Day Trips from Ketchikan: Totem Parks, Misty Fjords, Metlakatla and Prince of Wales Island

Early in the morning, the Tongass Narrows is gray and still, and the town’s wooden boardwalks are quiet before the shops open. That is the hour when a day trip begins in Ketchikan, an island town ringed by rainforest and salt water. Carved poles in the forest, a Tsimshian village across the water, a vast fjord wilderness and a neighboring island are all within reach of a single day.

Houses on stilts in Ketchikan · Illustration

What are the best day trips from Ketchikan?

The best day trips from Ketchikan are the ones that lead to totem poles in a forest setting, to the Tsimshian community of Metlakatla, and into the wilderness of Misty Fjords. Each one shows a different side of a town shaped by Alaska Native culture, fishing and rainforest. Here are the outings worth building a day around:

Totem Bight State Historical Park, a forest park of totem poles and a clan house, reached along the North Tongass Highway.
Saxman, a small town beside Ketchikan with a totem park and a Tlingit story to tell.
Misty Fjords National Monument, a huge protected landscape of fjords, cliffs and rainforest.
Metlakatla, a community on Annette Island that travelers usually reach by Alaska Marine Highway ferry.
Prince of Wales Island, a large island of the Alexander Archipelago with its own towns, including Craig.

Ketchikan holds the largest collection of standing totem poles anywhere, spread across Saxman Totem Park, Totem Bight, Potlatch Park and the Totem Heritage Center. So the two closest trips are also the ones that tell you most about the people who first lived here. The water and wilderness trips take more of the day, and they suit a different mood.

The best day trips from Ketchikan

Totem Bight State Historical Park

Totem Bight sits on the North Tongass Highway, north of town, so it is the one trip here you can make by road without crossing any water. The park holds a collection of carved and painted poles standing among spruce and hemlock, with a clan house near the shore of the narrows.

The setting does much of the work. Moss, damp air and the smell of cedar make the poles feel like part of the forest rather than objects in a display.

The historic site inside the park was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and the whole park is a state historical park. Plan to walk slowly.

The poles reward a long look at the figures, the colors and the way each one is meant to tell a story. Rain is part of the Ketchikan story (the town carries the nickname Rain Capital of Alaska), and a gray, wet morning only deepens the mood among the trees.

It suits anyone with an interest in Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian art, and it pairs naturally with Saxman, which has its own totem park. Seen together, the two let you compare how the poles are carved and displayed in different settings.

Saxman and its totem park

Saxman is a small town on Revillagigedo Island, the same island as Ketchikan, which lies just to the northwest of it. Its totem park is one of the places that give Ketchikan its reputation for standing poles. The town was incorporated early in the last century, in January 1930, and it remains a distinct community with its own identity, not a suburb of the larger town beside it.

Come here for the poles and for the Tlingit culture they come from. Ketchikan itself began as a seasonal Tlingit fish camp, so a visit to Saxman adds depth to what you see downtown. Walk among the poles, look closely at the carved figures, and let the quiet of a small place set the pace.

It works well as a half-day outing, or as the second stop of a day that begins at Totem Bight. It is a good fit for anyone who prefers culture and history to a day on the water.

Misty Fjords National Monument

Misty Fjords is the wild trip. This is a huge national monument along the Inside Passage coast, administered by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Tongass National Forest.

Its landscape is made of steep-walled fjords, rainforest and mist, and the name fits the place well. It is a country of scale, where the walls of the fjords rise straight out of dark water and the clouds often sit low on the peaks.

You come here to look, to take photographs and to feel how large this part of Alaska is. Wildlife can appear in a landscape like this, but it is a chance, never a promise. The weather shapes the day, and a soft, cloudy sky suits the scenery as much as a clear one.

This is the trip for travelers who want wilderness more than villages or museums. It takes the biggest share of the day of any outing in this list, so pair it with nothing else.

Metlakatla on Annette Island

Metlakatla lies on Annette Island, south of Ketchikan across open water, and travelers usually reach it by Alaska Marine Highway ferry. That crossing is part of the point. You leave the town behind, watch the islands slide past, and arrive in a community with a history and a character of its own.

The people here are Tsimshian, one of the three cultures, with the Tlingit and Haida, that give Ketchikan’s region its cultural depth. A visit is a chance to see another community of Southeast Alaska on its own terms. Go with curiosity and without a checklist, and let the village set the rhythm. It suits travelers who like islands, ferries and small communities, and who are happy to spend most of the day getting there and being there rather than ticking off sights.

Prince of Wales Island

Prince of Wales Island is one of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago, and it is large enough to feel like a destination in itself. Craig is the largest community on the island. Hollis, a much smaller place, is the site of a ferry terminal, which tells you how many travelers come across the water.

What you find here is the rural, working side of Southeast Alaska, with small towns and forest reaching toward the horizon. It is a different day from the totem parks and from Misty Fjords, quieter and more open-ended.

It suits travelers who prefer an island and its small communities to a single headline sight. Treat it as a day of exploring, not a day with one fixed goal.

Day trips from Ketchikan compared

Trip	Where it lies	Best for
Totem Bight State Historical Park	Mile 10.5, North Tongass Highway; 33 acres	Totem poles in a forest setting
Saxman	On Revillagigedo Island, beside Ketchikan	Totem park and Tlingit culture
Misty Fjords National Monument	About 40 miles east of Ketchikan; 2,294,343 acres	Fjords, cliffs and wilderness
Metlakatla	Annette Island, about 16 miles south of Ketchikan; usually reached by Alaska Marine Highway ferry	A Tsimshian community and an island crossing
Prince of Wales Island	Alexander Archipelago; ferry terminal at Hollis	Small towns and an island day

To choose, start with what you want to see. If it is carved poles and the people behind them, Totem Bight and Saxman stay close to town and sit side by side. If it is landscape, Misty Fjords is the answer, and nothing else on this list compares for sheer scale.

If you want a crossing, a village and a sense of another community, Metlakatla and Prince of Wales Island are the two that involve water. Many travelers will want more than one, and the culture trips combine easily with each other, while the wilderness trip is best kept for a day to itself.

Tour or on your own?

Totem Bight sits along a highway, so it is a place you can reach by road on your own schedule. Saxman is next to Ketchikan on the same island, so it also belongs to that group of outings that stay close to town.

Metlakatla and Prince of Wales Island are different. Both involve crossing water, and for Metlakatla the usual way is the Alaska Marine Highway ferry. On a trip like that, the ferry is part of the day, and the shape of your day follows its schedule. Before you commit, find out how you will get across and how you will get back, since the return matters as much as the outward journey.

Misty Fjords is a protected national monument in the Tongass National Forest, and the Forest Service administers it. It lies well beyond the town, in a wilderness setting where you would travel as part of an organized outing rather than on your own. Ask whoever you book with what the day includes and how the weather could change it, since the mist and the clouds are part of the landscape.

A guided visit also makes sense at the cultural sites, where the poles carry stories you may not know. Whether you go with a guide or on your own, look at each pole slowly, and read what the park offers about its carvers and its clans. The Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures are living ones, and the stories behind the poles are best met with attention and respect.

Whatever you choose, think about how the trip fits the rest of your stay. Ketchikan is a town many visitors reach by cruise ship, and the ships dock either downtown or at Ward Cove, so know which one you will use before you plan a return time. A day that starts at the dock and ends at the dock is a day with a hard edge, and that edge should shape which trips you pick.

Good to know before you go

Ketchikan wears its nickname, Rain Capital of Alaska, honestly, so treat wet weather as part of any outing.

Cruise ships dock downtown or at Ward Cove, so make sure you know where yours will be when you plan the return from any trip. The Ketchikan Visitors Bureau, which runs visitktn.com, publishes the cruise calendar and maps of the town and the island.

Sources

Visit Ketchikan (https://www.visit-ketchikan.com/), checked October 11, 2026
Wikivoyage, Ketchikan (https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Ketchikan), checked October 11, 2026
Wikipedia, Ketchikan, Alaska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchikan,_Alaska), checked October 11, 2026
Wikipedia, Ketchikan International Airport (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchikan_International_Airport), checked October 11, 2026
Wikipedia, Misty Fjords National Monument (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misty_Fjords_National_Monument), checked October 11, 2026
Wikipedia, Saxman, Alaska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxman,_Alaska), checked October 11, 2026
Wikipedia, Totem Bight State Historical Park (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totem_Bight_State_Historical_Park), checked October 11, 2026
Wikipedia, Prince of Wales Island (Alaska) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales_Island_(Alaska)), checked October 11, 2026
Wikipedia, Metlakatla, Alaska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metlakatla,_Alaska), checked October 11, 2026
Wikipedia, Tongass National Forest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongass_National_Forest), checked October 11, 2026
Wikipedia, Southeast Alaska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Alaska), checked October 11, 2026