Kayaking in Ketchikan 🛶 🦅

Yes, we like our alliterations around here.

Ketchikan is Alaska’s first city and the Salmon Capital of the World. The port is small and cute, but the real draw is all of the wonderful activities you can do outside the port. For our stop here, we decided to go on a kayaking tour of Eagle Island.

Eagle Island is located in the in the Tongass National Forest in the serene area of Clover Pass. It earned its name due to the abundance of majestic Bald Eagles in the area, and boy did we see them! We saw more Bald Eagles than we had ever seen before, dotting the trees in the distance and flying overhead. Our guides told us Bald Eagles are so abundant there, they’re almost a nuisance, if you can believe it!

Scenes along the shoreline.

We enjoyed kayaking in the calm waters around the island and in some small coves where we saw lots of starfish. At one point we also spotted thousands of tiny creatures in the water that looked like they could have been baby moon jellyfish, but we still haven’t been able to confirm what they were—even our guides didn’t know. Glad we didn’t fall in the water, nonetheless! 😳

If you look closely you can see some purple and orange starfish.

After our kayaking tour we had a little time left in port, so we walked around Ketchikan’s Creek Street. This is a historic boardwalk built over the water on antique wooden pilings over Ketchikan Creek. It has lots of interesting shops, restaurants, art galleries, and a museum. This is also a great place to watch hoards of salmon as they make their way up the stream. Creek street also has an interesting history, as it used to be the red light district of Ketchikan!

Creek Street and Ketchikan Creek

There are many totem poles around Creek Street and Ketchikan

If you would like to learn more about the kayaking tour we did, click here.