Salmon bake or cannery tour in Ketchikan?

[Mediterranean_Honeymooner]

We were planning on DIYing our day in Ketchikan. We would really like to do a cannery tour but is there one that’s not lumped into an expensive excursion package - just a tour of the cannery?  And while I see plenty of salmon bakes in Skagway and Juneau (which are already jam packed days for us), I see none in Ketchikan the salmon capital.  Am I missing something?

[Katie52]

I am unable to find one either.

[martincath]

If memory serves there were only ever a handful of canneries in Ketchikan itself, as back in the day the cannery would be placed next to a good spawning stream - why waste time on boats looking for fish when you knew they've be literally swimming right past you?  - so they were spread out around the area, with good streams subject to all kinds of skulduggery to keep control of them! The efficiency of netting them at source and dragging them straight inside is what destroyed the industry...

 

It's not cheap to make these old industrial buildings safe for tours so I don't think you'll find any alternatives nearby - maybe you could try contacting the modern canneries and pretend to be a potential investor to see if they'll let you tour a working one;-) The best cannery museum I have ever seen anywhere is actually down here, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery in Steveston Village, Richmond - it's a bit of a schlep on transit from downtown Vancouver but not so bad from airport hotels, so folks doing a one-way cruise might be able to manage it Pre or Post. I find it a step up from the Libby Cannery in George Inlet (where all the packaged tours you're taking about seem to go in Ketchikan), and infinitely better than ISPs free displays in the old cannery that became the core of the cruise port there.

 

Since it's a government-funded national historic site, GoGC has a fantastic amount of material in the exhibits and many very well-clued-in staff to show you around. Excellent value IMO, even if you don't try the (free) 'blind taste test' canned salmon comparison at the end of a tour. We've taken every visitor we've had to see it and they have all loved it, from my family (many of whom fish both professionally and to fill the freezer) to folks who did not have a scooby about the concept. It's even got some pretty good cultural/historic info as there were many Japanese in the village and the actual canning lines were mostly staffed by Chinese immigrants.

 

Salmon bakes I can't help you with - I'm very picky about my salmon so it's pretty much cook it myself or don't eat it at all, the very thought of a mass fish buffet horrifies me;-)

[Mediterranean_Honeymooner]

17 hours ago, martincath said:

If memory serves there were only ever a handful of canneries in Ketchikan itself, as back in the day the cannery would be placed next to a good spawning stream - why waste time on boats looking for fish when you knew they've be literally swimming right past you?  - so they were spread out around the area, with good streams subject to all kinds of skulduggery to keep control of them! The efficiency of netting them at source and dragging them straight inside is what destroyed the industry...

 

It's not cheap to make these old industrial buildings safe for tours so I don't think you'll find any alternatives nearby - maybe you could try contacting the modern canneries and pretend to be a potential investor to see if they'll let you tour a working one;-) The best cannery museum I have ever seen anywhere is actually down here, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery in Steveston Village, Richmond - it's a bit of a schlep on transit from downtown Vancouver but not so bad from airport hotels, so folks doing a one-way cruise might be able to manage it Pre or Post. I find it a step up from the Libby Cannery in George Inlet (where all the packaged tours you're taking about seem to go in Ketchikan), and infinitely better than ISPs free displays in the old cannery that became the core of the cruise port there.

 

Since it's a government-funded national historic site, GoGC has a fantastic amount of material in the exhibits and many very well-clued-in staff to show you around. Excellent value IMO, even if you don't try the (free) 'blind taste test' canned salmon comparison at the end of a tour. We've taken every visitor we've had to see it and they have all loved it, from my family (many of whom fish both professionally and to fill the freezer) to folks who did not have a scooby about the concept. It's even got some pretty good cultural/historic info as there were many Japanese in the village and the actual canning lines were mostly staffed by Chinese immigrants.

 

Salmon bakes I can't help you with - I'm very picky about my salmon so it's pretty much cook it myself or don't eat it at all, the very thought of a mass fish buffet horrifies me;-)

 

I would love to do this, but sadly due to transportation times, we are so limited in time in Vancouver. 😪. We’ve actually been thinking that with how limited our time is, we might book one of those private tour guides to drive us around the city for a couple hours and then take us to port. If we did this, do you have any suggestions for what we should ask to see/hear about?  

[martincath]

2 hours ago, Mediterranean_Honeymooner said:

I would love to do this, but sadly due to transportation times, we are so limited in time in Vancouver. 😪. We’ve actually been thinking that with how limited our time is, we might book one of those private tour guides to drive us around the city for a couple hours and then take us to port. If we did this, do you have any suggestions for what we should ask to see/hear about?  

My own tastes run firstly to "What/where can I eat here that's unique?" so telling you what I would do with a half-day in the city would involve a lot of calories and only incidental sightseeing in-between restos;-)

 

If you're a relatively normal group in terms of the stuff you like to see and do, a Pre-cruise coach tour will do the job for a lot less than a private guide unless your group is big enough that you'd fill your own vehicle. WestCoast (who operate the HOHO, which is better than a regular tour *if* you actually have time to get off at some of the stops!) and LandSea are the biggest local coach touring companies. The latter's Pre-cruise highlights tour especially is pretty solid, covering all the most popular downtown core spots with a hotel pickup (even at airport hotels) and a pier dropoff - which happens  at a sensible time of day, ~2pm, so the queues should be dying off by then (many tours tend to be 9am-1pm, which dumps you at the pier in peak busy time so it's best to just drop your bags then go for lunch before coming back to board).

 

So I'd look over what's included in that tour, plus other tours on the websites and the HOHO stops, and see what jumps out at you - as well as TripAdvisor 'top ten' lists to see if anything else would be more of a 'big hit' for YOU. If you do have the funds to customize a tour and your bodies are still hours ahead of local time - you could be on the road by as early as the guide is willing to show up and hitting the parks (which basically open at dawn - though anything with an entry ticket required is usually a 9am start in Vancouver.

 

Popular places that don't tend to appear on those short tours are the sights outside of the downtown core, e.g. Queen Elizabeth Park is both beautiful in and of itself (the larger quarry garden is almost as good as Butchart, especially around the waterfall) and is also on the highest point in the city with sweeping views across downtown to the mountains and ocean. UBC campus is out on the furthest West point so more great ocean views, with multiple museums and several gardens (you can walk up in the trees on bridges like at Capilano or have a traditional Japanese tea ceremony in a better garden than Butchart's). But these are inefficient to combine with downtown in a short time unless you are passing them anyway (e.g. an airport hotel means you are almost certainly able to drive right past QEP without going out of your way). Likewise with the North Shore attractions - Capilano, Grouse, Lynn Canyon tend to only be on much longer tours or tours that only hit the North Shore.

 

With a shot visit you have to prioritize ruthlessly - what's best for you varies based on the stuff you most enjoy... there's no substitute for your own research I'm afraid!