Ketchikan

  Ketchikan, Alaska, United States
Sunday, June 8, 2008

Hmmmmmmm,

Ketchikan harbor

The first thing to say about being in Ketchikan is that we are really glad, I mean really glad that we are not on the cattle boats - the super large humongous cruise liners with their thousands upon thousands of passengers. Really glad!!

The day we arrived there were no cruise ships; we were told that five - that's right - five were expected the next day and that the town would swell with over 10,000 additional tourists. Oh my god!

OK, the cruise ships do serve a purpose if you are on a limited time schedule; however, do yourself a favor and save up the time and see Alaska properly.

A cattle boat

Before we left California, a friend of mine who did the cattle boat whirlwind tour through SE Alaska, you know, 4 hours in a town/5 hours in another town, asked us what we were going to do in each town having scheduled 3 - 5 days per town. "I mean", he said, "once you have seen a totem, once you have seen the king crab, et cetera, it is all the same; what are you going to do?"

Well, we did all we could in the time allotted and we are ready to return tomorrow to do more. The problem is that there are so many other places in the World just waiting for us to visit that we do not know when we will return to Alaska.

Alaskan King Crab - Yum!

Our first day in Alaska and we started with King Crab and we kept eating and eating and eating King Crab throughout Alaska - that is when we were not either eating salmon or halibut!

We also added to our collection of images with Jackie and various overly large stuffed bears and other animals; the first images were in Sequoia.

Jak has a thing for bears!

Bering Sea Crab Fishermen's

Our first organized activity was the the Bering Sea Crab Fishermen's Tour:  http://56degreesnorth.com/ This well known activity was made sorta famous because it was featured on The Deadliest Catch. We found it very interesting and well presented; we would recommend it to those that take the time to "do Ketchikan."

Ward Lake Recreation Area

There was lots of hiking to do around Ketchikan; fortunately the manager of the hotel loaned us his car for the day so we could see/do the area properly. Unless you book in advance you will not be able to rent a car upon arrival; we found this to be true in each of the towns we visited.

Misty Fiords Cruise/Fly: Our first grizzly!

The other activitiy we did was a boat trip into the wilderness and then we flew back to Ketchikan; saw our first grizzly - we will see many many more during the next two months.

Misty Fiords Cruise/Fly:

Misty Fiords Cruise/Fly:

This was one very large very healthy bear!

Saxman Native Village

The other item that really caught our interest were the totems, how they were carved and what the various symbols signified.

A People's Distinctive Art

Be sure to enlarge the images so that you can read the writing! See ya in Wrangell.