Misty Fjords Flightseeing: Floatplane Views, Granite Walls and New Eddystone Rock

The floatplane lifts off the water at Ketchikan, banks over the rooftops and the Inside Passage, and within minutes the town has shrunk to a few colored roofs against dark forest. Ahead, the land folds into pale granite walls that plunge straight into the water. Flightseeing over Misty Fjords is a trip for travelers who want to see a vast wilderness from above, in a single outing from Ketchikan.

Is visiting flightseeing over Misty Fjords worth it?

For anyone who wants to understand the scale of Southeast Alaska, it is worth it, and it suits travelers who would never kayak or camp in the monument but still want to see it. The monument covers 2,294,343 acres of the Tongass National Forest, and nearly all of it is designated wilderness. A road cannot reach it, so the air gives you a view that most people never get.

Ketchikan offers plenty to do on the ground: downtown is a National Historic Landmark District, and the town holds the world’s largest collection of standing totem poles. Those are things you walk through.

Flightseeing is the opposite, a way to take in an entire landscape of glacier-carved valleys in one sweep. Most visitors reach the monument by boat or aircraft, and the floatplane is the version that shows you the walls, the lakes and the long inlets from above.

It also fits the character of the place. Ketchikan is nicknamed the Rain Capital of Alaska, and the clouds that give the monument its name hang in the valleys and drift across the peaks. A gray day changes the view rather than ruining it, though the weather decides what you can see, and no one can promise a clear sky.

What to see at flightseeing over Misty Fjords

The granite walls of the fjords

The first thing that strikes you from the air is the sheer stone. The walls of the fjords are near-vertical and often rise 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level, and they continue below the surface for another 1,000 feet. From the window of a small plane you look along the cliffs and down into dark water that seems to have no bottom.

The rock is light-colored granite, about 50 to 70 million years old. Glaciers sculpted it, gouging deep U-shaped troughs that now hold the inlets. Look for the smooth, rounded profile of the valleys, the signature of ice rather than rivers, and for waterfalls that streak the walls after rain.

New Eddystone Rock

New Eddystone Rock is a 237-foot column of basalt standing alone in the middle of Behm Canal. From above, it reads as a dark spike against the water, strikingly different from the pale granite around it, which is why it is easy to pick out among the channels.

It makes a natural landmark for orienting yourself over the canal. The contrast of the dark column, the water around it and the forested shores gives photographers a clean, simple subject, especially when low cloud sits on the hills behind.

Wilderness, forest and water

Beyond the headline sights, the view is of an unbroken wilderness. All but 151,832 acres of the monument are wilderness, and from the air you see how little interrupts the forest, the lakes in their glacial basins and the narrow arms of saltwater that wind between the mountains.

The monument was proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter in December 1978, and the flight shows why such a place was set aside. Keep your eyes on the shorelines, where you may spot wildlife, though sightings are a chance and never a promise.

Hours, tickets and rules

Flightseeing is run by air operators based in Ketchikan, and the monument itself is managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Tongass National Forest.

All but 151,832 acres of the monument are designated wilderness. Visitors can take a floatplane to Misty Fjords from Ketchikan, and most people arrive by boat or aircraft from Ketchikan or Juneau.

How to get to flightseeing over Misty Fjords

The flight starts in Ketchikan, which sits on Revillagigedo Island in southernmost Southeast Alaska, 700 miles northwest of Seattle. The monument lies about 40 miles east of town along the Inside Passage coast, and visitors can take a floatplane to Misty Fjords from Ketchikan.

To reach Ketchikan itself, Ketchikan International Airport has Alaska Airlines nonstop jet service to Seattle, Juneau, Sitka and Wrangell. The Alaska Marine Highway ferry connects Ketchikan with Bellingham, Washington, in thirty-six hours, and with Prince Rupert, British Columbia, in six hours.

Because the monument is so remote, most visitors arrive by boat or aircraft from Ketchikan or Juneau. Flying is one of those two ways, and it puts you over the fjords without a single mile of road.

When to visit flightseeing over Misty Fjords

The sources do not name the months or hours when flights operate, so the best approach is to think about the kind of day you want. Ketchikan is known as the Rain Capital of Alaska, and low cloud and showers are part of the setting. Misty is the point of the name, and soft cloud on the walls can be as memorable as a clear view.

If you are planning around other activities, remember that the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show is performed near Ketchikan Creek between May and September. A flight and a show can share a day in those months, while the rest of the year offers the town’s totem parks, galleries and historic downtown.

Clear weather opens the longest views down the inlets, while cloudy weather gives a moodier picture, with peaks appearing and vanishing. Either way, treat the sky as the deciding factor and stay flexible about which day you fly.

Tips for your visit

Bring a camera with a lens or phone you can use through a window, and keep your hands free for it. The best frames are the cliffs dropping into the water and the dark column of New Eddystone Rock, so have both ready before the plane banks.

Ketchikan rewards the hours around the flight. Downtown is easy to walk, with historic buildings, galleries, shops and locally made goods. The town is home to Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, and the totem poles at Saxman Totem Park, Totem Bight State Park, Potlatch Park and the Totem Heritage Center give a human counterpart to the wilderness you have seen from above.

If you want more time on the water, visitors can also join a wildlife or sightseeing tour from Ketchikan, or book a fishing charter. More adventurous travelers choose an overnight charter or spend days exploring the monument by kayak, a very different way to meet the same cliffs.

Good to know before you go

The monument is a protected wilderness, and the flight is a way to see it without leaving a trace. Weather rules the schedule in a place this wet, so keep the rest of your Ketchikan day loose. If you are flying into Ketchikan from elsewhere in the United States, a REAL ID or a passport is accepted to board domestic flights.