Re-Visiting Ketchikan, Alaska 2019/Carlos Pueblo

Re-Visiting Ketchikan, Alaska 2019/Carlos Pueblo

Ketchikan, Alaska is the first port out of Canadian Coastal Inland Sea

back to the U.S. territory. It has been established way before the

Alaska Gold Rush era back to the Russian fur trade after Tsar Peter the

Great. I always hike through the bank of the Ketchikan Creek to the

park by the hatchery. On my first back to back disembark, I saw a pretty

pink blooming scene on a hill and I decided to take some photos for my

cherry blossom photo collection. It is rhododendron. After that residential

visit, I marched back to the creek and complete my routine.

The residential area is built on a hill and must climb up on wooden stages

and street. I didn’t locate the big pink blooming tree; however, there were

many smaller others with different colors, red, yellow, light blue, and purple,

etc. After a long freezing winter, spring flowers are even more vivid and

beautiful. I also noticed the petunia pots hanging on under the roof or on

the balcony, and many wild flowers, such as dandelions, forget me not the

State flower, and bluebonnet bigger in side that our Texas one, our State

flower. I have been attracted by the rhododendron in many place worldwide

such as Seattle, Victoria, BC, the Great Chateau de Fontainebleau, France, etc.

I has been a treat to visit Ketchikan in the spring to view such wonderful

Scenery, two parks in particular, a small one out of the channel before the creek

and another one larger by the hatchery.

At the end of the creek hike, there is a hatchery and a Totem Museum closed to

each other. I haven’t been inside to either place, yet I do stay at the beautiful

park all the time. The park is surrounded by rhododendron trees and the golden

bell trees with small brook from the peak nearby with tall trees inside the park.

I am interested in the life of the salmon and trout, their coming home from the

Ocean. The hatchery releases their products back to the creek down to the sea

regularly and I think that is similar to the one trout hatchery in California.

Ketchikan is also claimed as the Salmon Capital of the world other than a small

Gold rush town in Alaska. I tried a small piece of preserved can fish and was tastier

than the one fillet at home. The old creek side stores begin with many small gift

shops and small restaurants and usually I finish a quick tour of the area and walk

out of the wood board path up stream toward the hatchery. On my way back to

the cruise ship, I would walk through the new downtown area.