Misty Fjords National Monument, Alaska
As its name implies, this is a very misty place. We met the day in the US, at Misty Fjords. High dark-gray granitic walls enveloped us as we entered Rudyerd Bay, and soon were anchored in Punchbowl Cove. Long fog strips floated slowly by, covering the western hemlock-Sitka spruce forest at times. We scanned the beaches in the hope of seeing some small or medium mammal besides all the interesting birds we had seen (gulls, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets, tree swallows, mergansers and Barrow’s goldeneyes). No such luck. But we had a most marvelous consolation: the breath-taking beauty of Misty Fjord! Besides the two common and abundant trees, we could observe a good number of Alaska Yellow cedar trees, one of the most valuable wood trees in North America.
After breakfast we changed our position within Rudyard Bay, and launched (literally!) our kayaks, so that everybody could kayak ahead of our ship, as we followed… This was a very interesting adventure. And at the same time we had Zodiac tours, enjoying the proximity of the rock walls, the streams emptying into the ocean, the narrow passages.
After lunch, we set out again to return to Behm Canal (from which we had strayed), and started our trip around Ketchikan Island, on our way to Petersburg.
As its name implies, this is a very misty place. We met the day in the US, at Misty Fjords. High dark-gray granitic walls enveloped us as we entered Rudyerd Bay, and soon were anchored in Punchbowl Cove. Long fog strips floated slowly by, covering the western hemlock-Sitka spruce forest at times. We scanned the beaches in the hope of seeing some small or medium mammal besides all the interesting birds we had seen (gulls, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets, tree swallows, mergansers and Barrow’s goldeneyes). No such luck. But we had a most marvelous consolation: the breath-taking beauty of Misty Fjord! Besides the two common and abundant trees, we could observe a good number of Alaska Yellow cedar trees, one of the most valuable wood trees in North America.
After breakfast we changed our position within Rudyard Bay, and launched (literally!) our kayaks, so that everybody could kayak ahead of our ship, as we followed… This was a very interesting adventure. And at the same time we had Zodiac tours, enjoying the proximity of the rock walls, the streams emptying into the ocean, the narrow passages.
After lunch, we set out again to return to Behm Canal (from which we had strayed), and started our trip around Ketchikan Island, on our way to Petersburg.
