Regularly-scheduled jet services offer three northbound and three southbound departures daily. The State-owned Ketchikan International Airport offers a paved, lighted 7,500′ runway. The airport lies on Gravina Island, a 10-minute ferry ride to the waterfront. Ketchikan is a regional transportation hub, with numerous air taxi services to surrounding communities.

There are four float plane landing facilities: Tongass Narrows, Peninsula Point, Ketchikan Harbor, and Murphy’s. Ketchikan is the first port of call in Alaska for cruise ships and Alaska Marine Highway vessels. Harbor and docking facilities include a breakwater, a deep draft dock, five small boat harbors, a dry dock and ship repair yard, boat launch, and a State ferry terminal.

The shipyard is privately-owned, and is used for repairs to the Alaska Ferry and offshore fish processors. The Inter-Island Ferry Authority, based on Craig, is coordinating funding to develop a twice-daily, year-round ferry service between Ketchikan and Hollis.

Separated from the mainland by the 150-mile Behm Canal, Ketchikan is accessible only by boat. Even the airport is located on a nearby island, and passengers must land and then ferry across the sound to the town itself. Within Ketchikan itself, a mere 20 miles of roads allow access to nearby parks and recreation areas.

Around 500 cruise ships dock at Ketchikan, Alaska each summer, and you too could be on one of them. I won’t recommend any of the cruise lines because I lived there, I didn’t travel there. I’m sure they each have pros and cons. his image shows how huge the cruise ships are; 8-9 stories above the waterline. They dwarf downtown Ketchikan. The cruise ship shown is from the Holland-American line, but I couldn’t remember the name.

The best way to get to Ketchikan, and many other ports in Southeast Alaska is via the Alaska Marine Highway system. It if probably more affordable than the cruise ships and offers the opportunity to bring your car with you so that you can get off and drive around at different ports of call. I say probably less expensive because, it isn’t really all that inexpensive! Gee. But, if you want to see more than a few hours in each town this is the way to travel through Alaska.

Ketchikan is a town where people use boats for more than recreation; they are transportation and people’s homes as well. Here is a sailboat in the Tongass Narrows. The island behind the sailboat is Pennock Island. Behind Pennock Island is downtown Ketchikan, and towering above is Deer Mountain. Sailboats have the right of way, by the way.