Creek Street is a row of wooden buildings on pilings above Ketchikan Creek, connected by a boardwalk that sways slightly underfoot. From the 1880s until Alaska statehood in 1959, it was Ketchikan's official red-light district — at its peak there were more than thirty brothels operating openly along this single stretch. The most famous was Dolly's House, run by one Mary "Dolly" Arthur for nearly fifty years, and now preserved as a small museum. Today the buildings hold galleries, jewellery shops, and cafes, and the whole street has a genuine weathered character that cruise ship souvenir districts usually destroy.
In July and August, look down through the boardwalk gaps at the creek below: sockeye and pink salmon pack the shallows in extraordinary numbers, pushing upstream to spawn. The viewing is free and requires no hiking.