Our Ketchikan walking tour with photo links

[harryfat1]

Hi,

We were on the Celebrity’s Infinity Alaska cruise from August 14 to 21. As part of my research prior to the cruise, I was looking for info on the Ketchikan walking tour and from the various posts here and there, I was more or less able to piece together what the walking trip looks like.

Now that we have returned, I thought maybe it’d be helpful to put everything together in one thread for future cruisers to read and see in pictures of what the walking trip looks like. I realize the 2009 Alaska season is coming to an end soon, but perhaps this might be helpful for the early planners of 2010 Alaska cruise. Only caveat is that you guys will have to put up seeing my family in most of the pictures as I describe our walking trip.

What you will need:

First is the old link to the PDF version of the Downtown walking tour map. I will be using this as a reference point. So have this handy on your web browser or print it out. We only had time to do the Downtown walking tour (map 1). Next time we are in town, we will try the west side walking tour (map 2).

KetchikanWalkingMap1.pdf

KetchikanWalkingMap.pdf

KetchikanWalkingMap2.pdf

KetchikanWalkingMap2.1.pdf

Second is the link to our pictures of the walking tour:

http://harryfatketchikanwalkingtour.shutterfly.com/26?startIndex=0&size=All

Background:

Multigenerational family cruise with the youngest one at 6 years old, so there’s a limit on how strenuous walk we can do as a group. Second Alaska trip for us. Previous trip did the city tour and Saxman Village visit as we had the 15 month baby with us back then and didn’t want to walk in the pouring rain. This time, with better weather and kids being older, good time to save few bucks and did our own tour.

Reference:

I will just us the numbers on the map as a reference guide. This is by NO means the only way to do this walking tour. You can add or delete whatever part you like, or go in reverse if that floats your boat (pun intended). On the stops we didn’t do or wasn’t worth taking pictures of (like post office – as if you haven’t seen a post office back at home) I will just skip that part.

OK, enough talking. Let’s get started.

Stop #0 – not on the map per se, this where your ship docks. For us, the Infinity was in berth 2, which is smack dab in the middle. Right in front of the Visitor Center and the shopping area. So you see the town below from the ship. The Rydam was behind us and the Radiance of the Sea was in front of us that day.

Stop #1 – Go to the Visitor Center and pick up the hard copy of this map. The rain gauge is outside of the center.

Stop #2 – Take the obligatory picture of the arch. Keep walking north.

Stop #5 – Whale Park & Chief Kyan Totem Pole.

Stop #6 – Chief Johnson Totem Pole – Difficult to get a picture of this one as it’s across the street with various cars and horse carriage threatening to run you over as you stand in the middle to the street trying to capture the every inch of the tall totem pole.

Stop #26 – Crossing the bridge, you are at the infamous Creek Street. Depending on time year, you might see lots of salmon in the stream like we did (we saw none in previous visit as we were there in May as it wasn’t Salmon season yet). Stop by the fish bench to take a picture or rest up.

Married Men’s Trail – Here is where we differ from the other recommended tours. Instead of walking down the trail from the top, we took the hard way and walked up the trail. Depending on your mobility and weather condition, it wasn’t a particular difficult climb even for some out of shape middle age CPA geek like yours truly. If mobility is an issue, just do the typical route and take the funicular up.

At the top, there are benches at the Cape Fox Lodge to rest and drinks water/eat snacks with the family to rest after the climb. There is a nice set of totem poles up at the area to see. Reminds me of Stonehenge version of totem pole with the circular orientation. When ready, take the funicular down.

Shopping – I guess shopping must be like the crazy aunt living in the basement – everyone knows she’s there, but nobody talks about her. That’s how I think of shopping – at every cruise port, not just Alaska, I see the stores packed with people buying things but nobody in their cruise review talks about what they bought or where they think the bargains are. I will be the rebel that declares the Emperor has no clothes.

If you didn’t pack a jacket, there are some decent ones for $20. Baseball caps are 3 for $5 at the bottom funicular area. If you set sail from Seattle, you should have gotten the free Alaska book with tons of coupons for the waterfront shopping. Bring the book with you as you leave the ship as there are many bargains to be had in Ketchikan. If you buy Ulu knives like we did, be aware that ship security will confiscate them upon entry and deliver it back to your cabin on the last night of the cruise.

Stop #12 - OK, now we make one full circle going clockwise from the bottom of the funicular area to the original start of the Married Men’s walking trail, but instead of going up, we keep walking along side the stream until we get to stop #12. That’s where the city tour buses drop people off to see the salmon in the river. Saw the duck tour stopping there. We were on the Seattle duck tour just few days previously and we had a blast with that raucous bunch, but the Ketchikan duck tour is really boring in comparison. No loud music, no duck cracker. Glad we did the Seattle duck instead.

While at #12, we saw a talented kid wearing just a pair of shorts taking the salmon by his bare hands and snatch them right out of the water. Something you had to see for yourself to believe.

Stop #14 – making a right turn from 12, we are now back on the city streets (Park Avenue) and arrived the Harris bridge and then going down to the shallow water area marked “salmon spawning area”.

Stop #15 – this is the salmon hatchery area. If interested, you can go and pay admission to this and the totem heritage center. The boys didn’t want to go, so we passed. Instead, we stopped at the City Park bench for more snacks and water.

By then, it started to sprinkle and we decided we better start to head back before we get caught in a rain without much protection. Walked down Deermont Avenue and made a right turn on Steadman heading back to downtown.

Stop #24 – The other side of Creek Street. Dolly House has the long line of visitors waiting to get in.

Stop #23 – Saw some anglers fishing off the bridge as well as from the waterfront.

Saw the back of the Lumberjack show. Guess if you are really cheap, you can watch for free the pole climbing from the back lot as that is visible from the back.

We used the restroom facilities at the Alaska Discovery Center before we bought up half of the store using the aforementioned shopping book coupons.

Afterward, back to the ship for the lunch and sail away at 3 PM.

Hope this info is useful to somebody going to Ketchikan and wants to use the walking map.

Will be glad to answer any questions.

[fieldmom35215]

I, for one, thank you for the lovely memories of Ketchikan. Your review was excellent, and I was able to walk the trails in my mind as I read each of your points. Again, thax for the memories. Looks like you guys had a BLAST!

[bqkali]

Thanks for the details! I'll be in Ketchikan in less than a month and plan on doing the walking tour, but with a few stops at the museums/attractions. I can't wait!

[travelbug11]

Thank you so much for going to the work of posting this.....I'll be in Alaska in 23 days!!!

[Starlaker]

Thank you so much for the maps and narrative. Will be there in three weeks and really appreciate having the map ahead of time. Great job!

[nazpaz]

Nice job! We were there a couple of days after you and took the same walk. It looks like you had a good time!

[wowsmom]

Originally Posted by harryfat1

Stop #12 - OK, now we make one full circle going clockwise from the bottom of the funicular area to the original start of the Married Men’s walking trail, but instead of going up, we keep walking along side the stream until we get to stop #12. That’s where the city tour buses drop people off to see the salmon in the river. Saw the duck tour stopping there. We were on the Seattle duck tour just few days previously and we had a blast with that raucous bunch, but the Ketchikan duck tour is really boring in comparison. No loud music, no duck cracker. Glad we did the Seattle duck instead.

I was nodding as I read this. We did the Ketchikan Ducks and it was very boring indeed! From your pictures, I see we were on that same duck and I wonder if it was the same tour guide.

Thanks for posting your pics - I enjoyed looking at them.

[harryfat1]

Glad the info is helpful for those who plan to do this self guided walk or brings back fond memories for the folks who have done it.

Just to give credit where credit is due, I want to reiterate that the links on the maps were down by a previous poster. I just copied and pasted. If I hadn’t found that, I have extra copy of the map that I would need to scan and upload myself, but since one is readily available, I just used the link. My theory is that a lazy man is an efficient man.

My original plan was to number each picture to correspond to the description/stop number so that I would have pictures 15.1 and 15.2 and 15.3 and so on to make it even easier to follow. But given the volume of the pictures and I am now working on the Juneau’s Mendenhall Glacier walk through and photo for next posting by this weekend, I became lazy again and just figure everyone can more or less follow the path on their own. And just have people ask questions if they have any.

As for the duck tour, our Seattle duck driver was a riot a he had like 6 wigs he put on during the various parts of his routine and he made us wave and toot the duck quacker at everyone we saw. Everyone on the tour was doing the YMCA and various dance rotines as we drove around town. My 2 boys loved the fact they can be nosy on the bus and not have people say “be quiet”. Was there even any music on the Ketchikan bus? Think we saw couple that drove by and heard nothing.

[mmemichele]

We did the same ...it actually was sunny when we were there in the pm ...nice pics
Thanks for memories

[wowsmom]

Originally Posted by harryfat1

As for the duck tour, our Seattle duck driver was a riot a he had like 6 wigs he put on during the various parts of his routine and he made us wave and toot the duck quacker at everyone we saw. Everyone on the tour was doing the YMCA and various dance rotines as we drove around town. My 2 boys loved the fact they can be nosy on the bus and not have people say “be quiet”. Was there even any music on the Ketchikan bus? Think we saw couple that drove by and heard nothing.

Nope, no music on our duck. No joking. No wigs or dancing. Not much talking either. I got the feeling the guide didn't want to be there. He couldn't tell us much at all about Ketchikan (lived there his whole life and didn't even know what the word meant). Didn't know how long the fishing season lasts. He did know the 5 kinds of salmon, though.

He told us how they had no grass on their high school football field...and how Kurt Cobain had once worked the fishing season there...and how if an eagle tries to grab a fish out of the water and the fish is too big, it'll rip his feet off and he'll die. (And yes, there were little kids on the tour!)

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Thank you for the review. I have already downloaded the map and printed it out for our cruise next year, but it was great to see the pictures. Very complete!

[Foxhill]

This is the type of posting that provides such valuable information. We actually get nuts and bolts resources. Great job and much appreciated.

[harryfat1]

Thanks again for others that have left complimentary messages since my earlier posting. As I said in my original posting, during my research prior to our cruise, I found pieces of the walking tour here and there (one post have the map but no pictures and vice versa on another post).

So when we were walking the tour, I had thought it would be useful to have everything under one thread so months down the road when people are planning their 2010 Alaska tours, they can see for themselves if the walking tour is something they like to do. Especially if you have kids or folks with mobility issues in your party, it’s always good to scout out ahead of time if the planned walk is achievable.

You can get the maps at the visitor center. There are hundreds/thousands of them, so you don’t need to bring them if you don’t want to. I emailed the visitor bureau prior to our cruise asking them to send me the map in advance, but they say they have no distribution rights to them, so they can’t send the maps via snail. You will get the official visitors guide via mail from the visitor center, but the map itself can only be obtained when you are in town.

I am a CPA by trade, so I am used to the anal detailed step by step info for the post. As the saying goes, do to others as you would like to have done onto you. I know for my anal cruise research, I like reviews that have pictures/tips with them so I can see for myself if that’s something that will work for my family. So I am doing this for the next generation of detailed planning travelers.

One final note, I posted another set of food only pictures from the Alaska cruise on the Celebrity site. So even though it’s not on point per se as part of the Alaska port discussion, if anyone is interested, they can look at what we ate during our Alaska cruise.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/574262235wsRMGp

[TeaBag]

Thanks for posting.

[LorieKeith]

Love your post. What great detail! We want to do the walking tour in the morning before our Bering Sea Crab tour. I am most interested in seeing the fish ladder and the totems at Fox Lodge. How much time do you think I should allow to do the walk? Also do you know what time the funicular starts running and what the cost is?

[harryfat1]

Originally Posted by LorieKeith

Love your post. What great detail! We want to do the walking tour in the morning before our Bering Sea Crab tour. I am most interested in seeing the fish ladder and the totems at Fox Lodge. How much time do you think I should allow to do the walk? Also do you know what time the funicular starts running and what the cost is?

Hi,

The official map has the time on the various stops to go to the next one, so you can use that as a guide. If you are pressed for time and just hit the highlights of the fish and the fox lodge and don't really stop for very long, it can be done about an hour assuming you don't have little kids like we do.

In interest of time, you won't do the full circle like we did and you will just do part of it and double back.

Since we did the reverse route to the fox lodge, funicular ride was free for us as you only pay on the way up - which I believe to be $2/pp. Not sure when it opens. I assume it never closes as the hotel guests take that to go down to the town, so it should be operating when you get there. Others who know more can chime in.

Worst case scenario, just climb up like we did.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.