Tenakee Springs Day Tours & Attractions

Dis­cov­er South­east Alaska’s nat­ur­al won­ders aboard a char­tered sail­boat with Sail­ing Alas­ka. Cus­tomize your pri­vate expe­di­tion with expe­ri­enced cap­tain John Joeright and enjoy all-inclu­sive meals, com­fort­able accom­mo­da­tions, and end­less adven­tures on the 46-foot S/V Sham­rock. Watch whales, hike, fish, vis­it local com­mu­ni­ties, and more — all at your own pace.

“Bear” wit­ness to the largest con­cen­tra­tion of brown bears any­where in the world. Admi­ral­ty and Chichagof Islands are unique­ly acces­si­ble; just a short flight from Juneau, and Wild Coast’s dai­ly small-group trips are sched­uled to work for cruise ship guests and inde­pen­dent trav­el­ers alike. All trips have a net-pos­i­tive impact on the envi­ron­ment by being 125% Carbon-Negative!

Pre­mi­um fish­ing for salmon and hal­ibut on the always calm waters of Tena­kee inlet. Whale watch­ing and bear view­ing. Excel­lent up close wildlife pho­to­graph­ic expe­ri­ences. Cap­tain Tuck Har­ry has over 40 years of expe­ri­ence in the wild. Kayak­ing is also avail­able. Com­plete packages.

Sea View Cot­tage is a turn-key, ful­ly fur­nished, split lev­el rental cab­in (500ft.sq heat­ed liv­ing space) with ful­ly equipped kitchen, potable water, wash­er dry­er, flush toi­let, upstairs bed­room w/​queen size bed (firm). Heat­ing is with an, easy, mod­ern Toyo oil stove and the cab­in has a large cov­ered deck. To sleep four, an addi­tion­al inflat­able queen size Cole­man mat­tress is pro­vide with an elec­tric pump.

TLC Man­age­ment LLC, or Tena­kee Log­ging Com­pa­ny pro­vides selec­tive and sus­tain­ably cut high qual­i­ty tim­ber for builders, luthiers, ship­wrights and artists in SE Alas­ka. And, they cut tim­ber to mill for build­ing projects in Tena­kee Springs. 

No bus­es come by the Tena­kee Bus Stop, just folks look­ing to trade a book or some cloth­ing at the ​“take one, leave one” trad­ing shop. The Bus Stop name is an insider’s joke in this com­mu­ni­ty, where it takes just a few min­utes to walk wher­ev­er you need to go.

This turn-of-the-cen­tu­ry rel­ic harks back to Tenakee’s busier times as a hub for min­ers, log­gers and fish­er­men who hit town for a soak in the springs and a good time. It has served as every­thing from a jail, pool hall, dance hall, senior cen­ter to a bak­ery and art gallery.

Hike through forest­ed paths along the shore­line east or west of Tena­kee Springs. Head­ing west brings you to many beau­ti­ful lit­tle bays. Going east leads you over a pic­turesque sus­pen­sion bridge, then to Can­nery Point and Cof­fee Cove. Even­tu­al­ly you’ll find one of the old log­ging roads, which could lead you all the way to Hoonah!

If you like small-town Inde­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions, you’ll love this one. It’s an all-day cel­e­bra­tion of tasty food and quirky games, fea­tur­ing kids, dogs, floats, flags…and slugs. It begins with a parade of peo­ple walk­ing and rid­ing bikes and four-wheel­ers along Tena­kee Avenue, begin­ning at the fire hall.

The rain­for­est has devoured most of their remains, but a half-dozen can­ner­ies along Tena­kee Inlet fueled its devel­op­ment and growth for near­ly 100 years. Before mod­ern refrig­er­a­tion and icing tech­niques aboard fish­ing boats, can­ner­ies by neces­si­ty were locat­ed close to fish­ing grounds at places like Tena­kee and Pelican.

Small cab­in in down­town Tena­kee locat­ed right around the cor­ner from the Bath­house. A clean, com­fort­able qui­et place to stay offer­ing a king bed, a kitchen to do your own cook­ing: dish­es, pots, uten­sils pro­vid­ed along with cof­fee pot, toast­er, microwave and stove­top. Tow­els and soap are pro­vid­ed for your soak in the bathhouse.

Open for a few hours every day but Mon­day and Fri­day, the pub­lic library in Tena­kee offers Inter­net access, children’s pro­gram­ming and many books and DVDs for check-out. It’s locat­ed con­ve­nient­ly on West Tena­kee Avenue, above the com­mu­ni­ty center.

No vis­it to Tena­kee would be com­plete with­out a long soak in the hot springs, whose heal­ing prop­er­ties drew the Tlin­git peo­ple to this area long ago. The springs, which include a beau­ti­ful­ly-restored bath­house and chang­ing room, are right in the mid­dle of town, across from Tena­kee Springs Market.

This pint-sized cap­sule of local his­to­ry cap­tures many of Tenakee’s for­mer iter­a­tions, includ­ing as a hub for can­nery work­ers, fish­er­man and min­ers. Built in 2017, it’s a tes­ta­ment to the civic pride of cit­i­zens who joined efforts to build it.

Tena­kee Springs Mar­ket opened as Sny­der Mer­can­tile in 1899. Over the years it’s been a main resource for res­i­dents and trav­el­ers. Today it’s con­sid­ered the best store in South­east Alas­ka, car­ry­ing a lit­tle bit of every­thing you’ll find in a large gro­cery, plus top shelf whiskeys, wines and beer from all over the globe.