Ketchikan: Explore the Gateway to Alaska’s Inside Passage
Alaska’s Inside Passage is one of the most popular cruise destinations in the world. The small fishing village of Ketchikan, Alaska is often considered to be the gateway to the Inside Passage—a coastal region that is celebrated for its picturesque islands and fjords. The town of Ketchikan is home to authentic Native American totem poles with deep cultural significance, buildings that hover above the water on wooden pilings, and salmon galore.
Creek Street is one of Ketchikan’s most celebrated attractions. Creek Street’s vintage wooden boardwalk offers visitors a phenomenal view of countless salmon swimming upstream towards a thundering waterfall to spawn. Ketchikan is home to 5 different types of salmon and is often dubbed the salmon capital of the world.
Photo by depositphotos.com
If you visit from mid-July through mid-September, you are guaranteed to see a plethora of salmon energetically swimming upstream.
Photo by depositphotos.com
Creek Street is also home to a brothel museum called Dolly’s House that commemorates the town’s most infamous madam, a shop that rents fishing equipment, and a handful of boutique shops and restaurants that serve delectable fresh seafood. Please keep in mind that if you’re interested in fishing you will need to purchase a fishing license. The friendly folks at the tackle shop on Creek Street will be happy to sell you a license at an affordable price.
In addition to a long history of commercial fishing and canning, Ketchikan also has a rich Native American history. The Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest created a series of totem poles featuring various animals that tell the ancestral stories of their people. Many of the Tlingit totem poles were abandoned in the forest surrounding Ketchikan in the early 1900s when the Tlingit people migrated to other areas to find work.
Photo by depositphotos.com
In 1938, one of the alphabet agencies created during the Great Depression to solve the unemployment crisis hired Tlingit people to restore the area’s totem poles. Totem Bight State Historical Park is home to a Clan House which once housed a large extended Tlingit family and a collection of carefully restored totem poles that tell the story of the Tlingit people and the land that they lived on. Several of the park’s totem poles are scattered throughout a scenic rainforest which is home to swooping eagles.
Photo by depositphotos.com
Due to its coastal location, Ketchikan is often the outside world’s introduction to Alaska. Ketchikan’s breathtaking natural beauty and rich history will forever captivate all who set foot there.
UnusualPlaces Field Notes
- Location
- Ketchikan town-centre area, Alaska, USA (destination orientation point)
- Coordinates
- 55.3431, -131.6467
- Access
- Ketchikan is a walkable downtown destination with additional outlying attractions reached separately. The official tourism office is at the Berth 2 Visitor Information Center; the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center is at 50 Main Street. Cruise arrivals should check their ship’s berth and allow time to walk between sites.
- Admission
- Downtown streets and the official visitor information centre are free to visit. Museums, cultural attractions, tours, transport, and outlying sites have separate admission or operator prices; there is no single town-wide ticket.
- Time needed
- The official tourism bureau says most tours and attractions can be enjoyed in four hours or less, suitable for a short port call; a longer visit allows time for outlying sites and weather-dependent excursions.
- Best season
- The main cruise and guided-tour season is summer. Rainforest weather is changeable year-round; the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center lists summer hours May 1–September 30 and reduced winter opening on Fridays only October 1–April 30.
- Opening hours
- Ketchikan is an inhabited town, not a gated attraction. The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center at 50 Main Street is open daily 9am–5pm May 1–September 30, closed federal holidays; October 1–April 30 it opens Fridays 11am–5pm, with Friday Night Insights until 7pm January–April. Other venues set separate hours.
- Location checked
- 2026-09-29
- Facts checked
- 2026-09-29
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