Ketchikan

Ketchikan is built on a narrow shelf between mountain and water, so much of it stands on pilings over the channel with streets running on trestles - Creek Street, the former red-light district, is a boardwalk on stilts above the salmon creek. The town holds the largest collection of standing totem poles in the world across several sites: Totem Bight, Saxman Village and the Totem Heritage Center, which preserves nineteenth-century originals retrieved from abandoned Tlingit and Haida village sites rather than replicas. Rainfall is around four thousand millimetres a year and the town sells it as a joke. Salmon run up the creek through the middle of town in summer, visible from the boardwalk.

What you actually see

• A town on pilings - streets and boardwalks over the water.
• The largest standing totem collection - across several sites.
• Nineteenth-century originals - at the Totem Heritage Center.
• Salmon running through town - visible from Creek Street in season.

When to go

May to September, the cruise and salmon season. A full day.

Honest expectations

Rain is close to constant - around four metres a year. Cruise ship days flood the small centre and prices rise; check the schedule. There is no road in or out. Off season much of it closes.

Nearby

Misty Fjords is by floatplane or boat; Saxman is a few kilometres south.