We booked a naturalist guide in Ketchikan to show us some off the beaten path nature spots. Ketchikan is an island. There are no highways connecting Ketchikan to the mainland. They have a road that leads out of town north to a dead end and then south to a dead end. We went to the end of the road on the north side outside of town.

We explored the United State’s largest rainforest, the Tongass National Forest. It’s still the beginning of the season, so we were seeing a lot of new growth and buds.

These flowers will form salmonberries soon.

This skunk cabbage is eaten by bears when they come out of hibernation.

We saw a lot of red cedar trees. They are very sturdy and when they eventually die, they form a nice support as a nursery tree for other trees to grow upon.

Here’s an example of a bunch of trees growing on a fallen tree.

There’s moss everwhere!

Our hike eventually leads us to a beach. The tide is out right now, but it is coming in and will cover all of this by the evening.

It’s wild to see beach and barnacles in the foreground and pine trees and mountains in the background.

A grouping of sea stars is called a galaxy.

Our guide told us about a bunch of medicinal uses for things found in nature in Alaska. It is common for people here to treat their ailments with a combo of nature and western medicine. We put the gel from this seaweed on our hands to moisturize them.

We finally found the spruce tips that people were talking about. It has a lot of vitamin C. I chewed one to get the flavor and then spat it out; it was a very strong flavor. Now I understand why everyone gave a “yuck” look when we asked if they had spruce tip ice cream. Supposedly it makes a decent hoppy beer if you like hops.

We found a banana slug.

We headed through town and saw another totem pole.

We shopped around a bit and bought kelp pickles and glacial silt soap before heading back to the boat.

In the Inside Passage, we were expecting a day full of wildlife as the boat goes through a narrow passage on the way to Vancouver. Unfortunately, we didn’t see much wildlife aside form a bird here and there. Fortunately, Mom and I booked a day at the hydropool spa where enjoyed hot tubs and heated ceramic lounge chairs. We enjoyed our last day on the boat and then headed home.

It was a great mother daughter trip!