Ketchikan, AK-2018

[SWharton]

Has anyone been to Ketchikan? I read in Days End that the roads are narrow and not suited for a big rig. We have a 37' MH + toad.

Also, assuming we stop, is Ketchikan worth a stop of a few days. Can anyone recommend a cg, boondocking is fine.

Thanks

[mptjelgin]

You can't drive to Ketchikan. It is accessible only by ferry or air.  We stopped there for a day on our UnCruise this past summer. I recall that the single main road (Tongass Highway) runs out of town a few miles in each direction to dead ends. We did a day hike in some beautiful forest, but the town itself is relatively small. Quite a few excursion type trips are run out of there to Misty Fiords and other areas, but we found that the town itself had little to offer. 

 

[SWharton]

We are planning to take the AK Ferry from Prince Rupert to Juneau and northwards. We were thinking about getting off at Ketchikan to see Misty Fiords but after reading the narrow road warning in Days End are having second thoughts. We are now thinking of going from Prince Rupert to Juneau and a day flight/boat trip to Glacier Bay. We have cats so can't leave the rig for too long.

[Al F]

About the narrow and steep roads in Ketchikan.  Are you referring to the Days End listing in the quote below?

Quote

AK, KETCHIKAN: NOTES - Not reported as O/N locations. 1) Vehicle access to Ketchikan is via AMHS ferry. The town is built into a steep hillside & all rds both in & out of town are narrow & steep w/ tight curves. Ketchikan is not lg-rig friendly, best for sm-med rig only. Brian & Kitty Benzar #108579 Jun 15.

I took a look at the highways going N from Ketchikan with Google Earth and I am unable to find any narrow roads or anything that looks steep or with sharp turns that would cause a 37' MH problems.  Using the "street level" feature in Google Earth and viewing several 360 degree photos of the hwy, it looks just like any normal US or State hwy in the lower 48. Even Revilla Rd to the end of the pavement looks fine.  Even the start of gravel part at the end of Revilla Rd looks good. Street Level view ends where the pavement ends. There is even a paved road to Ward Lake near the end of the paved part of Reilla Rd.  There is even 2-3 feet of paved shoulder on the hwy. 

When you have a chance, look at the road on Google Earth and see what you think. 

I have not been to Ketchikan so I can give a first person assessment.  I almost always use Google Earth to actually view the roads I have any question to decide for myself if I want to drive on them.  What roads some consider narrow and steep, others may find just fine. 

[SWharton]

Yes, that is the reference that I saw.

Thanks Al. I am not a lover of Google Earth. It always seems to do its own thing and I have no control. I'll try it again but get very frustrated by it.

[Al F]

Yea, there are a lot of things about GE I have not figured out. However I find it indispensable for checking road conditions, campgrounds and some times even viewing an individual campsite with Street Level View.  

If you haven't used Street Level View, look along the upper half of the screen on the right hand side and look for a little man.  When you click and hold the little man the roads which have Street View available turn blue.  Drag the man to the place on the road you want view and drop him there.  Sometimes the blue line is very dim.  Another one of the quirks of GE. 

Another quirk, at least on my laptop and windows 10, is when I back out of street view, I have to use a two step process. While viewing street view I first click on the little box in the upper left corner with the little blue man, and then on the box "exit ground level view".  If I try to just click on "exit street view" things get messed up.   Well, I just tested the back out process and it worked fine for 5 tries.  So maybe the problem has been fixed. 

If you have a very slow internet connection GE doesn't work well. 

And I have had other problems with GE which cause me to close and restart GE sometimes. 

However I find GE works so great for assessing roads and places to stay I just live with the problems.  When I am researching places to go, even RV parks to stay at, I will use GE 5-20 times during my research. Especially looking at roads.  I will scroll along the road for several miles looking at the conditions.   

Note: Some of the satellite views and street level views are several years old. 

[SWharton]

That helped a lot. I would drill down and GE would start going at an angle then become unviewable, just when it was getting to the right level. I just want it to drill down. I had heard about Street View but it wasn't under VIEW so I gave up on it.

That helps a lot.

I agree, I don't understand why that comment is in Days End. The roads look fine,...........

 

[Al F]

47 minutes ago, SWharton said:

..........I agree, I don't understand why that comment is in Days End. The roads look fine,...........

 

The road looks fine to me as well.  It is a 2 lane road.  At least going north in places it has cliffs on the shore side and woods or slopes off pretty good on the water side. No place to stop or pull off.  Some of the curves you probably cannot see around to see if some one is stopped. 

I see lots of statement or comments about roads that people are very concerned about driving on.  A lot of the time I don't agree with the assessment, however when driving in the road I see the conditions which cause the concern.  Almost always I find that slow and cautious driving negates most of the issues.  

[SurfPine]

It's been about 4 years since I went to Ketchikan, was there on business, but was able to dig up a photo I took from my hotel room of the downtown area that shows the road going through it.  It's not the greatest perspective, but might give an idea.  I would think you'd be OK driving there but a big concern would probably be parking.

I arrived via a plane, rented a car that was attached to the airport and then had to take the fairy from the airport to Ketchikan proper.  As noted, there is not a lot of driving to do on Ketchikan and IIRC, about 10 miles in either direction from downtown area.