Walking off at Alaskan ports

[riversights]

We are wondering if Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan are great walkabouts.  Are you willing to share your experience?

[Potstech]

They are great places to walk around and see what is there.

[HaveDogWillTravel]

12 minutes ago, riversights said:

We are wondering if Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan are great walkabouts.  Are you willing to share your experience?

All three have wonderful walks you can take. 

In Skagway there’s a gold rush cemetery with a waterfall just beyond it. About 2.5 miles each way. There’s a city bus that’ll get you closer if you don’t want to walk quite that far. 

[waltd]

As long as you don't have any mobility issues all 3 towns are an easy walk from the ship.

[HaveDogWillTravel]

In Juneau there’s Cope Park about 2 miles each way. And the residential districts you walk through in both Juneau and Skagway are lovely. We really enjoyed the State museum in Juneau as well. And after all that walking stop in at  Devils club brewing co.  

[HaveDogWillTravel]

In Ketchikan we asked how to get to the city bus that takes you out to Totem Bight State Park (a few too many miles for walking). We really enjoyed it and the little museum it had. My DH took all the pictures that day, mine posted here don’t really do it justice. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Here’s a few more ideas from the naturalist on the Island this May when we were last in Alaska. 

Edited June 17, 2019 by HaveDogWillTravel

[HaveDogWillTravel]

However if you have never been to Mendenhall glacier I highly recommend it. You can take a city bus to do it cheaper but the bus makes a lot of stops and doesn’t take you all the way to the visitors center. Also from the visitor center it’s still a bit of a hike to the glacier. We did that 3 years ago so I’m sorry I don’t remember the mileage. If you’re reasonably fit you’ll be fine on all these walks/self guided excursions. I’m 62 a bit overweight and have plantar fasciitis (mostly alleviated with orthotics and great shoes). I do walk 45 minutes a day on a treadmill but other than that I don’t really exercise. So none of this is extreme. There are lots of more extreme excursions on Princess involving bikes and mountains if this seems too tame. 

You’re bound to have a great time no matter what you do!  Alaska is truly beautiful. 

[riversights]

Wow!  Little did we know.  These are splendid suggestions for those of us who like to experience environment rather than the tourist shows (magnets for some).  Every posted gallery photo is much appreciated.  Thanks for sharing your walkabouts.

[Eileen G]

Each town has a walking tour you can gt at the visitors center. In Skagway they even have ranger led tours of some of the historical sights from the Klondike historical National Park. Each town has beautiful flowers and sights of the mountains.

 

whale park in Ketchikan

 

the Rock statue in Kechikan

 

gold rush cemetery in Skagway

 

Ried Falls in Skagway

 

Whale statue in Juneau

[Potstech]

Look up Tom's guide to cruise ports.  He has a lot of good information and maps of the ports.

[riversights]

Thanks for citing Tom's guide.  We'll take that up.  Really appreciate the suggestions and the evocative photos.  Looks like everyone dressed for walkabout weather.😊

[HaveDogWillTravel]

3 hours ago, riversights said:

Wow!  Little did we know.  These are splendid suggestions for those of us who like to experience environment rather than the tourist shows (magnets for some).  Every posted gallery photo is much appreciated.  Thanks for sharing your walkabouts.

We really do prefer to get out of the shopping district as fast as possible.  You will find the locals so incredibly friendly.  In Juneau we were admiring a homeowners landscaping design and got into a lovely discussion on it with them.   He recommended yet another hike "away from the masses" where the locals go.  In Skagway on the walk to and from the cemetery there were multiple homes with young children playing outside (5-8 yo or so). They were so friendly!  Saying HI and asking where we were going.  We found a great natural foods store where we stopped for drinks and a snack, again the locals so friendly.  

 

While we did take the White Pass Railway in Skagway and went to the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau on our first trip 3 years ago (and absolutely loved both and highly recommend both) I really enjoyed this trip with all our walks to local parks and such.  

[hobo1937]

The website experienceketchikan.com has a great walking tour map you can download. 

 

If you walk up to the Juneau City Museum also stop in at the Alaska State Capitol building which is nearby.  It's a beautiful building and you can go inside and do a self guided tour which they do provide a map for. We have also walked up to the Alaska State Museum which has some wonderful displays. Walk up the boardwalk to the end when going into town and you will pass by the Patsy Ann Statue. Yes it's touristy but stop into the Red Dog Saloon. Always a fun place and the food isn't bad. 

[riversights]

By your enthusiasm we know that so much more awaits us than is revealed in a tourist trap.  We look forward to adventuring on Sketchers (or Crocs).  Perhaps our humble expeditions of foot will inspire others.  Maybe we'll have to make Alaska the goal of yet another cruise.  For the moment we are focused on making the most of this 25th Anniversary cruise.  I don't think the Lumberjack show will accomplish this (but for a kid it might).  Thanks again for your contribution, and we hope your own yearnings will be satisfied. 

[joeyancho]

7 hours ago, riversights said:

We are wondering if Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan are great walkabouts.  Are you willing to share your experience?

It is an easy walk to all the jewelry stores you could ever imagine.  

[Thrak]

Okay. Sigh... We are different... Skagway Brewery used to be a great little funky place but it has now moved to a new location and it feels like it could be in "any city anywhere". GAH! It was a wonderful little place. They kept the old location but it's now a gift shop. Bah. I mean really Bah!!!

 

Check out the Klondike Brewery. Small and only around for the last year or so. Better beer. Definitely better beer. If you don't trust me then trust my wife. She's the one who steers me to the local brewpubs. (Ahhhh... A good woman. A good, good woman. 😍) Yes, as you can likely tell, we head for the local brew pubs. We recently (disembarked June 1) completed our 4th trip to Alaska. We started with a 10 day round trip from San Francisco (our first ever cruise) and then did a 13 day connoisseur cruise tour. After that it was a 7 week camping trip to Fairbanks with several weeks in Alaska and then, most recently, a 15 day connoisseur cruise tour where we hit all 4 of the Princess Wilderness Lodges. (Wow. Kenai Wilderness Lodge blows the rest of them out of the water!!!)

 

Soooooo.... In the "regular ports" that Princess visits I've seen the brew pubs in all of them. We've also done the White Pass Railroad which was great, walked all over Ketchican (highly recommended), checked our Mendinhall Glacier (also highly recommended), etc., etc,etc, Heck, have a Duck Fart in Juneau. (It's a drink and it's good. However, if you ask them, "How do you make a Duck Fart" they will likely answer, "Squeeze it!" Trust me, this is not how to make the drink.)

 

My recommendation is to do as much as you can or whatever you can but don't worry about doing it all. If possible you should go back again. And again. And again. If that isn't possible then do what you can while you are there and enjoy the crud out of it and don't worry about "what I couldn't do". If you just do what you can while you are there and enjoy it as much as you can then, even if you never get to return again, you have grabbed the gusto and can enjoy the memories forever. Don't worry about "doing it all". Even if you only get to the local brew pubs it's still a great place to visit and great people with whom to visit while you are there.

[tetleytea]

All things equal (namely the weather), I like walking Ketchikan the best.  It was the most reward per step, walking.  Plus the shopping is the best.  

 

Problem is, the odds of the weather being equal are not high.  That's where I tend to get the crappiest weather.  

[misguy]

In Skagway, it is hard to beat driving into the Yukon Territory, and then do you walking up there.  It is such an amazing place to see, we have done it twice and loved it.  The worlds smallest desert, and one of Canada's most photgrahed lakes are on that drive.

[riversights]

More wisdom from veterans of the journey!  Thank you.  Your descriptions set fire to our imagination.  Soon we'll be piling up memories of our own.  We've taken note that the weather plays tricks.

[mapleleaves]

Every town has a web site to help promote tourism and local vendors.   Most of those sites also have a Visitor Guide you can download.  You'll find maps, places of interest, hikes, activities, etc.   The Ketchican guide provides the walking tour map, and the Skagway site provides info on several hikes nr town,

You'll find the sites in this thread: