. We had a good view of Edgecumbe Volcano along the way.
We then went back to the island with the airport, turned in the rental car and waited at the small airport for our flight to Ketchikan. The plane left about a half hour late, but the view below of the many islands was spectacular.
The airport at Ketchikan is on an island, and everyone has to take a five minute ferry trip to get between the city and the airport. Ketchikan, with a town population of around 8,000, and borough population of 14,000, is another place like Juneau that is spread out along the water and jutting up against the mountains. The ferry brings you to the modern strip about a ten or fifteen minute drive from downtown which has the historic center, including famous Creek Street. Our hotel, which is owned by the local native Alaskan corporation, is up on a hill, looking down on Creek Street and the rest of old Ketchikan. We had a great view from our room.
Up on the hill to the left is our hotel.
After checking in, we went to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, run by the Forest Service and saw yet another good video about the Tongass National Forest, part of the largest temperate rainforest in the world. The museum also has nice exhibits.
Monday, June 27, 2022
In the morning, we took a guided tour of the Rainforest Sanctuary, located about six miles south of town. During our tour, we learned about local plants. At one point, we were walking along a boardwalk and saw a lot of eagles. We also saw a few rescued raptors, in a facility associated with the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka that we had visited a couple days ago. Lastly, we saw an artisan making a totem pole without power tools, the ancient way. He is with the Tsimshian tribal group. The totems at the sanctuary are the only ones in the area made by this group that are still standing.
We sure saw a lot of eagles!
This plant is “skunk cabbage” which we saw many places on the trip.
Afterwards, we returned to town and visited the Tongass Historical Museum, operated by the city. It focused on fishing, lumber and the wild history of Ketchikan. Very nice and informative museum. Later in the day we took a walking tour of Creek Street and the downtown district. Creek Street is partly on boardwalks over the creek and has many historic buildings with plaques about their history.
June 28, 2022
The weather changed. Yesterday it was almost 80 degrees. Today, is cloudy, cold and windy. While we were waiting for our planned tour, standing on the Steadman Street Bridge, we watched large salmon jumping above the water. We were supposed to go on a half day cruise Misty Fjords, but about 40 minutes out, the captain said it was too windy and that we would be very uncomfortable, not to mention unsafe. Instead, we toured around the general area of the town for two hours and retuned about 10:30 am. By the time we got back from the aborted cruise, it was raining.
In the afternoon we drove nine miles north of town to Totem Bight State Historic Park and walked on a forest trail to quite a few totem poles and a large clan house. It was nice, but still a little drizzly, so not the best weather. We spent a little more time today looking at the shops and old buildings around downtown.
We had dinner at our hotel and prepared to return home tomorrow.
June 29, 2022
We returned to the airport taking the short ferry again, turned in our final rental car, and flew home with a stop in Seattle.
Our trip to Southeast Alaska had many highlights and a few lowlights (involving boats and weather), but we were really impressed with the interesting history of the area, the Tlingit culture and the abundance of the land and sea. It was quite different from the other part of the state we visited before.
