Potlatch Totem Park: Milepost 11, Ketchikan

Potlatch Totem Park is privately owned. That is the fact that separates it from every other totem stop in Ketchikan. Totem Bight a mile south is a state park run by Alaska's Department of Natural Resources. Saxman to the south is a village owned by the City of Saxman. The Totem Heritage Center downtown is a city museum. Potlatch, at 9809 Totem Bight Rd on North Tongass Highway, is run by a family. The park's own site names the owners as Pat, Tedi, Kanoe and Ayme. No founding date is published anywhere on it.

Being private changes the visit in two practical ways. First, there is an admission charge. The official site says so in those words, noting that your entry fee supports the park's preservation and expansion, but it never states the amount. Compare that with Totem Bight, where Alaska DNR publishes a $5 per person day-use fee on its official unit fee schedule. Second, the park works the way a family business works. The carving center is a workshop where carvers are actually producing pieces, not a display case, and you are close enough to watch and ask questions.

What physically fills the site is a collection of poles, clan houses and carvings in cedar. The headline object is a 42-foot totem pole honoring Raven. Around it stand Eagle and Thunderbird figures in cedar regalia. The park also serves as a stop on commercial tours, including a motor coach city tour and a combined totem park and Herring Cove run, both of which bring cruise visitors up North Tongass Highway for a scheduled stop.

It is a small place. This is not a state park with trails and interpretive rangers. It is a compact compound of carved work plus the carving shed, walkable in under an hour, at the roadside at milepost 11. If you want context for what you are looking at, our guide to Ketchikan's totem poles explains the carving tradition behind the work on display. For the full spread of carving sites in town, see things to do.

You arrive by road. The park fronts North Tongass Highway at milepost 11, and the address is 9809 Totem Bight Rd, which tells you the shared road identity with the state park a mile south. Tour buses and motor coaches pull in at the entrance, and independent visitors on the borough bus get off near the stop and walk in.

The first thing most visitors head for is the 42-foot Raven pole, the park's stated centerpiece. It is a single large red cedar column carrying Raven imagery from base to top, and standing next to it gives you the scale that photographs never convey. A 42-foot pole is taller than a four-story building laid on its side. Around the grounds you meet Eagle and Thunderbird figures dressed in cedar regalia, the woven and carved ceremonial dress of the region's Native tradition, displayed on carved figures rather than in glass cases.

The carving center is the other reason people come. This is a working shop, meaning carvers are present cutting, adzing and sanding new work while you watch. You can see tools in use, fresh chips on the floor and a piece at whatever stage it happens to be in that week. Because the park is family-run, the distance between visitor and carver is small, and questions are normally answered by the people doing the work. The park describes this as part of its mission, with entry fees supporting preservation and expansion of the collection.

Beyond the two headline features, the grounds hold a scattering of additional poles and carvings, set close enough together that the whole site is a single loop on foot. There are no long trails. It is not a forest walk like Totem Bight State Historical Park, where poles are spaced along a path through the trees down to the water. At Potlatch the density is the point. You move from pole to pole, spend time at the carving shed, and are back at the entrance in well under an hour.

Rain is the normal condition here, not the exception. Ketchikan's climate normals record measurable precipitation on roughly 233 days a year, per NOAA. Bring a rain jacket and shoes with grip, because boardwalk and gravel surfaces get slick. Photographers get their best light when cloud breaks after a shower. For other carved sites to compare, see Saxman Native Village and the Totem Heritage Center.

This is the section where an honest guide has to say the sources are thin, because they are.

The entry fee. The park's own website confirms that a fee exists. It says your entry fee supports the park's preservation and expansion. It never states the amount. No official page publishes a dollar figure, so this guide will not print one. If a third-party site quotes you a price for walk-up admission, that number did not come from the park. The practical move is to treat the fee as a small, unquantified cash-item and expect to pay at the door.

The hours. The official site publishes no hours at all. Aggregator listings report 9am to 5pm daily, but that figure is unconfirmed on any official source. Do not build a tight ship schedule around it.

The season. The park's site does not state a season or any closed days. Cruise-season visitors, arriving between May and September when nearly all of Ketchikan's ship calls happen, are very unlikely to find it closed, but the park does not say this itself. Off-season opening is simply not documented.

How this compares with the neighbors. The contrast is stark, and it matters when you plan. Totem Bight State Historical Park, a mile south at milepost 10, publishes a $5 per person day-use fee on the official Alaska DNR unit fee schedule, and the state lists it as open year-round from 7am to 6pm with free parking. The Totem Heritage Center downtown publishes its hours on the city site, 8am to 5pm daily May through September. Saxman's self-guided admission is set by the City of Saxman, though no official page currently prints the amount either.

What to do instead. Call or email the park before you commit a block of time, using the contact details on potlatchparkalaska.com. Or remove the uncertainty entirely by taking a tour that includes admission as part of the ticket, such as the 2.5-hour city tour with Potlatch Totem Park or the combined Potlatch Totem Park and Herring Cove tour. Both bundle the entry fee into a single published price.

Potlatch Totem Park sits about 11 miles north of downtown Ketchikan on North Tongass Highway. From the downtown cruise berths, you have three real options, and only two of them work.

On foot. No. Eleven miles each way is not a walking errand, and North Tongass Highway has no protected shoulder for most of the distance. Nobody should attempt this.

By bus. Possible, with a caveat. Ketchikan Gateway Borough Transit charges $2.00 per ride for adults 19 to 59, with youth 18 and under and seniors 60 and over at $1.00, and a $5.00 regular day pass if you plan a second trip. Route 10 runs North Tongass Highway past the milepost 10-11 area. The honest caveat is that you need the correct stop and a return pickup, and the transit agency does not publish stop-by-stop guidance for this attraction. Check the current schedule on the borough transit site before relying on it, and allow generous buffer before your ship's all-aboard time. The full picture of buses and shuttles is on our getting around page.

By booked tour. This is what most cruise visitors do, and it is the option that actually removes the risk. The 2.5-hour city tour and Potlatch Totem Park shore excursion runs by motor coach with a driver-guide from the pier and folds admission into the ticket. The Potlatch Totem Park and Herring Cove combination adds the wildlife stop at the road's end for less money. The rainforest sanctuary tour #tour-11 also includes a totem park walk in its 165 minutes.

One more note for berth logistics. All four downtown berths sit along the same waterfront, so your walk to any meeting point is similar. If your ship docks at Ward Cove instead, take the free shuttle to Berth IV downtown first, about 20 minutes each way, and meet your tour from there.

The park's own site states no recommended visit length, so these routings are built from what the site physically contains: a compact collection of poles and carvings plus the carving center, all within a single short walk.

A short ship call. If you have four hours or less in port, Potlatch is still reachable, but only with discipline. Take the 2.5-hour city tour with Potlatch Totem Park or the Herring Cove combination, both designed around cruise timing with a 24-hour cancellation window. That buys you a guided stop at the park, the 42-foot Raven pole and the carving center, plus city highlights, and returns you to the pier with buffer. It skips Creek Street and downtown entirely, so only pick this route if totems outrank boardwalks for you. If downtown wins, see Creek Street instead.

A full day. With six or more hours, ride the $2.00 borough bus or take a morning tour up the highway, then build the day around the milepost 10-11 stretch. Pair Potlatch with Totem Bight a mile south, where a $5 state day-use fee buys a trail through the trees to waterside poles. The two sites in one morning give you the private collection and the state park back to back, which is the best single comparison of carved work available near town. This routing skips Saxman and the Heritage Center, which sit south and downtown respectively.

A second visit. If you have been to Ketchikan before and saw the downtown sites, Potlatch plus the carving center is precisely the right return stop. Skip the city tour. Book the Herring Cove combination for the wildlife angle, or bus up and spend a slow hour talking to the carvers. It skips everything you have already seen downtown, including Dolly's House and the Married Man's Trail.

- The park confirms an entry fee in words but never prints the amount anywhere on its own site, so any price you see online came from a third party, not the park. (Potlatch Park official site) - It is family-run, and the official site names the owners: Pat, Tedi, Kanoe and Ayme. No founding date is published at all.

(Potlatch Park official site) - The commonly repeated opening hours of 9am to 5pm daily come from aggregator listings, not from the park itself, and remain unconfirmed on any official source. (nobody publishes this) - The carving center is a working shop, not a display. You watch carvers producing new work in progress, which is what entry fees help preserve and expand.

(Potlatch Park official site) - The park shares its address road with the state park a mile south, at 9809 Totem Bight Rd versus Totem Bight's milepost 10 location, which confuses drivers and bus riders alike. Give yourself the extra mile. (Alaska DNR)