Creek Street

The land around Ketchikan Creek is the homeland of the Tlingit people, who fished this salmon stream for generations and knew the site as a summer fish camp long before a town stood here. The Tlingit remain a central part of Ketchikan today, and their clan houses, totem carving, and art are woven through the wider community.

As Ketchikan boomed into a fishing and cannery port in the early twentieth century, flat land was scarce on the steep, rainy hillsides, so builders did what coastal Alaskans often did and built out over the water instead. Houses and businesses went up on pilings driven into the creek bed, linked by a plank walkway, and Creek Street took shape as a street with no cars, only boardwalk.

For decades Creek Street was Ketchikan's red-light district, a row of parlor houses that ran openly through the years when the fishing and logging fleets came to town, and closed by the mid-twentieth century. Local lore holds that this was the one place where, as the old joke goes, both the fish and the fishermen came upstream to spawn. Dolly's House, the home and business of one of the best-known madams, survives as a small museum furnished much as it was.

When the parlor-house era ended, the boardwalk slid into disrepair, then was rescued and restored as a historic district. The old houses were repaired and repainted, and the shops, galleries, and museums that fill them now keep the structures standing over the same creek they were built above a century ago.

Ketchikan Creek runs down out of the rainforest, past the boardwalk, and out to the sea channel, and it is one of the town's living salmon streams. In late summer the creek fills with returning salmon pushing upstream to spawn, sometimes in such numbers that you can watch them holding and darting in the pools directly below the planks.

The salmon draw everything that eats salmon. Bald eagles perch in the trees above the creek and along the pilings, harbor seals nose into the creek mouth to intercept fish, and gulls work the shallows. A small dam and fish ladder upstream let the salmon continue past the developed stretch toward their spawning gravel.

Because the fish return on their own natural clock, the creek changes character through the year, quiet and clear in spring, then crowded and splashing at the height of the run. It is a rare thing to watch a wild salmon migration from a downtown boardwalk.

Ketchikan sits inside the Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rainforest in the United States, and the green wall of hemlock, spruce, and cedar rises immediately behind Creek Street. That rainforest is why the town is so wet and so lush, with moss on every railing and ferns crowding the slopes.

Beyond the eagles and seals drawn by the salmon, the surrounding forest and waterways hold black bears, Sitka black-tailed deer, and a rich seabird and shorebird life along the channel. Whales, including humpbacks, move through the nearby Inside Passage waters in the warmer months.

The Married Man's Trail, a footpath that climbs from Creek Street up into the trees, gives a quick taste of that rainforest, a mossy corridor of boardwalk and dirt that once let discreet visitors slip away from the parlor houses unseen.

Summer is the busy season, when the days are long, the salmon are running, and cruise ships fill the harbor. It is the liveliest and best time to catch the wildlife on the creek, with the trade-off of crowds on the boardwalk at midday.

Spring brings greening rainforest and quieter walkways before the peak visitor season arrives, though the salmon have not yet returned in force.

Fall carries the tail of the salmon run and thinning crowds as the cruise season winds down, with cool, wet, atmospheric days.

Winter is very quiet and very wet, with short daylight and many seasonal shops closed, but the boardwalk and the creek remain, dark and dramatic under the rain.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is a place we chose through independent editorial review, never a paid placement.

Creek Street, in Ketchikan in southeastern Alaska, is a charming and historic boardwalk of colorful wooden buildings built on pilings over Ketchikan Creek, one of the town's most picturesque and storied attractions. This atmospheric wooden walkway, lined with historic structures perched above the creek, was once the town's notorious red-light district in the rough-and-tumble days of old Ketchikan, and today its beautifully preserved buildings house shops, galleries, and small museums along the water. Salmon run up the creek below in season, adding to the charm. A colorful and historic boardwalk, it delights visitors. With its heritage and setting, Creek Street offers a fascinating destination in Alaska.

Creek Street has a colorful history: in the early, rough days of Ketchikan as a booming fishing and frontier town, this boardwalk built over the creek was the town's red-light district, a notorious quarter of the old waterfront. Over time the district faded, and the historic buildings were preserved and repurposed, so today Creek Street shares this frank chapter of frontier history while charming visitors with its restored architecture, shops, and creekside setting. Its storied past is part of its character. Understanding this history adds interest to a visit to Creek Street in Alaska.

You can stroll the historic wooden boardwalk over Ketchikan Creek, browse the shops and galleries in the colorful preserved buildings, visit small museums that tell the area's history, watch for salmon running up the creek in season, and enjoy the picturesque setting. The historic boardwalk, the shops and galleries, the local history, and the creekside charm are the draws, making it a delightful stroll. Watching salmon in the creek below is a seasonal highlight. With its charm and history, Creek Street offers a rewarding experience in Ketchikan, Alaska.

The summer months are the prime time to visit, when Ketchikan is lively with the cruise season, the shops and attractions are open, the weather is mildest, and salmon run up the creek, while the boardwalk can be strolled year-round with more limited services in the off-season. Because many businesses are seasonal, checking current information before you go is wise. For the liveliest scene and salmon runs, aim for summer at Creek Street in Alaska.

Creek Street is in Ketchikan in southeastern Alaska, within reach of the Saxman Totem Park and Potlatch Totem Park with their Native totem poles, Ketchikan's harbor and downtown, and the Inside Passage waters. That makes Creek Street a fascinating stop to combine with the Saxman and Potlatch totem parks and the other attractions of Ketchikan on a visit to Alaska.