North to Alaska: Ketchikan

Ketchikan, the totem pole city, was our next and final stop in Alaska. We arrived in port around 1AM on Tuesday and quickly found a spot in the Walmart parking lot for the remainder of the night. Ketchikan is another unique little town right on the water which caters to tourists and fishing. In fact, our two days in Ketchikan we had to share this little village with tourists from another five cruise ships that were in port at the same time we were there. Ketchikan, five hundred miles north of Seattle, is Alaska's "first city," and is the first port of call for many cruise ships. Its historic downtown, wedged between water and forested mountains, becomes saturated in summer with many tourists. Beyond the souvenir shopping it can be a delight; built into steep hills and partly propped on wooden pilings, with boardwalks, wooden staircases and totem poles dotted throughout. Ketchikan has many canneries along the shoreline and is known as the "salmon capital of the world." Morning came early; however, we didn’t hesitate one bit before heading to town to venture through the stores and see what they had to offer. Guess what? They were the same as in Juneau and Skagway. We found no new toys we couldn’t live without, so on to the totem poles and some of the state parks. Ketchikan also has the world's largest collection of standing totem poles.

These poles are
located at three major locations: Saxman Village, Totem Bight, and the Totem Heritage Center. Another interesting thing about these towns along the inland ferry route is that they are only accessible by air or water. On the ferry from Juneau to Ketchikan there were several high school cross country track teams from Wrangle, Sitka, Petersburg and Ketchikan. These teams had been participating in a track meet in Juneau over the weekend and were on their way home. We never thought of a high school team having to travel for days by state ferries or charter a plane to get to their competition. It was amazing how much school they missed during the year and the study periods they have on the ferries to compensate for loss classroom time.