Ketchikan, Alaska (& Misty Fjords) 2025

     After a day sailing through the inside passage we arrived in the morning of June 10 at Ketchikan.  A city of just over 8,000 located on an island in the inside passage Ketchikan is a very popular cruise port (we were one of five cruise ships in port this day).  It was incorporated in 1900 as the first city in Alaska and is currently the sixth largest.  Displaying many totem poles, old and relatively new, it was once a summer fishing camp of the Tlingit people and was known for its thriving salmon canning industry beginning in the late 19th century.  As our ship approached the city there was beautiful scenery and a number of houses isolated in the forest by the water, which must be a picturesque place to live.

     We have visited Ketchikan before and spent a day exploring this interesting town on foot:

https://baderjournal.com/2017/08/16/ketchikan-alaska/ 

So this time we signed up for an excursion to Misty Fjords National Monument about 40 miles away.  Many people visit there by float plane but we did it by boat, a longer trip but quite enjoyable on a clear sunny day like we had.  Leaving the ship we had to walk along the waterfront past a couple of other cruise ships to reach our cruise boat.  In this area is an iconic arch welcoming visitors to Ketchikan, a sculpture of a bald eagle in flight called “Thundering Wings” carved in cedar by renowned totem sculptor Nathan Jackson, and a set of bronze sculptures called “The Rock” representing historic groups of residents of Ketchikan: a miner, a bush pilot, a fisherman, a native drummer, a logger, a frontierswoman and (on top) a Tlingit named Chief Johnson.

     Misty Fjords is an area of more than 2 million acres in the Tongass National Forest that has been a protected National Monument since 1978.  It was covered by ice for millennia and the receding glaciers carved long and deep fjords in the rock that today are filled with water and bordered by tall cliffs.  The first European expedition to visit here, in 1793, was captained by George Vancouver who originated the current names used in this region.  After leaving Ketchikan our boat sailed up the Behm Canal (actually a natural fjord rather than a man made canal) toward Misty Fjords, just as Captain Vancouver did.

     This area has an abundance of wildlife, although we only saw a few.  We saw whales spouting.  Photographing whales is difficult because they mostly stay under water so you have to watch for them to spout.

     We also saw a bald eagle on the rocky shore eating a fish it had dragged out of the water.  This is, apparently, not a common sight since our boat captain later came out of the bridge to tell us that he had never seen anything like this before.

     We sailed past New Eddystone Rock, a narrow rock more than 200 feet tall that is a remnant of the top of a volcano that erupted some 15.000 years ago. The base of the volcano extends more than 800 feet to the bottom under the water for a total height of about 1,000 feet.  The tide here varies by about 20 feet and at low tide there is a sandy beach surrounding the rock (and we were told that this is a popular wedding spot when the tide is low).  Captain Vancouver and his men stopped on this beach for a picnic breakfast on August 9, 1793.  He named it for a lighthouse near Plymouth, England, that he thought it resembled.

     Eventually we reached Misty Fjords itself, an area with high cliffs up to about 2,000 feet tall, water depth around 1,000 feet and numerous waterfalls running down from the top of the cliffs.  We don’t know why this is called Misty Fjords.  Perhaps on days with cloud cover and/or rain showers there is a mist that envelops the cliffs and mountains.  But our day here was beautifully clear and sunny and there was no mist in evidence at all.  That is not a complaint, just an observation, and we will take a beautiful day like this every time.  Because the trip to Misty Fjords and back to the ship was so long we only had about 45 minutes in the Monument itself, but it was well worth seeing.

     Returning to the ship, we sailed away around 5:00.  We had another long day to look forward to as we retired for the night, so we will leave you here to look at some towel animals.