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Creek Street Historic DistrictCreek Street Historic District · Photo: Jerzystrzelecki · CC BY 3.0
B−Outdoors
Outdoors in Ketchikan

9% of Ketchikan’s land is conserved: 216 acres

6 acres are parks and preserves, 0.7 per 1,000 residents. 2.4 miles of mapped trail cross Ketchikan, 0.6 per square mile of land. 71% of residents live within a half mile of a park.

Ahead of 54% of U.S. towns · #26 of 41 in Alaska. What drives it

Conserved land
9%
216 acres · of 3.8 sq mi of land
Trails
2.4 mi
0.6 per sq mi of land
Park land
6 ac
0.7 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
71%
of residents within ½ mile
Highest peak
341 ft
Level Mountain
Lakes & rivers
3
4 boat launches

What kind of outdoors town is Ketchikan?

Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.

History along the way12 places on the National Register.
Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Ketchikan have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Ketchikan is ahead of 54% of U.S. towns, #26 of 41 in Alaska. Conserved land holds the grade up; park acres per resident pull it down.

B−
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Ketchikan’s overall grade.
Conserved land9% of the land · typical AK town 15% · U.S. 4%B+Trails0.6 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (2 mi) · AK 0.5 · U.S. 0.4B+Park land0.7 acres of park per 1,000 residents (6 acres) · AK 15 · U.S. 13DParks close to home71% of residents within a half mile of a park · AK 36% · U.S. 72%B
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 54%
LessMore
Alaska towns of 2,500+ (41)Ahead of 38%

Alaska towns conserve more land than most (a typical one, 15%; the U.S., 4%), so Ketchikan’s 9% is ahead of 32% of Alaska towns, while its trails per square mile lead 62% of them.

Water is 22% of Ketchikan’s area (1 of 5 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 7%.

How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B+. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.

PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →

The map

Conserved land, trails & bike routes

Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.

123
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk

Pick a walk

Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Tongass National Forest

Managed by United States Forest Service
68 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

City Park

Park
2 acres0.2 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

Alder Park

Park
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
Directionsto Ketchikan USPS
Who protects it

216 conserved acres

9% of Ketchikan’s land. Water is left out: Ketchikan has 3.8 square miles of land and 1.1 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Ketchikan’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Bureau of Land Management144 ac
U.S. Forest Service68 ac
State natural resources4 ac
Town or city3 ac
National Public Lands · 144 acNational Forest · 68 acState Other or Unknown · 4 acLocal Park · 3 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. Public access isn’t recorded for 1 of 5 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Glennallen Field Office
National Public Lands
Bureau of Land Management144Open
Tongass National Forest
National Forest
U.S. Forest Service68Open
State Patented
State Other or Unknown
State natural resources4Unknown
City Park
Local Park
Town or city3Open
Alder Park
Local Park
Town or city1Open
Things to do

16 places to go in Ketchikan

Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.

Boat launches in Ketchikan
Bar Harbor
Directions
Bar Harbor
Directions
Ramp (Inactive)
Directions
Seaplane Ramp
Directions
Trails & water

3 named trails and 3 lakes & rivers

Named trails
Unpaved · 1.3 mi
Rainbird Trail1.0 mi
Deer Mountain National Recreation Trail0.2 mi
Rosemary Loop0.1 mi
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Fawn LakeScout LakeKetchikan Creek
Biking & sports

0.0 miles of bike routes

Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.

Courts & fields
3Baseball
2Tennis
1Skate park
1Soccer
1Basketball

Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.

History along the way

12 places on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 2 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.

History →
Alaska TotemsSite · listed 1971
About it
Walker-Broderick HouseBuilding · listed 1982
About it
Burkhart-Dibrell HouseBuilding · listed 1982
About it
Ziegler HouseBuilding · listed 1985
About it
First Lutheran ChurchBuilding · listed 1987
About it
Ketchikan Ranger HouseBuilding · listed 1987
About it
Gilmore BuildingBuilding · listed 1989
About it
The StarBuilding · listed 1993
About it
Stedman-Thomas Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1996
About it
Ketchikan Federal BuildingBuilding · listed 2006
About it
Creek Street Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2014
About it
Downtown Ketchikan Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2017
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Ketchikan: June to August

NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)7.79.511.714.116.217.416.915.012.610.38.27.1
High (°F)404144505761656559514440
Rain (in)16.211.811.010.38.77.07.311.314.318.417.116.3

June is the driest month (7.0 in) and August the warmest (highs of 65 °F). 18.4 inches fall in October, the wettest month. The climate in Ketchikan →

Questions about parks and trails in Ketchikan

Where can I hike in Ketchikan?

The longest trail networks: City Park, 0.2 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.

How much of Ketchikan is conserved land?

9% of its land, against a typical 15% for an Alaska town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on Ketchikan’s trails?

Tongass National Forest and City Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Is there public land near Ketchikan?

18,060 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Ketchikan or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 221 of them inside the city line.

How much outdoors does Ketchikan have?

Ahead of 54% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #26 of 41 in Alaska. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

Trail talk

Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Ketchikan neighbors.

Town Square →
Share a tip
Sources

Where this page comes from

Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →