Things to Do in Ketchikan: Tours, Tickets & Boat Trips

Ranked by traveller reviews: 1) the Ketchikan Duck tour, 2) the All-in-One tour of totems, Creek Street and the rainforest, 3) the off-the-beaten-path photo safari, 4) the wildlife and whale-watching quest, 5) the kayak eco-tour, 6) the Bering Sea Crab Fishermen’s Tour aboard the Aleutian Ballad, 7) the e-bike and rainforest hike, 8) the rainforest canopy ropes and zipline park, 9) Eagle Island sea kayaking and 10) a floatplane flight over Misty Fjords National Monument.

Plan one to two days. Day one: walk Creek Street, Dolly’s House and the salmon ladder in the morning, then the Duck tour or a wildlife cruise, Saxman or Totem Bight in the afternoon, and the black bears at Herring Cove in the evening (July to September). Day two: the Misty Fjords floatplane or the crab boat in the morning, a kayak or rainforest hike, the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show for fun and a walk up the Married Man’s Trail. If your ship is in port for a day, pick Misty Fjords, the crab boat or the wildlife quest and spend the rest on foot.

Creek Street and the salmon run in Ketchikan Creek, the Married Man’s Trail, Whale Park and the Chief Johnson totem pole, the murals and Eagle Park downtown, Totem Bight State Park and Potlatch Park’s totems and clan houses (a bus ride north), the Rainbird Trail’s rainforest boardwalks, the Deer Mountain trail to the first overlook, Ward Lake, Rotary Beach and Herring Cove’s roadside bear viewing when the salmon run. Walking the harbour to watch the floatplanes take off is a show in itself.

Misty Fjords National Monument by floatplane (two hours with a water landing; about $300 and up) or by boat (four to five hours), Totem Bight State Park and Saxman Native Village (10–20 minutes), the black bears of Herring Cove and the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary (15 minutes; July to September), Neets Bay bear viewing by floatplane, George Inlet’s crab feast and lodge, Eagle Island and the Tatoosh Islands by kayak, and Prince of Wales Island or Metlakatla by ferry. There are no roads beyond the island.

Summer nights are light until 10pm: walk Creek Street after the ships leave, join the Ketchikan pub crawl through the Arctic Bar and Fat Stan’s, taste the beers at Bawden Street Brewing, catch a play by First City Players, eat Dungeness crab at a waterfront restaurant or the George Inlet lodge feast, and watch the salmon and, sometimes, seals in the creek at dusk. Ketchikan is a small town — evenings are quiet once the cruise crowds sail.

Ketchikan is the rainiest city in the United States (about 13 feet a year) and from October to April it is a quiet, cruise-free fishing town: most tours and the Lumberjack Show close, but Creek Street, the Totem Heritage Center, the Discovery Center and the pubs stay open, bald eagles gather in their hundreds, the Winter Arts Faire runs in late November and the Rainbird and Ward Lake trails are moody and empty. The king salmon derby opens the season in late May.

The Duck tour, the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, the salmon leaping up the ladder on Creek Street, the totems and clan house at Totem Bight, the black bears at Herring Cove and the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary, the Bering Sea crab boat with its live crabs and eagles, the rainforest zipline park for children over seven, a gentle kayak on Eagle Island, the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center’s exhibits and the Tongass Trolley tour.

May to September, the only months most tours run. July and August bring the salmon run, the bears at Herring Cove and the busiest cruise days; June is often the driest month; May and September are quieter with lower prices and, in September, the first storms. Bring rain gear whenever you come — it rains two days in three.

Yes — the 2.3-million-acre wilderness of 3,000-foot granite cliffs, waterfalls and glacial fjords is only reachable by air or sea, and a floatplane tour with a landing on a mountain lake is the most memorable thing you can do from Ketchikan. Flights run about two hours (around $300 and up); the boat trip takes four to five hours and gets closer to the walls. Book early in the season — flights sell out on multi-ship days and cancel in fog.