Ketchikan: Our Last Stop for AK 2014 Trip

                       Ketchikan and the Inside Passage

Ketchikan is in the extreme southeastern part of the Inside Passage and is an Alaskan fishing village to the extreme.  Fishing for King Salmon is taking place right now and Judy and I are enjoying it fresh caught in every restaurant.  I had smoked king salmon and chowder today on my tour boat to Misty Fjords National Monument and Wilderness Area.  There are 60 miles of roads on the island and even the international airport (international because 1x/week a flight comes in from British Columbia) is accessed from the town by a ferry boat!  No road leads to it. Hiking 100 ft. off the road is right into the temperate rainforest.  Today we had no rain and blue skies, very unusual according to everyone we talked to.

a fishing camp

Misty Fjords National Monument and Wilderness Area comprises 2.3 million acres.  It was proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter and like so many areas in Alaska, it has no roads.  I saw it by boat today.

Tlinget totems are throughout southeastern Alaska

Tlinget clan house

Ketchikan rainforest

Salmonberry

We are at the end of our 6 week Thelma and Louise odyssey!  Our final Alaskan adventure will be tomorrow, June 11, when we will be getting ourselves and the van back onto the Alaska Marine Ferry.  We will sail for 38 hours to Bellingham, WA which is where we boarded the ferry in early May.  Dave is waiting in Seattle with our godchildren who live in Bellevue and we will pick him up on Friday June 13 so he can help Judy with the driving to Kris and Judy's home in so. CA.
Good night from Thelma and Louise and thanks for sharing our trip!