Things To Do In Ketchikan | Points Of Interest Not To Miss (2024)

On one of the run-off creeks from Achilles Moun­tain or Twin Peaks Moun­tain above pours a100-foot or more water­fall right beside Ton­gass High­way towards the end of theroad

Her­ring Cove, at the right time of year, is awon­der­ful place to view wildlife, and in par­tic­u­lar, black bears. Mid-June through ear­ly Sep­tem­ber, when the salmon are run­ning, is prob­a­bly the best time for achance to see black bearshere.

Spot­ting eagles is ahigh­light of any vis­it to Alas­ka. Ketchikan has 30 nest­ing sites weigh­ing in up to 2,000pounds and mea­sure 6feet deep. Eagle’s remain in Ketchikan because eagles know they won’t starve here. Eagles are car­ni­vores and live to eat fish, so you’ll see them plen­ty at the mouth of salmon streams. Eagles even hang around in win­ter; the water remains ice-free, and the fish keep coming.

Refuge Cove State Recre­ation Site is asliv­er of land lin­ing part of an edge of aneigh­bor­hood and is apop­u­lar beach pic­nick­ing des­ti­na­tion with the locals. The site comes com­plete with pit toi­lets, shel­tered and unshel­tered pic­nic tables with fire grates, and aquar­ter-mile trail accom­pa­nied by inter­pre­tive signs that address the local nat­ur­al history.

This may be the most well-known bridge to have nev­er been built. The idea was to replace the fer­ry con­nect­ing Ketchikan with Grav­ina Island, where the Ketchikan Air­portis.

Ketchikan Arts &Human­i­ties Coun­cil (KAAHC) is the pow­er­house of Ketchikan’s arts com­mu­ni­ty; if there’s an arts event in Ketchikan, this orga­ni­za­tion is on it! Locat­ed at the Main Street Gallery, KAAHC pro­duces dozens of art events annu­al­ly, such as summer’s Blue­ber­ry Arts Fes­ti­val and February’s famous Wear­able ArtsShow.

When she’s not carv­ing linoleum or wood, you may find Evon on one of her many teach­ing gigs around the state. She’s one of Alaska’s favorite artists-in-res­i­dence, which allows her to share her pas­sion for print­mak­ing with stu­dents from Kinder­garten onup.

Want to expe­ri­ence alit­tle piece of rus­tic, old-timey Ketchikan? Head to the Main Street Gallery at 7p.m. every sec­ond Fri­day of the month for anight of square danc­ing. Pop­u­lar year-round (but espe­cial­ly in the sum­mer), this is agreat way to social­ize like the pio­neers did 100years ago. Nev­er square danced before? No wor­ries. The reg­u­lar dancers are afriend­ly, inclu­sive crew, ready to teach you how it’sdone.

BOOMbal’s been acraze here since 2010, mak­ing great use of a1946-era build­ing that was pur­chased and ren­o­vat­ed by the Ketchikan Area Arts and Human­i­ties Coun­cil. The clas­sic hard­wood floors of the Main Street Gallery are per­fect for atwo-step, rhum­ba or jit­ter­bug – and you could learn any of these along­side an eclec­tic mix of folk – from fish­er­men and artists to high school­ers and sum­mer workers.

See­ing what the glac­i­ers left behind is as stun­ning as view­ing the glac­i­ers them­selves. Imag­ine the force it took to carve U‑shaped val­leys with 3,000-foot sheer cliffs ris­ing above the water (not to men­tion that they extend anoth­er 1000-feet belowwater!)

Every spring the hatch­ery sends 700,000 king salmon smolt on the adven­ture of alifetime.

Here you’ll find real peo­ple who make aliv­ing on the ocean com­ing off their boats – more often than not cov­ered in fishslime.

Hear shrieks and squeals of excite­ment as kids wade around in tide­pools with their buck­ets find­ing all man­ner of crit­ters – eels, bull­heads, snails, her­mit crabs, sea urchins, sea anemones, starfish, blim­mies (eel­type fish), small octo­pus, eel­grass, clams, mol­lusks, andkelps.

Impec­ca­bly restored Grum­man Goose amphibi­ous air­craft is apiece of trans­porta­tion his­to­ry in Ketchikan

Atour of totem pole sites near Ketchikan is easy to man­age in one day. The hair will stand up on your arms as you con­sid­er the crafts­man­ship and the depth and com­plex­i­ty of each totem’s unique message

Mil­lions of oys­ters get their start in Ketchikan each year, right at the OceansAlas­ka Mar­i­cul­ture Research and Train­ing Facil­i­ty, amod­ern new aqua­cul­ture endeav­or locat­ed on George Inlet near Ketchikan. OceansAlas­ka is anon-prof­it ven­ture ded­i­cat­ed to the pro­mo­tion of shell­fish­ing as an eco­nom­ic dri­ver for South­east Alas­ka. Grow­ing oys­ters and large clams (called geo­ducks) is tricky. You need the right water tem­per­a­ture, non-acidic…...more

Dol­ly Arthur was Ketchikan’s most famous madam in the hey­day of Creek Street. Her house, pre­served much as she left it, fea­tures antiques caches and gar­ish décor. Tours are pro­vid­ed for afee.

Mas­ter wood carvers pro­duce his­toric rat­tles, posts, masks and totem poles. World-class weavers, prac­tice an art form going back thou­sands of years. Using cedar bark and spruce tips, Native weavers made items essen­tial to liv­ing in arain­for­est: jack­ets and clas­sic con­i­cal rain hats, and water­tight stor­age baskets.