The previous two reviews of this lovely place are all about the zipline through the canopy. I did not do that -- but rather meandered slowly with a native guide and a small group of fellow tourists through the magnificent sodden rain forest itself.

If you love old-growth forests, ferns, moss, strange berries, sometimes even bears, or suddenly seeing silent eagles overhead -- you will really enjoy your hour in the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary. How often do you get the chance to walk through a rain forest with someone who grew up there and knows everything about it? The forest smells so good, and the energy is so nourishing for the spirit!

This is part of the massive Tongass National Forest, which stretches from Juneau to Ketchikan. We saw all the different types of trees that grow in the rain forest, plus bear dens, nurse logs, fiddle ferns, wildflowers, and trees where bear cubs have left their scratch marks while learning to climb. Our guide said he sees bears in this forest most days.

Emerging from the forest we walked across a grassy marsh next to a salmon stream, beside foothills crammed with trees and low-lying clouds. Wild eagles were perched here and there, resting, or posing, or waiting for a salmon to wander by. One eagle did come and perch quite low near us so that we could all take pictures of him!

At the edge of the forest, a small refuge contains one eagle and one horned owl, saved after being injured by humans, who have become “education birds”, and we had plenty of time to enjoy them. In a nearby workshop we were treated to a visit with a master carver of totem poles, our guide’s father. He worked briefly on his current carving in red cedar, and explained the story of the carving and where it will be placed when finished in a month.

This little tour, relatively inexpensive and easy for people of all ages, was nourishing, thrilling and very informative. What a treat!

The sole purpose of our trip to Alaska was to do the zipline tour in Ketchikan after reading about it on CNN.com.

The Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary zipline caters to the cruise ships and is actually owned by one of the cruise lines, so if you are not on a cruise and want to do this, call a few days ahead of time as they will need to check their schedule to try and fit you in. I called the day before to let them know my intentions and then had to call the next morning to see if they had room for us.

It is expensive ($150 per person) and lasts about 1.5 hours if your group is good and your guides don't need to help anybody. For those that may not be very strong, they can attach a different harness which provides more body support.

It starts w/ your guides (ours were Charles & Chelsea) making you sign the waiver forms and then outfitting you with raingear, harnesses, helmets, and gloves. After a brief background of the equipment, you are driven to the "ground school" platform. A small zipline to provide training, then it's on to the real stuff.

The lead guide always goes first to "catch" you on the other end, basically to inform you if you need to speed up or slow down. Then they attach you to the platform and remove you from the zipline. Once everyone in your group is on the platform, the trail guide comes down. They also radio each other to inform them when they are ready for the next person.

There are 3 rope bridges, with the highest about 120 feet off the ground and 7 ziplines. The longest is about 680 feet long and lasts approximately 22 seconds. We did see a black bear while walking on one of the rope bridges that was searching for salmon in the creek below us.

There was a steady light rain during our tour which added to the alure of the "rainforest" so the pictures are not the best, but you can get an idea of the height of the platofrms and length of the ziplines.

Don't worry about falling as you are attached to the platforms and ziplines at all times by two safety lines.

We had a great time and our guides were informative, interesting, and very nice.

If you are going to be in Ketchikan for a few hours, I highly recommend the 20 minute drive to do this.

My wife and I took a one-week cruise to Alaska onboard the Dawn Princess.

One of our ports of call was Ketchikan. Unfortunately we only had about 4-hours in this port which was just enough time to do one excursion (barely enough time).

The excursion we chose was the "Canopy and Zipline Adventure" which took place in the Rainforest Sanctuary. On this particular tour we took a bus from the cruise dock to the Sanctuary. Once there we were instructed (as a group) on how to put on our zipline harnesses, gloves and safety helmets. Then (in teams of four people) we got into a zippy little device that resembled a golf cart on steroids and were driven for about 5-minutes up a winding path through the woods to the start of our adventure.

On this adventure you are first led up a series of about 70-stairs to the initial platform. WARNING...this tour is not for someone who can't climb stairs or has a heart condition. At the start the entire group gets on a platform. The tour proceeds as your harness is strapped onto these cables and you zip from one platform to another. The platforms are circular and perched high in the trees. As you zip from one platform to another you are sometimes more than 200-feet in the air and going at a speed of up to 40-mph.

It was great! Totally exhillarating! Don't expect to see much in the way of wildlife on this tour because most of the time you're zipping by so fast you can't see much of anything but trees, trees and more trees. Occasionally you'll pass by a meadow (and I did see two bears ambling along...for about one second) but this tour isn't for sightseeing...it's for thrills. You do spend a few minutes on each platform and during that time you can look around from the tops of the trees.

I believe the Sanctuary also has other tours (such as walking tours) if you're more interested in seeing the sights and possible wildlife.

One word of warning. We were extremely lucky in that the weather was AWESOME on this trip. We didn't experience even one day of rain. I've been told, though, that it normally rains a LOT in Ketchikan. So if you go, prepare to get wet even though you'll be wearing a poncho (supplied by the tour company).