Views of Ketchikan from the Majestic:
Look at this Tlingit woman singing about the loggers, miners, fishermen and pilots and Chief (other images) who all created opportunities in Ketchikan. This is a welcome statue near the pier called “The Rock” representing Alaska’s first City: Ketchikan. Click on photos for full size versions.
Our excursion was a Lumberjack show (standard muscleman show and stunts) followed with a bus to the Totem Bight State Park. Our bus driver was our tour guide. She guided through the city first. Click on photos for full size versions.
Ketchikan is in a rain forest, Tongass National Forest, and has staircase streets (not paved, too steep; they are made of staircases). So, for postal delivery, if I understood it correctly, all those houses on the same staircase had addresses on the named “street” and mailboxes are at the beginning of the staircase. A coincidence for my last name, Elliott Street, is the longest street in town.
Did you know an easy way to remember the main five types of Salmon? Start with your thumb: Chum/Dog, Sockeye/Red (first finder to poke in an eye), King/Chinook (usually longest), Silver/Coho (wedding band finger), Pink/Humpies (smallest of course).
We drove out of the city to the north.
At the Totem Bight State Historical Park, still in the rain forest, are a clan house and red cedar totem poles representative of Haida and Tlingit villages from the early 19th century. Here is a link to a wonderful guide to the park, the peoples and the poles. Brochure here.
Click photos below to view the large versions.
Back in town I visited the Tongass National Forest Visitor Center. I had not thought to bring my National Parks Pass, so I could not go in free (plus time was running out) but they did let me in to get my Parks Book stamped. Yay! I hurried back to the ship, only to find a really long line of late people.
Our onboard nature specialist was “on speaker” guiding us regarding sights as we left port and travelled north. Here are some of those sights:
Humpback Whale blow, Stellar Sea Lions on buoy, and fast-moving Dall Porpoises
My beer for the evening: Alaskan Pilsner.
View on our way back north.
Good night at midnight along the inside passage.
