How to explore Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway without excursions? — featuring Cruising with Kristie

0:00 Didn't book any excursions for your cruise to Alaska? No problem. Whether you have four hours or 10 in port, in this video, we're going to tell you how to spend your day in Ketchukan Juno and Skagway with just your walking shoes and a sense of adventure. From culture highlights and local bites to easy

0:20 scenic activities, you'll discover everything you need to explore Alaska on your own terms. And if you've booked an excursion that only takes part of your day, we'll give you some ideas on how to use the rest of your time in port. Let's start with some fantastic things to do in Ketchacan.

0:38 Ketchacan's known as Alaska's first city, mainly because it's the first port that you come to on a cruise ship after leaving British Columbia. It's also known as Alaska's rain capital. It rains over 12 feet a year. 12 feet. So when you go to Ketchacan, you should expect it to rain. May is the least amount of

1:04 rain. But we just got off a ship just this May and it rained. Though it did only rain in the morning, but it's definitely rain during the day and then it cleared up a little bit later. So expect rain when you go to Ketchacan. It rains anywhere from 230 to 250 days a year. There's a lot of

1:23 rain. It's a good chance you're going to be there when it rains. Ketchin is also a self-proclaimed salmon capital of the world. And a couple reasons for that is all five Pacific salmon species do spawn there. And there was a salmon industry, a canery industry there for many years,

1:42 but they over fish. So that died out as a business, but it's a good business for tourism today because if you go in late summer, you'll see the salmon running in Creek Street. Also, something from the past is the timber industry. And what's been born from that is the Great Alaska

2:04 Lumberjack Show. And we'll be talking about that is something that you can do in just a minute. So, let's talk about that Creek Street for a minute because that is a very iconic place to go to get pictures and there's things to do and see there. So, one of the big attraction is Dolly's House, which we found out

2:24 we've been to Alaska before. This is our third time, but I don't think it was impressed upon us with the same weight of exactly what the ladies of the night industry meant in Alaska. So Dolly's house was a brothel and you can do the tour there. We didn't do the tour. We just ran out of time with all the other

2:44 things, but it leaves something for us to do next time we go. So then what did we do? We walked Yeah, we walked along the boardwalk there along the creek and there's some other shops and things that you can go in there and then you follow that uh that boardwalk along the creek um up bas up past behind those shops and

3:04 things and there's a salmon ladder which is cool. Um, so that'd be a great place to stop if it's uh during the time period like you mentioned that the salmon would be running uh in the summer and then there is a turnoff there for Married Man's Trail. So we went up the Married Man's Trail and we ended up at

3:20 that lodge. What was the name of that lodge? Cape Fox Lodge. And the good part about it was that they have a pizza place called Eagle's Nest Pizza. And the reason for that is it's way up high because eagle's nests are always way up high. You can get a view of the cruise ships from up there. Yeah. So that was

3:40 great. And we were just going to stop and have a soda, but it smelled so good. We found out it was quite a him hidden gem with really nice pizza. So that might be something that you think about. You know, everybody thinks about going and we're going to talk about what you can get to eat in Ketchukan a little

3:58 later, but this might be something that you might want to try. After pizza, we went back down Married Man's Trail and ended up at kind of the far end of Creek Street um just past that that salmon ladder. And then um we continued up past the boardwalk. I think it was called the Salmon Walk, wasn't it? Mhm. Okay. And

4:19 then um we ended up at that fantastic museum. What was that? Oh, the Totem Heritage Center. So, we went to the Totem Heritage Center. And what we particularly liked about the Totem Heritage Center was that it had really old Yeah. original totem poles that they had saved. Um, some of them were out on

4:40 display and kind of a lobby area and the other ones they had created glass cases for them so you could walk around them. And that was really fascinating to learn the history of those because they never used to allow they didn't really want to preserve the natives didn't want to preserve the it wasn't important to them

4:57 to save those. So that was a way of them telling their story. So as their story changed they would make new totem poles and things like that. So the old one sounds like they were just discarded or they didn't really need to be kept up. And when we came out of that museum, lucky for us, we discovered

5:15 we discovered there's a free shuttle that takes you right back into town. So this shuttle starts at Creek Street or just makes a 20-minute loop. Creek Street and then three museums. One of them is called the Totem Heritage Center that we went to. Another one is the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, which

5:34 we also went to. That was great. And then the third museum that it goes to is the Tongest Historical Museum. And that's one we just ran out of time that we didn't get to go to. But that would be such an easy thing to do. Let's just say you get to town. You don't have a plan. Hop on the bus. It'll take you to

5:52 Creek Street. Walk Creek Street. Then get back on the bus. It'll take you to the Totem Heritage Center. Get back on the bus. It'll take you or shuttle. It takes you back to the next place which was the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center and then the Tongas Historical Museum. And I guess that's one of the

6:10 things when I think about Ketchan, I think about totems because in the heritage of the native people, another super popular thing to do in Ketchacan is to go to the great Alaskan lumberjack show. Yes. And on that one, there's no need to pre-book. you can show up and buy tickets the same day.

6:32 Um, it's a really fun event to go to. Um, it's a it's like a high energy physical experience where you've got uh lumberjack performers. They divide into two teams and these are speed events where they're climbing poles as fast as they can and using chainsaws and saws and log rolling and axe throwing and all

6:51 kinds of crazy stuff. It's great fun and the crowd is going wild. They So, they basically create two teams. the Alaska team and the Canadian team. So you got US versus Canada and people are screaming and rooting on their team and it is just it is a lot of fun. Yeah. So no matter what age I think would really

7:11 enjoy going to that and that one is $45 a person for adults US and for children 3 through 12 it's $23 a person. Our favorite thing to do in Ketchacan of everything is to go to the Bearing Sea Fisherman's Tour. Yes, absolutely. That's that's a fantastic time. You go out on a converted um crab fishing boat.

7:36 This boat was actually on the show Deadliest Catch and um very entertaining, the great crew. They've got all of the equipment that they demonstrate on sending out the crab pots and retrieving them, telling stories. Um they have a live well with all kinds of uh sea creatures in them that they get

7:55 to take out and you get to handle them. It's and it's very scenic. And then one of the highlights of it also is you go by this um piece of land. I don't know if it's an island or what exactly it's connected to, but they have an agreement with the Native Americans there that um they are allowed to feed the bald

8:15 eagles. And the bald eagles know they're coming. And so they all come out and they start throwing fish to them and they're they're swooping in and grabbing the fish and they're getting really close and it's it's amazing. That's so much fun. It's a great tour. So I did call to say, can you like let's just say

8:32 you got off your ship, you didn't have a tour. Could you get on to one of their tours? So what they said to do is call them up and ask if there's any availability on that day. And so I'm going to leave a link to their website in the description below that has their phone number or you can just go to the

8:50 boat. So like this time when our ship docked like you looked down and you saw the top the Bearing Sea Fisherman's Tour. So this one though is something you don't want to miss. So it would be one I personally would pre-book. You can pre-book it directly with the Bearing Sea. There's only one boat. So, we've

9:11 already told you about going to the Eagle's Nest for great pizza. Here's a few other places that you can go for food in town. So, one place we went in the morning was called Jellyfish Donuts, and it is known for their salmon donut. And I know you're all going, "Ew, salmon donut." But they don't like dip it in

9:31 sugar. So, it's basically the doughnut dough and then they put like a cream cheese and salmon smoked salmon spread on it. I liked it. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, it was good. Different. It was good. So, that necessarily wouldn't be a meal, but we had it for like a late a late morning snack and then we went to

9:49 the Eagles Nest for lunch, but our plan originally was to go to the Alaska Fish House or Fish Company, right? Cuz is it the Alaska Fish House? We've been there in the past. Yeah. And it's delicious. It has really good salmon. Yeah. Salmon, fish, and chips are yummy. So good. And then there's also it's called the

10:07 Annabelle's famous keg and chowder house. It's supposed to be delicious with all sorts of different kinds of chowder and you can get like a chowder sampler. So that's on our list for next time that we go. Yum. Your next stop is Juno, Alaska. Did you know that Juno is the only US capital city not

10:29 accessible by a road? So how do you get there? Air or ship? Wow. So, how did they bring supplies in airship? Let's start with the downtown walking tour. So, in the description below and pinned in the comments, I'm going to have a map that has a walking tour. They have good signage all over the place

10:52 telling you how many minutes it takes to walk to the different locations. So, we're going to go just down the list of things that are on that that I think are notable. So the first one is my favorite one and that is the red dog saloon. Woo! It was so much fun. Mhm. So you have to

11:11 We didn't Luckily there wasn't that much of a line, but we did have to wait cuz they they keep track. They don't want it to be over full, right? So we got in we got a seat right at the bar and one of the reasons why we wanted to go was because the bus driver had said that there's the Oh yeah. I don't know if

11:28 this is a tall tale ever, but uh supposedly back in the day, Wyatt Herb um he liked to go to Juno and was playing some cards or whatever and he bet one of his guns as collateral and he lost. So in the red dog supposedly there was one of his guns behind the bar in a case. There was a couple of cases there

11:49 that had guns in it. I don't know which one was his if that's true or not. It was a little dark. Yeah. So this saloon is very old timey. like it's been around and it has like sawdust on the floor and there's lots of tables. They had a musician. They had a band playing. Yeah. Just all kinds of stuff covering all the

12:09 walls. So, um we do really recommend that you go in there. And if you do go in there, sit down and have a pint of beer if that's your thing. Um and hang out a little while because there's something that they do there that we were surprised by. And what's that? So, we're like sitting there, we're getting

12:25 ready to go and then we hear the bell. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And the the bartender comes over. You don't want to leave yet? And I'm like, why not? And they go, cuz somebody just bought a round for the bar. Yeah. For the whole bar. She was coming like, okay, what do you want? Yeah. And I was like, ah, we

12:39 got to go. Oh. But then we went next door to pick up his t-shirt. There's a gift shop. And the bell rang again. I'm like, man, these people, their credit card is hot. So if you got some time, you could go in there and hang out for a little while and sounds like have a few free beers. Yeah, it it was a lot of

12:58 fun. So after you leave the Red Dog Saloon, one place you might go is to the Sea Alaska Heritage Institute and that has lots of native uh art and exhibits and interactive exhibits. Yeah. Walk through an authentic clan house. Mhm. Um you can listen to Tlingit um and other Native American stories, explore

13:20 interactive exhibits, including a great one on fishing technology. Mhm. And then you continue along your way and you can get to the Alaska Capital Building. There's a free free to get in and there's a free like either guided or self-guided tour. And one of the things they have in that building is they do

13:38 have more of the Native American artwork which would be great to look at. Close by is the Juno Douglas City Museum and it focuses on the local history, art, and culture. So, that's another lots of opportunity like to kind of really immerse yourself in the culture and the people of Alaska. Along your walking

14:00 tour, one of the buildings you're going to stop at is the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, and it's from 1894. Yeah. So, it's it's been there a long time. The Russians were there pre gold rush and they were there for the fur trade, right? And you continue on your journey on your walking tour and you're

14:20 going to get to the Alaska State Museum. This museum has basically the history of Alaska, not just the Native American history, but it talks even about like the World War II portion. And that was something that we noticed there too in our different museums that we went to. So, those are a

14:38 walking tour that you can do. But let's just say that doesn't appeal to you and you'd like to do something else. Here are some other ideas. One of them is to take the Mount Robert's tram up Mount Roberts. It goes up 1,800 ft on this tramway and gets to the top where you can get a beautiful view of the cruise

14:59 ships from down below. And up there there's the they have like an 18 minute video that you can watch about the native people of the area. There's also a restaurant and there are walking trails. The one thing I would say is if it is pouring down rain, I guess if you wanted to go up, catch a view. Yeah. I

15:20 mean, if it's raining, there's a good chance it's going to be cloudy. And if the clouds are low, that's going to mess with your view. So that's something to consider for sure. Mhm. When you're going there. So that one I would not pre-book no matter what doing the tram because you it is kind of a weather

15:36 dependent one. The next thing you can do which was super fun was go to the clam clam bake not the clam bake the salmon bake. So there's the gold creek salmon bake. So, this is an all you can eat salmon bake. And the way you get there is so at the bottom of the tram there, that's where like lots of different uh

15:58 there's shuttle buses and tour buses and there's there's a lot of transportation there. And I think the the buses for the Salmon Bake are converted school buses, so they're a little bit easier to spot because it even says Salmon Bake on the side of them, right? So, you just jump on one of the Salmon Bake buses. It

16:15 takes you to the salmon bake and then you pay at the salmon bake for your meal and then it takes you back. And what I thought that was fabulous. Yeah, it was delicious. The food was great. And what was really fun is they had like s'mores if you wanted to make s'mores. They had a a man playing a guitar and singing.

16:36 But my favorite part was a little like a little short very short path up like the side of a creek and they had like a a waterfall there and it was just gorgeous. So that that was it was really actually for me it was it was a hidden gem. I wouldn't have known that it would be as fun and as yummy as it was. So one

16:58 of the main draws in Juno is to get closer to a glacier and that glacier is the Menhal Glacier. Even if you don't have a tour, you can get to the Men Hall glacier. What you do is that same location where you can pick up the bus to go to the salmon bake. You'll also be able to get a shuttle that can take you

17:19 to the Menhal Glacier. And you'll want it's kind of a great way to do it, not with the tour because you'll have more time there. And the reason why you want more time there cuz the shuttle just kind of is on a loop. You have to pay for the shuttle. It's not cheap. It's like $65 per person, but it drops you

17:37 right in front of the visitor center. So, there's a visitor center there that's very good. And then there's a about a mile walk that takes you about a half an hour. It takes you to the Nugget Falls. To me, that's like Yeah, it's amazing. Amazing. So, you're like so close to this just pouring down.

17:59 Yeah. Lots of photo opportunities there. Yeah. It's It's beautiful. It was great. So, I would definitely if that's something that is interesting to you, get the shuttle and get out there to the Menon Hall Glacier. The same company that does the shuttles that goes to the Menhal Glacier, they

18:16 also do whale watching tours. And I called them also to say, you know, can you just get on a whale watching boat the day of? And they said yes, but to give them a call first. So, I'm going to link their information in the description below. And maybe you just have it in your phone. If you get to

18:33 Juno and you're like, I want to go whale watching today, you could go ahead and call and see if they have any availability. Now, if you really want to go whale watching, don't wait till the day. You'll want to pre-book that because it is a super popular thing to do and you can research exactly which

18:50 group that you want to go with if you're going to go whale watching. If you want to get out in nature, something that we did this year that was great is going to the Glacier Gardens. The Glacier Gardens, they're not right in town, so you'd have to take a taxi to get there. Or this is one that we actually did book

19:06 through the cruise line. They they did the Glacier Gardens along with the salmon bake, and it was actually quite a good deal doing it that way. If you didn't pre-book and you just you're in Juno, I don't know what to do, but I'd like to go see nature. This would be a good one. So you go to the glacier

19:22 gardens and you get on a tram, right? And it takes you up 600 ft like on switchbacks. And the whole like reason it started in one of the draws is that they have basically upside down trees that then they decorate beautifully with flowers like the roots are up top. So it's like they've made an upside down

19:44 tree with the roots up top. Then they what they put all the the flowers and they decorate up above those. It's very unique looking. We did go in May, so because it was in May, it was too cold for the flowers. Like they had all the flowers there inside waiting to be planted, but it was it was beautiful

20:02 inside, too. And I just thought the whole narration and being out in nature and then you got a great view from up high at the top of the the top of the hill. So that was a really a fun one to do as well. So, where do you eat when you go to Juno? Well, there's um Dehan Daves. So, Dehan Daves is actually a

20:24 food truck that has like fish tacos that everyone says to go to. So, yeah. And then there's um I believe there's another location of jellyfish donuts there. There is. So, catch a can. If you didn't get one in catch can or you loved it so much you wanted another one, you can get it here. But salmon donut. Mhm.

20:42 The big draw. The big draw, Tracy's Tracy's Crabshack. So, that is the one that everybody goes to is Tracy's Crabshack. Our last stop is Skagway. And Skagway is a gold boom town. And it feels like a movie set, right? It's got a lot of the old original buildings in the town area, and it's just so much fun to walk around

21:06 there and look at all of those. It has like the plank, right? Boardwalk. Plank boardwalk. Mhm. And yeah, and so many of them been uh restored to the buildings. Yes. So, we're going to be going through a walking tour that you can do there and also like the big attractions to do there whether or not you've pre-booked.

21:28 The number one thing to do in Skagway is ride the White Pass Railway, which goes all the way up along a canyon through White Pass. and it goes along where the first part of the journey was with the gold rush miners when they were trying to get to the Yukon gold fields. This is one I would pre-book if you can and

21:48 because you don't want to miss it. If you don't though, you'll most likely be able to get tickets the day of. Just go to the ticket booth which is in you'll see it very clearly marked the White Pass and Yukon Railway building and you can get tickets there. The only trouble might be is you may not get the times

22:06 that you want. So depending upon how long your ship is in port, which it usually is import long in Skagway, no matter what ship you're on, but you'll go there and see if they have any availability and if they have the time that you want. So that is something that you can do. And we definitely recommend

22:24 that you don't miss that when you go to Skagway. There's lots to do in Skagway in addition to that train. So whether or not take the train, you'll have time in port to do like some walking and you can get a free walking tour map which I will put a link in the description below, but

22:42 you can also pick one up at the visitors center. Right. What we did was we downloaded an audio like an audio self like a walking audio tour, right? And we each put an AirPod in an ear and walked and it was really interesting because we got to see things that we wouldn't otherwise have seen, right? It Yeah,

23:02 there was a lot of old buildings and things that pointed out the history behind them, why they were there. It was all really fascinating. Definitely worth it. So, one of the buildings that we went to was the first Presbyterian church. And what was nice is that you just didn't stay on the main road there,

23:18 which has plenty to look at. Lots of shops though. So, and some other buildings that on that main road include that depot where you can get your ticket. Also, the Golden North Hotel, the Arctic Brotherhood, that's the one with the wood, with all the wood, like over like over a thousand individual

23:39 pieces of I think driftwood were applied to the front of that building. really you can't miss it. Like you'll see and you go, "Oh, that's what they were talking about." In addition to being able to purchase an audio tour, they actually have a free audio tour that you can download as well. Something that we

23:55 did this time was also the Days of 98 show, right? So that you can get the day of and tell a little bit about the Days of 98 show. Yeah. So, we gave you a little bit of dramatized history of Skagway and some of the notorious people that lived there and and what they went through in the

24:16 past. I think one of them was what was his name? Soapie. Soapy. Yep. So, that was it's all about Soapie and Soapiey's demise basically. So, but that was great. So, that was a just a fun way to spend the afternoon as well. And then also of course exploring the shops right close to the like really where we walked

24:39 into town was Poland's Creek. So Poland's Creek you will see it's very well labeled. It's not big. It's just a yeah it wasn't far from the train depot. An easy walk over there and depending upon the time of year. So again, if you're there in late summer, early like August, September, they have the salmon

25:00 could be running in that creek as well. So another fun um outdoor stop is the Jewel Gardens. So this is about a 20-minute walk or a short cab ride, and it has an organic garden there with lots of flowers, lots of food that they're growing. And then what I think would be neat to see too is they have a glass

25:23 blowing demonstrations and you can purchase the glass that's being blown there. So all in all, it just seems like another just a unique different thing to do when you're in Skagway that you might not have thought of. Okay. You might be hungry. Yes, you might be hungry after walking around and doing all these

25:41 things. So a few places to eat are the Skagway Fish Company and it has fish and chips. It has crab legs. There's a lot of different things on the menu. Also, you could, if you're thirsty, you could go to the, you know, Skagway Brewing. Yep. And get get yourself a spruce tip beer. So, spruce tip the way back in the

26:03 day, they the gold rush, the miners were getting scurvy, so spruce tip has vitamin C in it, so they'd put it in beer. Yeah, it's kind of unique to that area. Yeah, it was good though. I like the spruce tip beer. Other places to eat, you could go to the station bar and grill and that has good food as well.

26:24 And then if you just want a snack, you can go Oh, get a doughboy. Yum. From the Kong Dike Doughboy. And it's just like a big fried bread. A big fry bed fry. Doughboy in your mouth. From this video, you can see that you do not have to have a booked excursion to have an amazing time in Alaska. And if

26:49 you want to know more about which ship to choose, what other excursions you can go on, and what to pack, watch this playlist next with the ultimate guide of everything you need to know. Alaska, happy sailing. I'm going to keep going. Okay, you keep going. Okay, I'm gonna stay here.