Alaska Vacation Home: Ketchikan Alaska

Ketchikan Alaska

Rainforest, Native Culture, Fishing and Misty Fjords All Await You in Charming Ketchikan Alaska

Ketchikan Alaska is part of Alaska's Inside Passage.

In fact it is the southern most town and probably your first stop, if you visit via cruise ship. In fact 80% of Ketchikans visitors arrive on a cruise ship.

One of the things that makes Ketchikan unique, and many of the other Alaskan towns along the Inside Passage, is that it has no roads or highways connecting to it.

That's right. You cannot drive to Ketchikan. Ketchikan is reachable only by sea or air.

I remember thinking how strange this was, when I first heard about it. But it keeps Ketchikan quite peaceful and picturesque. Roughly 13,000 people call this part of Alaska home.

Ketchikan's downtown area is roughly 3 miles long, but in many places, only several blocks wide.

About Ketchikan Alaska

Ketchikan is beautifully perched between steep coastal mountains and the sea. Many Ketchikan homes are located on steep hillsides and the city is perched on wooden pilings.

If it wasn't for wooden pilings, the town would look much different. The main road through town is built on pilings. That caught my attention, early on.

These wooden pilings, boardwalks stairways and totems poles are all very common in and around Ketchikan!

Very cool!

Ketchikan Alaska became a town in 1900 with settlers moving into the area. Native Alaskans have lived in this area for thousands, if not millions, of years.

All have come together to make this one of the top small arts communities in the nation. Yearly events include a Blueberry Arts Festival in August and Festival of the North in February.

Prior to the settlement of the Great White North, the Native Tribes were the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. It wasn't until near to the turn of the 21st century that the Tlingit actually formed a written language.

Until that point it was all a verbal history that was shared and lived. A couple of the cultural excursions you can take include the Saxman Native Village and Totem Bight State Park.

Cruise Ship Docks

Cruise ships dock not too far from the downtown area. Here you will find wooden boardwalks and shops. There are a lot of nice things to be found in these shops, but one big turn off that I saw was all of the jewelery shops.

The Ketchikan Visitors Center is also located here. Stop in to find out of the things to see and do in Ketchikan. Here you will also find much of the space occupied by flight-seeing, day-tour and boat-tour operators.

Ketchikan Weather