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Misty Fjords National Monument
Visiting Misty Fjords, Alaska

By Betsy Malloy, About.com Guide

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Misty Fjords

Cost: Varies by tour company
Location: 22 air miles from Ketchikan
How Long: You can cruise through Misty Fjords in about three hours, then cruise or fly back out

Misty Fjords, a 2.3-million-acre National Monument near Ketchikan was created by the last great North American glaciers. These ice sheets ground the landscape down to solid rock and left behind an area of mile-high mountains rising straight from the sea. Waterfalls cascade as much as 1,000 feet down 3,000-foot-high cliffs.

Misty Fjords Review

It's common to see bald eagles in Misty Fjords, swooping down grab salmon out of the water, or to see jellyfish moving through the clear, dark-green waters. Mist and clouds often hover over Misty Fjord, the source of its name.

The most famous and popular—places within Misty Fjords National Monument include Rudyerd Bay, where Punchbowl Cove is surrounded by rounded, almost-vertical cliffs and New Eddystone Rock, a 237-foot-tall remnant core of an extinct volcano named by Captain George Vancouver for a lighthouse in England.

Getting to Misty Fjords

Misty Fjords National Monument
Tongass National Forest
Visitor Center: 50 Main Street
Ketchikan, AK
907-228-6220
Misty Fjords and Tongass National Forest website
Misty Fjords is a roadless place, accessible only by boat or viewed from a floatplane. Large cruise ships can't navigate through these narrow, twisting channels of Misty Fjords, but some of the smaller cruise lines who can get in here include American Steamboat Company (which is how I got there) and Cruise West.

Independent travelers can get a flightseeing or small boat tour to Misty Fjords from Ketchikan or other area towns. The more adventurous can kayak Misty Fjords.