Prince of Wales Island, Alaska: A Week on the Big Island West of Ketchikan

Prince of Wales Island is the large island lying west of Ketchikan across Tongass Narrows. It is part of the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska and sits within the Tongass National Forest region, the forest the US Forest Service calls the nation's largest national forest at roughly 16.7 million acres.

What the official sources in this guide do not state is almost as useful as what they do. No page we checked publishes the island's area, its road mileage, its population or a list of its communities with services. Ketchikan itself is a road-limited community not connected to Alaska's highway system, and the island across the water follows the same pattern: you arrive by water or by air, then you drive once you are there.

Treat this page as the logistics layer. For what to do in town before or after your crossing, see things to do in Ketchikan, and for the wider planning picture see our plan page.

Two ways across exist, and both cost you time.

The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry terminal serving Ketchikan is at 3501 Tongass Avenue, about 2 miles northwest of downtown. Here is the line that matters most for this trip: AMHS does not publish flat fares. Fares vary by route, season, passenger age and vehicle size, and the official instruction is to look yours up through the AMHS Sailing Search and fare tool at dot.alaska.gov/amhs. If you are bringing a vehicle, expect the vehicle size to change the number. There is no figure on any official page we can print for this crossing, so we will not invent one.

Floatplanes are the alternative. Commercial flightseeing and charter operators in the region fly under FAA Part 135 air taxi certificates, the same certificate type used by operators such as Taquan Air, which runs Ketchikan flightseeing routes. A chartered floatplane drop on the island is a booked arrangement with an operator, not a scheduled service, and no schedule or fare for island service is stated on any official source we checked.

If you are arriving by cruise ship, read our cruise port page first. A ferry crossing will not fit inside a port call.

The honest answer is that the island offers what the broader region offers at lower density: Tongass rainforest, water, fishing and space. The Tongass National Forest covers most of Southeast Alaska, and Prince of Wales sits inside that footprint. Anglers should read our fishing page, since salmon runs shape the whole region's calendar. In downtown Ketchikan, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game gives the general viewing window for salmon as May through September, peaking in July and August, and that regional timing is the best available guide for planning.

No official source we checked publishes an inventory of island trailheads, caves, lodges or ferry-served communities, so we will not list any. What we can tell you is what official data tells you about conditions. Ketchikan's 1991-2020 climate normal is 149.54 inches of precipitation a year, with measurable rain on about 232.6 days a year. Pack for that. The weather page has the month-by-month figures.

For a shorter taste of the same landscape that does fit in a port call, Misty Fjords National Monument is the floatplane alternative.

Plan on a week if the island is the point of your trip. A ferry crossing plus a night is the floor, not the plan. Sailing durations and frequencies for the Ketchikan to Prince of Wales routes are not stated on any official page in our research, so check the AMHS schedule tool directly for sailing times and build your days around them.

On money: the fare lookup is the first step, and our Ketchikan costs page covers the rest of the regional picture. Sales tax in the City of Ketchikan runs 8.0% April through September and 5.5% October through March. Alaska has no state sales tax. If you fly, note that Ketchikan's own airport ferry across to Gravina Island costs $6 per adult and $7 per standard vehicle, one way, which gives you a sense of how Alaska prices small crossings.

For comparison, a floatplane tour that stays near Ketchikan, such as the two-hour Misty Fjords floatplane tour, is listed at $389 per person, and a chartered flight onward to the island would be priced separately by the operator.

A cruise call in Ketchikan runs on the ship's clock, not yours. Ships berth downtown at Berths I through IV or at Ward Cove, and the daily schedule PDF lists last-departure times per ship. A ferry to Prince of Wales Island, an afternoon there and a ferry back does not fit inside those windows, and no official source we checked describes any same-day round-trip product that would make it fit.

If you are in port for a single day, spend it well downtown instead. Creek Street is a free public boardwalk, the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center charges $5 per person in the summer season, and the Totem Heritage Center holds 33 original 19th-century poles. Our one day in Ketchikan and two days itineraries cover that mode of travel.

Prince of Wales is the trip you take when you have a week and a vehicle, and it rewards being planned as its own section of an Alaska itinerary rather than an add-on to a cruise.