Alaska's regions

Southeast Alaska -- The Inside Passage

Panhandle is a happy mixture of land, water and heritage

Alaska.com

About half of the tourists who come to Alaska arrive or depart on cruise ships that make their way through the islands of the Inside Passage to Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway and other destinations.

	The waterfront at Ketchikan. John Hyde / Southeast Alaska Tourism Council

The Tongass National Forest, America's northernmost rain forest, is the dominant feature, bringing under federal control much of the region's mainland and islands.

The Tongass, while logged in places, protects wilderness and is used for recreation.

Two parts of the forest are preserved as national monuments: Misty Fjords and Admiralty Island; land in those areas and elsewhere is designated wilderness.

National parks of the Inside Passage
Southeast has two big national parks, Glacier Bay and Yakutat-area Wrangell-St. Elias (which is so big that it spreads into the Southcentral region). These parks, at the uppermost part of Southeast, join with Canada's Kluane National Park to form a World Heritage Site.

There are also two smaller national historical parks in Southeast Alaska: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway and Sitka National Historical Park in Alaska's first capital city.

Inside Passage attractions
Outdoor activities -- wildlife viewing, kayaking, glacier watching, hiking and birding -- can be part of any trip to Southeast Alaska.

In addition, there are museums elaborating on Alaska's mixture of Native, European and Asian heritages; don't miss the totem poles, dancers or Alaska State Museum.

Cities, towns and villages of the Inside Passage
Here's a quick tour of Southeast Alaska, moving from south to north.

• Metlakatla (1,421 residents) has Alaska's only Indian reservation.
• Ketchikan (7,845) plays up its boisterous history of timber, gold and fishing.
• Craig (1,227) is a fishing and timber town, but many people like it for its kayaking possibilities and access to the many caves on Prince of Wales Island, the country's third largest island.
• Hyder, (89) where bears dine in Fish Creek, is accessible through British Columbia.
• Wrangell (2,144) features petroglyphs and access to the Stikine River and to Anan Creek's salmon-eating black bears.
• Petersburg, (3,146) a fishing town, enjoys its Scandinavian heritage.
• Sitka, (8,894) the only Southeast town facing the Gulf of Alaska, has Sitka National Historical Park to remember its Native and Russian background, and lots of whales near shore.
• Juneau (30,981) has a mountain tram, a salmon hatchery, the state museum and the governor's mansion.
• Hoonah (868) is the main home of the Huna, a Tlingit tribe that has lived in the Glacier Bay/Icy Strait area since prehistory.
• Haines (1,714) has Fort William H. Seward, dancers, the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, and a road that connects with the Alaska Highway.
• Skagway (841) was the debarkation point for stampeders heading over Chilkoot Pass in the Klondike gold rush of 1897-98. A great deal of town is now part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.
• Gustavus (421) is the front door to Glacier Bay National Park. Watch for bears and whales on your way to the glaciers.
• Yakutat, (724) where steelhead trout and salmon fill the streams, is on the way to Hubbard Glacier in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Water and wildlife
Kayakers love the Inside Passage for its islands and coves. Anglers love the fishing -- the trout, the halibut and especially the big runs of salmon, which at one time allowed Ketchikan to boast that it was the salmon capital of the world.

Whales, especially humpbacks, thrive in the lush, cold waters of Southeast. Whale-watching tours are available in many towns, and scientists come from around the world to study cetaceans near Petersburg and Sitka. This is an area full of wildlife.