Misty Fjords National Monument
In the early morning we entered Alaskan waters and made our way into Misty Fjords National Monument. After crossing the border we passed through U.S. Immigration and Customs in a convenient and curious manner as an official from Ketchikan flew in by float plane to meet us in a fjord. When finished with these brief formalities, we gathered on the bow to watch and photograph the float plane’s departure. The pilot gave us a friendly, and very close, Southeast Alaskan fly-by with his plane as it then disappeared down the forested fjord. Around us the precipitous rock walls of Punchbowl Cove rose above forests laced with drifting wisps of clouds. We got underway further into the remote reaches of Rudyard Bay (photo). The steep fjord walls alternated between forested slopes, towering cliffs, and slender, sweeping white waterfalls. Near the head of the fjord we stopped the ship to use our fleet of Zodiacs for closer explorations. In narrow shoreline meadows we found blossoming wildflowers; Indian paintbrush, lupine, buttercups, chocolate lilies and shooting stars.
By midday we were underway again. Rather than returning to the regular route of the Inside Passage the short way, we chose the less traveled “back way,” transiting the Behm Canal to the north and back westward again into Clarence Strait. Along the northern reaches of the Behm Canal, inflow from glacial rivers turned the waters around us a lighter milky green with fine silt called “glacial flour.” White heads of bald eagles dotted the edges of the forest along our way. The higher mountain peaks around us were dappled with the remaining snows of the passing winter. In the late afternoon we were treated to the surprise arrival of a group of Dall’s porpoises careening around the ship. These fast and agile porpoises sport dramatic black and white patterns, and when swimming at high speed they send up a characteristic “rooster tail” of spray as they hit the surface to breathe. They swam along with us for some distance, several of them exuberantly riding on the ship’s bow wave. As evening arrived we entered the broader waters of Clarence Strait, and turned our path again towards the north.
In the early morning we entered Alaskan waters and made our way into Misty Fjords National Monument. After crossing the border we passed through U.S. Immigration and Customs in a convenient and curious manner as an official from Ketchikan flew in by float plane to meet us in a fjord. When finished with these brief formalities, we gathered on the bow to watch and photograph the float plane’s departure. The pilot gave us a friendly, and very close, Southeast Alaskan fly-by with his plane as it then disappeared down the forested fjord. Around us the precipitous rock walls of Punchbowl Cove rose above forests laced with drifting wisps of clouds. We got underway further into the remote reaches of Rudyard Bay (photo). The steep fjord walls alternated between forested slopes, towering cliffs, and slender, sweeping white waterfalls. Near the head of the fjord we stopped the ship to use our fleet of Zodiacs for closer explorations. In narrow shoreline meadows we found blossoming wildflowers; Indian paintbrush, lupine, buttercups, chocolate lilies and shooting stars.
By midday we were underway again. Rather than returning to the regular route of the Inside Passage the short way, we chose the less traveled “back way,” transiting the Behm Canal to the north and back westward again into Clarence Strait. Along the northern reaches of the Behm Canal, inflow from glacial rivers turned the waters around us a lighter milky green with fine silt called “glacial flour.” White heads of bald eagles dotted the edges of the forest along our way. The higher mountain peaks around us were dappled with the remaining snows of the passing winter. In the late afternoon we were treated to the surprise arrival of a group of Dall’s porpoises careening around the ship. These fast and agile porpoises sport dramatic black and white patterns, and when swimming at high speed they send up a characteristic “rooster tail” of spray as they hit the surface to breathe. They swam along with us for some distance, several of them exuberantly riding on the ship’s bow wave. As evening arrived we entered the broader waters of Clarence Strait, and turned our path again towards the north.
