Laninga's Travel Blog

Ketchikan bills itself as “the Salmon Capital of the World”. And indeed we enjoyed salmon fish and chips, as well as sending some salmon home. It is also known as one of the wettest cities in the USA (rainfall in excess of 18 feet in one year). True to its reputation, it rained on our way up but we were treated to a exceptional sunny day on the way back.

The population of Ketchikan is around 8,000. The day we were there there were 4 cruise ships, so we had around 10,000 tourists in town. Talk about crowds…. But we all got a chance to see the salmon going upstream to spawn, look at the largest totem park in Alaska, and visit historical Creek Street, which catered to lonely lumbermen and miners in the 1890’s.

Arrival in the rain

In case you wondered where we were…

The theme certainly includes whales

Salmon statue

Fish ladder

Historical Creek Street

Spawning fish

The fate of the salmon after spawning

Just had to buy some salmon

Steep hills around the city

Before TV, entertainment had a distinctly manly theme