Robert Herrick

Ketchikan is one of the southernmost cities in Alaska, on an island, and near the Canadian border. We had read that most of the tourist attractions were overcrowded in the morning, and that it was better to go in the afternoon – this seemed especially timely advice given the fact there were 4 large cruise ships with a total of 4-5000 passengers in port when we arrived. We started out going to the Southeast Alaska Visitors Center on Mill and Main just a couple blocks from the cruise ship dock ($5 for adults), which was worthwhile both for the native American exhibits as well as the very helpful staff at the desk by the bookstore. They strongly recommended Saxman village as having good authentic native culture and being a worthwhile place to visit. They said that even as locals, they still made a point of visiting a few times a year, something I thought was high praise indeed. After we ate lunch at New York Café (also recommended by the staff, and a place I liked) we caught the bus the 2.5 miles to Saxman Village. Unfortunately, contrary to the general advice to go in the afternoon to miss the morning crowds, Saxman village is only open in the mornings, so it was kind of a downer. We took photos of the totem poles and listened to the tour guide’s description of what they were working on in the workshop. We were thinking about a hike, but the weather was lousy with periodic showers, and time was getting short, so we just did another hour or so of sightseeing in town (which wasn’t that great) before heading back to the ship. My wife and I agreed if we had it to do over again, we would either sign up for an organized tour, or rent a car (there are a number of attractions 6-10 miles to the north including good hikes at Ward Cove Recreation Area and Totem Bight State Historical Park).

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 Ketchikan Shore Excursions

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