Tongass National Forest: Ketchikan's Backyard Rainforest

This is not a single park with a gate, a visitor center and a parking lot. It is a national forest, a working public land designation, and at roughly 16.7 million acres it is the largest in the United States according to the Forest Service's own description. It wraps around most of the communities of Southeast Alaska, Ketchikan included. When you stand on a trail above town, fly over a fjord or walk under old growth at Herring Cove, you are inside it.

The difference matters for planning. A national park usually has one entrance and one fee. The Tongass has neither. The Forest Service manages it in districts, and the Ketchikan-Misty Fjords Ranger District office sits at 648 Mission Street in downtown Ketchikan. Some parts of the forest charge a day-use fee at a specific site, some charge nothing at all, and some, like the Misty Fjords monument, are reachable only by boat or floatplane.

For a cruise visitor the practical picture is simple. You will not see the forest as one attraction. You will meet it piece by piece. The Deer Mountain Trail climbs into it from the edge of town. The Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary at Herring Cove sits on private land bordering the forest, and its guided walks continue into it. Misty Fjords National Monument, at 2,142,243 acres, is the forest's largest wilderness area and its single most dramatic landscape.

That is why this page reads more like a map than a ticket page. The forest is the container. The individual sites are the content.

Because the forest is a container rather than a single venue, what you see depends entirely on which piece you enter. Here is what each of the main Ketchikan-area pieces puts in front of you, in the order you meet it.

On the Deer Mountain Trail you start at a trailhead off Ketchikan Lakes Road, reached by turning onto Nordstrom Drive. The first stretch is natural tread with boardwalk sections through muskeg near the start. Then the trail climbs hard, gaining about 2,000 feet within the first two miles. The payoff on the lower switchbacks is a view back over Ketchikan and the water. The full trail runs 10.7 miles to Upper Silvis Lake and tops out at 3,350 feet. Most day visitors hike only the first segment.

At Totem Bight State Historical Park, ten miles north on Tongass Highway, you walk a short forest path down to a clearing of standing totem poles, then out to a beach on Tongass Narrows. There is a clan house on site. The forest here is the setting as much as the exhibit.

At the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center on Main Street you get the forest indoors. It is the Forest Service's own Ketchikan visitor center, with exhibits about the rainforest ecosystem and a live underwater camera broadcasting spawning salmon from Ketchikan Creek.

In Misty Fjords National Monument you look straight up. Floatplanes and boats enter through Behm Canal into granite walls rising out of deep water. There are no roads and no facilities. The viewing is from the air or from the water.

At Herring Cove the rainforest sanctuary walks put you under canopy on graded paths, with guides pointing out plants, birds and the occasional bear.

The forest itself has no published hours and no entrance fee. The Forest Service describes it as open-access land, and hours are not applicable forest-wide. Costs appear only at the site level, so here is what each Ketchikan-area site inside or beside the forest publishes.

The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, at 50 Main Street, charges $5.00 per person from May through September, with children 15 and under free with an adult. From October through April admission is free. A local season pass costs $15.00 for the pass-holder plus two others with unlimited entrance May through September. America the Beautiful Interagency Passes are accepted. Hours are 9:00am to 5:00pm, seven days a week, from May 1 through September 30, closed federal holidays.

Totem Bight State Historical Park charges a $5.00 per person day-use fee under the Alaska DNR fee schedule. The park is open year-round, 7:00am to 6:00pm, with free on-site parking.

Misty Fjords National Monument states no entrance fee. Reaching it requires a boat or floatplane, so your real cost is the tour fare.

The Deer Mountain Trail has no fee and no published opening hours.

The Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary is a private preserve bordering the forest. Secondary sources report guided tour rates starting around $99 to $110 for adults, but no official walk-up price was found on the operator's own page during this check. Book through the operator or compare options on Ketchikan tours.

Where a source publishes nothing, this guide says so rather than guessing. Data on this page comes from the Forest Service, Alaska DNR and operator pages.

The four downtown cruise berths run south to north along the Ketchikan waterfront, and your route into the forest depends entirely on which piece you want.

On foot, the closest piece is the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center at 50 Main Street, which is a short walk from the berths and is the Forest Service's own visitor center for the region. The Deer Mountain Trailhead is reachable on foot but requires walking via Ketchikan Lakes Road, about half a mile to the Nordstrom Drive junction, then into the trailhead parking area. It is walkable from a ship but only worth it if you have the legs and the time budget.

By bus, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Transit fixed route costs $2.00 per ride for adults, with youth and seniors at $1.00. The Totem Bight park sits at milepost 10 on North Tongass Highway. The borough bus travels the Tongass Highway corridor, but you should confirm the current stop and schedule directly with transit before relying on it, since this page does not restate a route map.

By booked tour, everything else becomes simple. Misty Fjords is reachable only by floatplane or boat through Behm Canal, so a tour is not optional, it is the only way in. The rainforest sanctuary at Herring Cove and the combined totem and wildlife itineraries all include transport. Compare those on the shore excursions page.

If your ship docks at Ward Cove rather than downtown, ride the free shuttle to Berth IV first, about 20 minutes each way, and start from there. There is no forest entrance to drive to. Choose the site first, then choose the transport.

One line from the source, verbatim, because it is the detail nobody else prints: Not stated at forest level

A short ship call, two to four hours. Take the walk to the Discovery Center, pay the $5.00 admission if it is in season, and watch the salmon camera and exhibits. This buys you the Forest Service's own introduction to the rainforest without leaving downtown. It skips actual forest floor. If you want one outdoor taste instead, the lower section of the Deer Mountain Trail through the muskeg boardwalks is possible, but the trail gains about 2,000 feet in the first two miles, so set a firm turnaround time.

A full day in port. Book a Misty Fjords floatplane flight for the morning, roughly two hours for the flight-only option, or spend the morning at Totem Bight by bus and the afternoon hiking or at Herring Cove. This buys you both scales of the forest, the aerial granite and the ground-level moss. It costs the most and commits you to fixed departure times.

A second visit, or a long independent day. Hike the Deer Mountain Trail properly. The full route runs 10.7 miles to Upper Silvis Lake, which is beyond most cruise schedules, but a determined half-day gets you high enough for the views. This buys real exertion and quiet. It skips the totem parks and the water scenery, so pair it with Creek Street back in town if time allows.

Whatever you pick, remember the forest has no hours. The sites inside it do, and the tours run on ship schedules, not on the forest's.

- The forest has no entrance fee at all, but the Discovery Center inside Ketchikan charges $5.00 from May through September and is free October through April (US Forest Service). - Misty Fjords National Monument, the forest's crown landscape, is administered by the Forest Service as part of the Tongass and its official page states no entrance fee (US Forest Service). - Commercial guides running trips in the forest must hold a USFS special use permit with an approved operating plan and liability insurance, so booking a permitted operator is the rule, not a marketing line (US Forest Service outfitting and guiding page). - The Deer Mountain Trail gains about 2,000 feet in its first two miles, which surprises visitors expecting a gentle forest walk (US Forest Service trailhead page). - No forest-wide hours, admission price or time-needed figure is published anywhere, because the land is open access and the practical rules live at the individual site level (nobody publishes this).