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Ketchikan & Sitka Alaska- Off the Beaten Path Sightseeing?


KaydenDeen

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Are there any off the beaten path things to see/do in either of these towns? We’re already whale watching in Icy Strait and kayaking in Juneau and was hoping to find some unique experiences here. Decided not to do any organized excursions in either place. 

Thanks in advance! 

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1 hour ago, KaydenDeen said:

Are there any off the beaten path things to see/do in either of these towns? We’re already whale watching in Icy Strait and kayaking in Juneau and was hoping to find some unique experiences here. Decided not to do any organized excursions in either place. 

Thanks in advance! 

Juneau, you can take Glacier Highway (the road to the mountains ).  It exits the city and there are a few parks and sites along the way to stop.  The highway ends at the mountains with Canada on the other side.  Very scenic.   Also we enjoyed going into town at Icy Point and talk wit the locals.  There's a local brewery and a totem artist that always working on something (and a great source for local history).  Also an ACE hardware store with some cool local stuff.

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Ketchikan was interesting to walk around from the port. You can go to the famous Creek Street and also to Whale Park, both are walkable. There's the Totem Pole Heritage Museum as well but that will require a ride since it's 15 mins or so from the port by vehicle.  

Never been to Sitka but I've heard if you have the time and physical capability there's a lot to see there that's walkable too.

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1 hour ago, MicDay said:

@KaydenDeenhave you tried searching on Youtube, it's been my go to on getting additional information?  

Hi @MicDay

Yes, I think I’ve seen every YouTube video so far. (Maybe too many ?)  I even watched a video of someone driving around the streets of Ketchikan just to get an idea of things to do and to familiarize myself with the town. For both places it seems like people are suggesting the same things that Royal is offering. Just thought if there was something else to do, besides the traditional tourist offerings, I’d be willing to ride, bike or hike to get there. 

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1 hour ago, cruisellama said:

Juneau, you can take Glacier Highway (the road to the mountains ).  It exits the city and there are a few parks and sites along the way to stop.  The highway ends at the mountains with Canada on the other side.  Very scenic.   Also we enjoyed going into town at Icy Point and talk wit the locals.  There's a local brewery and a totem artist that always working on something (and a great source for local history).  Also an ACE hardware store with some cool local stuff.

That for the suggestions. Glacier Hwy sounds amazing. I’ll def look into that 

@cruisellama

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1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

Ketchikan was interesting to walk around from the port. You can go to the famous Creek Street and also to Whale Park, both are walkable. There's the Totem Pole Heritage Museum as well but that will require a ride since it's 15 mins or so from the port by vehicle.  

Never been to Sitka but I've heard if you have the time and physical capability there's a lot to see there that's walkable too.

Thanks for the Whale Park suggestion. When I did a web search, I found another website that provided more suggestions of things to do. As always, thanks for your help! @AshleyDillo

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I agree with @AshleyDilloabout Ketchikan. The downtown area is nice and very walkable.  We had hoped to go to Totem Bight State Park, but it was a rainy day.  So we donned our rainjackets and trampled around town.

http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/aspunits/southeast/totembigshp.htm

We walked around Creek Street, tasting samples of smoked salmon along the way, and ended up on the Married Man's Trail, which took us up to a beautiful oversight of the area, plus Cape Fox Lodge and some totem poles to see:

https://ketchikannow.com/2015/09/married-mans-trail/\

We meandered back down the hillside, and ended up watching a guy fishing as the salmon were jumping upstream.  He caught a salmon on his line and we watched this fish literally jump and dance on the top of the river until it snapped his line.  It was amazing to see the strength of this fish, and the guy who lost his hook, looked over and yelled, "Did you see that?!?!" ?

We also went to the Totem Heritage Center.  It was a great way to pass the time during a heavier downpour:

https://www.experienceketchikan.com/totem-heritage-center.html

It was a great day.  ?

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It's been 9 years, but on our cruise to Alaska, I had read a guidebook and we took a public bus to Totem Bight State Park. It was chilly and rainy at first (the sun came out later) so it was pretty much deserted on the bus and in the park - it was a cool place to visit and wander around in. I believe that we rode the bus back to town and did a little souvenir shopping, then walked back to the ship.  

We would love to return for a second cruise to Alaska, and since Sitka was not even an option, we'd love to go there.

Our favorite port had to be Skagway - we booked an independent tour. They took us on the Yukon Railway, then a minibus that went into Canada and we stopped to eat lunch and play with the Alaskan sled puppies (and dogs) at one training "farm." It was absolutely one of our top shore excursions.

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  • 2 months later...

Not sure when you might be going, but the Crab Boat Tour on the Aleutian Ballad is one of our absolute favorite excursions anywhere.  The ship was on Deadliest Catch and was later converted to an educational tour boat.  They take you to a nearby bay and feed eagles with frozen fish, so you can take pictures and then show you pre-caught live fish and sea life.  Everything is catch and released and eco friendly.  The Aleutian Ballad is docked right next to the cruise ship wharf.   If you have a choice, don't do like I did and leave your good camera on the cruise ship and take a "point and shoot" camera.  The point and shoot does not have a fast enough mechanism to catch the eagles grabbing the fish.  I got lots of blurry eagle pictures and pictures of eagle butts.

Edited by Thorntor
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