Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan - July 28, 2008

As you can probably tell, Ketchikan was overcast, rainy, and wet. We stopped here for about 8 hours, maybe less. The town itself is not very big or very sophisticated. The piece of land the downtown is situated on is very small, so the town itself kind of goes up the hills to the east of the town. Even walkways longer than a certain length are considered to be streets! It was a big event when the McDonalds and the Walmart opened.

So, we stopped in Ketchikan and I booked the 4x4 Jeep Adventure excursion. The excursion included a canoe ride across a lake to a small spit of land, where we would be fed and enjoy a short nature hike. After canoeing back across the lake, we would then ride in the jeeps for a few hours on some back country dirt roads. In this case, the roads were more mud than dirt.

The rain we had the entire trip did not cease for this Excursion. So the entire Excursion was done in the rain. This was not so bad for the jeep part but made for an awfully wet canoe ride and hike. The excursion company had erected a structure of some sort so we could at least eat and not get wet.

The entire Excursion lasted about 4 hours, after which I did some souvenir shopping at shops located on the street right next to where the Carnival Spirit had docked. Most of the souvenirs I'd already seen in one form or other in the other towns, so I did not buy much. I suspect I would like Ketchikan a lot better in the sunshine but, according to Pebbles, our driver to and from the Excursion, it rains a lot in Ketchikan - sun is a rare occurrence indeed!