Ketchikan is so quaint and beautiful! After The Great American Lumberjack Show we walked around a little while and then walked to meet up with the Saxman Village Tour that we had booked through Shore Excursions. Again it was super easy to walk to where the tour buses were located. 
We instantly liked our tour guide! Before heading to the Saxman Village we stopped several places. I gathered these were the wildlife extension. Our first stop was a beautiful rushing stream. We had heard that the salmon run is incredible! We were there just a little late in the summer to see salmon so thick that it looks like a river of fish, but there were a few here and there.
Then we stopped to see an eagles nest. There it was up in the tree. I was amazed at how big the nest was even from very far away, but I didn’t see any eagles.
The surrounding scenery, however was gorgeous. I’m from Texas y’all. I could live on the beautiful scenery for a long time!
Then we went to where the locals reportedly go to see bears. There were no bears, but there were plenty of birds! We enjoyed ourselves immensely. I just thought the lack of “wildlife” was a bit humorous. Of course there was no guarantee!
Next we headed to the Saxman Village, the world’s largest collection of Totem poles! The village was established in 1894.
Our tour guide was a real trouper in the pouring rain telling us all about totem poles and explaining details about different ones. The explanations were our introduction to the Tlinget people.
I very much recommend a tour of Saxman Village. Jason and I both talked about how if we had gone on our own to see the village we would have walked around a little bit and thought, “Yep there are the totem poles.” But the tour guide gave so much interesting history on the village, the Tlinget people, and on the individual poles that even in the rain we found it fascinating.
Our tour ended back in town and included tickets to Dolly’s house. While we wouldn’t have gone out of our way to purchase the tickets, we thought we would take the tour thinking it was probably filled with interesting antiques. Well we walked in and then walked back out. If you’re looking for family friendly we recommend skipping Dolly’s house though I’m sure people of all ages are allowed in.
And that was the end of our tour. After that we walked around a little while and then boarded our cruise to eat a late lunch. It was our first Alaskan town to visit, and we were sold. Alaska is gorgeous!
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