Ketchikan

A very grey day with occasional spits of rain, but that didn’t stop us from wandering around Ketchikan. In the morning we walked the trail around Ward Lake. Saw a mother Merganser with 9 tiny babies. The babes looked like water bugs skittering around and away from her, but she would make one grunt and they were lined up next to her. Amazing; I never could get such obedience from my children. This walk was most notable for the size of the trees and lush rainforest undergrowth.

Next we toured the Totem Bight Totem Center to see the restored totems. During the 1930s the CCC started a program to recover many of the rotting totems from the backwoods, bring them to towns where people currently reside, and either restore them or replicate them. There are three centers with dozens of totems in each in Ketchikan. This center is arranged as an attractive park with flower gardens among the totems and a lovely view of the harbor.

We had one more hike at the Settler’s Cove Recreation Area. The Lunch Trail Falls Loop was through a rain forest with moss on the tree trunks so thick that it must have added a foot to their diameter. The Tree Beard hung from every branch of the cedars and Sitkas. Magical and unreal are words that came to mind; one of the guide books compared it to Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

On the way to the second totem center (Heritage Totem Center) we passed by the town dock area where two huge cruise ships were in port. They completely dwarf the little town. Near the docks the stores are all gift shops, restaurants, and jewelry and clothing shops. There was a general milling of people, but not nearly as many as I would have expected for the size of the ships.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)