Three large totems greet you in the lobby of this center (fs.usda.gov/r10/tongass/offices/southeast-alaska-discovery-center-0; adult/child $5/free) run by the National Park Service (NPS), while a school of silver salmon suspended from the ceiling leads you toward a slice of re-created temperate rainforest. Upstairs, the exhibit hall features sections on Southeast Alaska’s ecosystems and Alaska Native traditions.
You can even view wildlife here: there’s a spotting scope trained on Deer Mountain for mountain goats, while underwater cameras in Ketchikan Creek let you watch thousands of salmon struggling upstream to spawn.
