Deer Mountain:     Difficulty: Difficult      Distance: 5 miles      Elevation Gain: 2600 feet

Trail head at the end of Fair Street on the southeast side of town. Moderate hike. Recommended to pack rain gear. Excellent view of the ocean, mountain peaks around, local islands, and the forest. A longer hike to Blue Lake is available, additional 2.0 miles of moderate hiking which will give you a wonderful view of the lake and the local mountain peaks. Wildflowers and wildlife can be seen all along the trail in direction of Blue Lake.

Lower & Upper Silvis Lakes and Mahoney Mountain:     Difficulty: Difficult      Distance: 4-6 miles      Elevation Gain: 3350 feet

Directions: From downtown Ketchikan, 13 miles south on Tongass Hwy until you dead-end into a gravel parking lot with dam-related out buildings.

• 2 miles one-way to Lower Silvis Lake (1.5 hours)
• 3 miles one-way to Upper Silvis Lake (2 hours)
• 6 miles one-way to Mahoney Mountain (6+ hours) 3300 feet elevation gain

Ward Lake Nature Trail:     Difficulty: Easy      Distance: 1.3 mile loop    

Trail head 8.0 miles north of Ketchikan, off Ward Lake Road. Easy hike very popular on flat terrain. Picnic area and campground are available along the trail. Deer, beaver and red squirrel are commonly seen along the trail, as well as migratory birds in early summer in the lake. View of spawning salmon in late summer in Ward Creek; the lake and creek offer good fishing opportunities the entire summer season.

Ward Creek:     Difficulty: Moderate      Distance: 5 miles      Elevation Gain: 100 feet

Locat­ed in the Ton­gass Nation­al For­est, Ward Creek is wide enough to dri­ve a truck down, though no vehi­cles are per­mit­ted, and is pop­u­lar with the locals for walk­ing dogs. Across the road from the Ward Lake Recre­ation Area park­ing lot, trail­head 1 takes you north and fol­lows Ward Creek, which flows out of Con­nell Lake, by the Last Chance camp­ground, and through Ward Lake to even­tu­al­ly meet the ocean in Ward Cove.

Naha River:      Difficulty: Moderate      Distance: 6.5 miles    

Trail head in Naha Bay or northwest end of Heckman Lake, 25 miles north of Ketchikan. Access is via float plane or boat. See local Ketchikan businesses. Easy to moderate hike. Features waterfalls and cascades, a saltwater lagoon offering excellent views of shorebirds and waterfowl, and a nice river offering good fishing for steelhead in spring and fall as well as Dolly Varden and cutthroat trout from spring to fall. There is a picnic shelter available and 2 cabins (fees for cabins) along the trail. Notes: Lots of local anglers use the lower river for fishing, especially on weekends. Solitude hikers can find quiet places in the upper trail part. Distance from Heckman Lake to Jordan Lake via the trail is only 2.0 miles.

Talbot Lake:     Difficulty: Easy      Distance: 1.6 miles       

Trail head off Connell Lake Road, 3 miles east from the start of Ward Lake Rd. Moderate hike on boardwalk and gravel surfaces. Good forest and lake view. The trail ends on private property.

Salmon Walk:     Difficulty: Easy      Distance: 1.75 miles         

In downtown Ketchikan, Trail head begins at the Visitor Center. Easy hike with lots of interests about the pulse of Ketchikan. Salmon viewing, nice stream following the town.

Nob Hill Walk:     Difficulty: Moderate      Distance: 1.5 miles

Trail head in town at Eagle Park on the waterfront. Moderate walk due to lots of steep stairs, plan 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. Interesting history of the town along the way and very nice view of the town on the hilltop.

Minerva Mountain Trail & The Carlanna-Perserverance Traverse:     Difficulty: Difficult      Elevation Gain: 2600 feet

If you are a lover of alpine, stun­ning views, and longer, more chal­leng­ing hikes, then this all-day, one-way moun­tain tra­verse between Car­lan­na Lake and Per­se­ver­ance Lake is the per­fect choice.

Carlana Lake Trail:     Difficulty: Easy      Distance: 3 miles      Elevation Gain: 150 feet

If you are look­ing for a short­ish ​“in-town” trail, this trail begins at the back of a neigh­bor­hood and walks up a ser­vice road to a dam that over­looks a moun­tain-lake scene.

Perseverance Lake:     Difficulty: Easy      Distance: 2.2 miles      Elevation Gain: 450 feet 

Trail head 7 miles north of Ketchikan, off Ward Lake Road. Easy to moderate hike. Good scenery of lake, mountain backdrop and forest with some good fishing opportunities for rainbow trout in spring, summer and fall. Campgrounds are available near the Trailhead.

Whitman Trail:     Difficulty: Easy      Distance: 2 miles      Elevation Gain: 200 feet

This hike offers a nice wide-open space expe­ri­ence and is not very long. Much like hik­ing the access road to Low­er Sil­vis Lake, the Whit­man Trail is anoth­er ser­vice road to two dams that gen­er­ate elec­tric­i­ty for Ketchikan res­i­dents and was recent­ly made avail­able for hik­ing and recre­ation; how­ev­er, no motor­ized vehi­cles are per­mit­ted. Infor­ma­tive signs are post­ed on a fence gate up the road and on both dams.

Connell Lake Trail:     Difficulty: Easy      Elevation Gain: 100 feet

Con­nell Lake is a good choice if you want a trail that is less pop­u­lar but just as close to town as the Per­se­ver­ance trail. The rocky, dirt path gen­tly climbs through the rain­for­est canopy and hugs the shore­line of the lake. On the oth­er side is a nice flat area that the creek bows around, cre­at­ing a small penin­su­la. A fire-pit indi­cates that this is a pre­ferred spot to spend some time or camp.

Coast Guard Beach:     Difficulty: Difficult      Distance: 2 miles       Elevation Gain: 170 feet

The one-mile grav­el trail to Coast Guard Beach winds through Ketchikan Gate­way Bor­ough land and then cross­es into Alas­ka Men­tal Health Trust Land. Most­ly the trail descends to the beach; how­ev­er, a few hills do rise along the way. This beach is a good place for walk­ing, sun­bathing, beach­comb­ing, pho­tog­ra­phy, writ­ing, read­ing, med­i­ta­tion, tai-chi, just sit­ting, marine-life view­ing, and dog swimming.

Dude Mountain:     Difficulty: Difficult      Distance: 3 miles      Elevation Gain: 1500 feet

The dri­ve out to the Dude Moun­tain trail­head is one of the most scenic dri­ves that Ketchikan has to offer. The trail begins wind­ing through lush rain­for­est. The last part is steep and can be mud­dy in wet weath­er or cov­ered in snow in spring and fall.

Lunch Creek Trail:     Difficulty: Difficult      Distance: 10 miles      Elevation Gain: 1300 feet

If you want to get away and don’t have a boat or a plane, this is as far away north one can eas­i­ly get from Ketchikan. The trail ends at the head­wa­ters of Lunch Creek — the shores of Lake Emery Tobin, which is sur­round­ed by a rim of steep moun­tain­sides often capped with snow ridges and peaks.

Lunch Falls Trail:

Leav­ing from the end of Ton­gass High­way, enter the Lunch Creek Trail and very soon take the trail to the left as this steps you quick­ly down to a water­fall view­ing plat­form and then the rest of the way down to where, to the right, you can also cross the Lunch Creek bridge, which pro­vides water­fall views as well as the ocean where the creek flows into.

Rainbird Trail:

Running just above and parallel to Ketchikan’s Third Avenue Bypass, Rainbird Trail is perfect if you only have a couple hours but still want to experience a small piece of Southeast Alaska’s rainforest. The trailhead is only a 20 minute walk from downtown (or a 5 minute drive), and the trail’s southern end—just beyond the top of the metal stairs—offers great views of downtown Ketchikan, the Tongass Narrows, and the neighboring islands beyond. Come on a Thursday in summer and you may catch an evening sailboat race followed by a brilliant sunset. In fact, Rainbird is one of the best locations to watch the sun sink low behind the mountains, illuminating the edges of town and the water in brilliant oranges, reds, pinks, and golds.

The original 0.6-mile trail was renovated as part of the UAS Rainbird Trailhead Improvement project in 2010. This cleaned up the overgrown northern end from the overpass to the UAS–Ketchikan campus, making it more accessible to the community.

Once you ascend the metal stairs on either end of the overpass and up the mountainside, the trail levels out and allows you a leisurely stroll through old growth rainforest. Despite occasional noises drifting up from the town, the forest’s protective cover gives you the sense that you’ve stumbled a true slice of the Alaskan wilderness. Midway through the trail, the forest opens up and you may hear calls from the ravens that occasionally alight on the branches of Sitka spruce. And take some time to enjoy the salmonberries and redcaps that grow on the southernmost and northernmost portions of the trail—they’re a delicious mid-summer treat!

Set­tlers Cove State Recre­ation Site:

Set­tlers Cove State Recre­ation Site offers two of the best sandy beach­es to be found in the Ketchikan area and pro­vides pit toi­lets and shel­tered and unshel­tered pic­nic tables with fire grates. A camp­ground with eight camp­sites is avail­able as well and one pub­lic-use cab­in on the water that can be rented.

Rotary Beach:

Hear shrieks and squeals of excite­ment as kids wade around in tide­pools with their buck­ets find­ing all man­ner of crit­ters – eels, bull­heads, snails, her­mit crabs, sea urchins, sea anemones, starfish, blim­mies (eel type fish), small octo­pus, eel­grass, clams, mol­lusks, and kelps.

Salvage Trail:

The Sal­vage Trail is an out-and-back trail that rolls up and down through the woods, par­al­lel­ing Revil­la Road. The trail is a wide grav­el path where two-to-three peo­ple can walk beside each other.

South Tongass Waterfall:

On one of the run-off creeks from Achilles Moun­tain or Twin Peaks Moun­tain above pours a 100-foot or more water­fall right beside Ton­gass High­way towards the end of the road.

Refuge Cove State Recre­ation Site:

Refuge Cove State Recre­ation Site is a sliv­er of land lin­ing part of an edge of a neigh­bor­hood and is a pop­u­lar beach pic­nick­ing des­ti­na­tion with the locals. The site comes com­plete with pit toi­lets, shel­tered and unshel­tered pic­nic tables with fire grates, and a quar­ter-mile trail accom­pa­nied by inter­pre­tive signs that address the local nat­ur­al history.