Ketchikan Day 2

Our campsite is on a cove and the surroundings are quite beautiful and peaceful. There are mountains across the inlet and little wooded islands dot the water in every direction. We awoke again this morning to clear blue skies and sunshine. Today we are driving into Ketchikan to tour the city and it’s history.

The Tongass Historical Museum is the best place to see the history of Ketchikan. There are artifacts, photos and text depicting this city through the years, from the once Native fishing village to the Wickedest City in the world to the Salmon Capital and tourist Mecca that it is today. Ketchikan is called Alaska’s “First City” as it is it’s southern most city and it is also the first place that cruise ship stop on their passage north. Each day we have seen four cruise ships in port.

The infamous Creek Street is a boardwalk on long pilings above the Ketchikan Creek, where bountiful salmon run and for over half a century more than 30 bordellos lined the creek. Dolly Arthur was the most famous Madam in the heyday of gamblers, liquor dealers and red-light women that inhabited Creek Street and caused the national media to call it the “Wickedest City in the World”.

We walked along the Ketchikan Creek up to the fish hatchery. We are here a few weeks before the thousands of salmon struggle up the strong lower falls and up the fish ladder built to help them make it home to spawn. The City Park nearby is beautifully landscaped and has small ponds and a fountain. Walking back into town, we cruised the docks and shops along the water, picking up some last minute souvenirs and gifts. We ate lunch at Steamers on the third floor overlooking the waterfront where Dave had the “best” halibut wrap and I had delicious crab cakes. (No Michelle and Paul, they were not as good as Maryland Crab Cakes, of course.)

There are many ways to tour Ketchikan, including horse-drawn trolleys, duck boats, vans and buses and flight-seeing planes. After lunch we sat by the water and watched sea-planes taking off and landing every few minutes. Driving back toward the campground, we stopped at Ward Lake where we actually saw people in the water for the first time during our five weeks in Alaska. Ward Lake has a picnic area, sheltered day use pavilions and campgrounds.

The temperature today actually hit the mid-70’s and it was an amazing day. We had forgotten what it was like to spend a day in the sunshine. It was fabulous. For the first time since we arrived in Alaska, I actually took a picture of a sunset. The reasons why we haven’t seen a sunset are that the sun went behind a mountain before it set, it set after we were sound asleep, clouds masked it, or it just never set at all. What an amazing place. It’s hard to believe that this is our last full day in Alaska. It has been quite the trip.

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