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OK, this is the first of 4 installments on Alaska for this summer. I’ll be going to Ketchikan, Sitka, Anchorage, and King Salmon (not necessarily in that order).
Ketchikan
Ketchikan was my first introduction to Alaska. I loved the slow, isolated feel of this town. You just get a sense of its rough and tumble roots (actually, some of the rougher folks are still tumbling around!). Ketchikan is on Revillagigedo Island and is the southern-most Alaskan port when traveling along the Inside Passage. It’s an hour and a half flight from Seattle. Once you arrive, you need to take the ferry from the airport to actually get to Ketchikan ($4). It only takes about 4 minutes, which was a tiny bit disappointing. Map of Alaska: http://www.sitesatla…
Ketchikan is the 4th largest in Alaska and used to be the salmon capital, but now it just seems to be a spot for cruise ships to stop into a couple times a day, so it’s one tourist shop after another along the waterfront in the downtown area. Everything closes up at 5—-it’s a bit depressing that the whole town is on cruise-ship time, but oh well. A lot of shop keepers asked which cruise ship we were on, and when we said we’d just flown up for the weekend, they were quite surprised. Apparently “people never do that.” Interesting. I guess the cost of flying is a bit prohibitive: Alaska Airlines is about the only airline flying up there from the lower 48 and an average ticket price ranges from $400-$700. (If I hadn’t been able to fly for free I doubt I would have made the trip either for that price.)
It has a population of about 15,000 and gets over 13 feet of rain per year. The downtown area is teeming with seaplane tours, boat tours, duck tours (land and water craft), and adventure hosts—-you name it there’s a company ready to take you out and about. The duck boat company had a great time following a huge grey whale around just outside the harbor the day before, but since there was no trace of it on the day we were there, we opted for the wilderness tour.
We saw eagles. There are eagles everywhere in this town! We were advised to look for the white dots in the pine trees and it was sure to be an eagle’s head. We got out our binoculars and sure enough, we saw them dotting the mountainsides everywhere we looked. Males and females both have white heads, and the females are larger than the males. The juvenile eagles don’t have white heads and are speckled with brown, gray and black, but they can be as big as adult eagles. It’s the start of salmon season so the water edges are sparsely lined with sportfisherman and the eagles were perched 8 to a tree and swooping nearby for anything that gets left behind. Unless you’re in Alaska—you have never seen that many eagles that close up in the wild. They’re magnificent! Oh—and if you see a feather by the side of the creek, don’t even think about taking it home with you—if you get busted it’s a $40,000 fine! Only native peoples are allowed to use eagle feathers.
A note on lodging: Please don’t EVER stay at the Super 8 in Ketchikan. Our stay there was a superb lesson in “you get what you pay for.” We were treated to a midnight keg party of high school kids in the room above ours bouncing and stomping from wall to wall, and it took an hour for the hotel staff to get them to quiet down. But it all started again at 4 a.m., so we really shouldn’t have had them bother. Here is a link to some more reputable hotels and B&Bs in the area:
http://www.visit-ket…
A colleague who has spent lots of time in this area recommends the lodge and resort experience highly:
http://www.visit-ket…
And yes, they do have a hostel in town, which was not known to me until after we left: Backpackers Hostel Eagleview, e-mail them at seaeagle@ktn.net.
Food:
The seafood at all of the restaurants we visited was excellent. The prawns, scallops and halibut were divine. I can recommend the New York Hotel Café for lunch, Annabelle’s for dinner (formal or casual), and Ocean View for a huge, well-priced menu with super-friendly staff.
Stuff to do:
For a weekend you can easily do the entire walking tour of Ketchikan. Start with downtown and mosey up to Creek Street where the “ladies of the line” used to work and Dolly’s House (a former bordello) is now a museum. There’s an awesome employment application in the front window of her former home that asks all sorts of interesting questions like “Are you currently in love?” and “What is the size of your unmentionables.”
There’s a salmon hatchery and raptor center which is a lifelong home to injured eagles. Lots of opportunities for sportfishing, biking, guided tours by bus or trolley, and hiking. There’s also a Totem Heritage center with gorgeous examples of Tlingit and Haida totem carvings.
The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center is really well done. It’s a modern interpretive center on the city of Ketchikan and greater Alaska. It houses beautiful totems and exhibits. They have a rainforest diorama with local wildlife—-including a bear, deer, and lots of unique bird species. We watched 2 great videos while there—-one on the Misty Fjords National Monument and one on Ketchikan “land where the people live.” There’s this great lodge-like room with videos and guide books on everything Alaska—-it was very interesting to just sit back and read before heading out on our adventures.
You can take a seaplane or boat to Misty Fjords and stay for a day or week. It’s pristine wilderness and many people go there to kayak, camp and commune with nature—-you won’t run into another person for miles if not days they said. You can expect to see bears, seals, eagles, and whales at the right times of year. You need to know your survival skills if you’re going to be left alone out in this area.
Ketchikan’s Visitors Bureau: http://www.visit-ket…
The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center: http://www.fs.fed.us…
Misty Fjords Air: http://www.mistyfjor…