Ketchikan Misty Fjords tours fly you by floatplane over the monument's granite walls and lakes and back in about two hours. You choose between staying in the air and landing on the water for 20 minutes. Each guarantees you will be back before your ship's all-aboard.
About two hours by floatplane from the Tongass Narrows over Revillagigedo Island into Misty Fjords and past New Eddystone Rock. Window seat, headset narration and an all-aboard guarantee. Refundable up to 24 hours ahead.
From $349 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
A 1.5-hour flight in a DeHavilland Otter or Beaver, with a 20-minute landing on a lake or inlet where you step out onto the floats. Pickup at the cruise docks. Non-refundable once booked.
From $470 per person
Non-refundable: no refund and no changes once booked.
About two hours over Misty Fjords, a window seat and headset narration, with a full refund up to 24 hours ahead.
Check availability from $349Misty Fjords National Monument is 2,142,243 acres of wilderness east of Ketchikan, the largest in the Tongass National Forest. Its western boundary lies 22 miles from town. The Forest Service describes cliffs rising thousands of feet from the water, and the monument is reached by boat or floatplane through Behm Canal.
The Misty Fjords tours here fly. None of them is a Misty Fjords boat tour, and neither is a helicopter tour: each is a floatplane that take off from the water in town and are back in about two hours. One stays in the air the whole way. Another lands on a lake or inlet for 20 minutes.
By air you reach the fjords, circle them and return inside a port day with time to spare. Each flight guarantees in writing that you will not miss your ship's all-aboard.
Each flight guarantees it. You talk to the pilot through a headset and hear the narration as you fly.
From the air the granite walls, the lakes and the islands of Behm Canal read as one landscape. New Eddystone Rock in Behm Canal is a named point on the flight without a landing.
This is the decision, and it comes down to 20 minutes on the water against price and flexibility.
| The flight without a landing | The flight with a water landing | |
|---|---|---|
| Fare | $349 | $470 |
| Time | About two hours in all | About two hours: 1.5 flying, 20 minutes landed |
| On the water | Takeoff and landing in town only | 20 minutes on a lake or inlet, stepping onto the floats |
| Cancellation | Full refund up to 24 hours ahead | Non-refundable once booked |
| Meeting point | Berth 2, by The Rock | Pickup at the downtown cruise docks |
| Traveller rating | 4.4 from 294 reviews | 4.9 from 54 reviews |
If your plans could still change, book the refundable flight. If you are sure of the day and want to stand on a float in the middle of the monument, the landing is worth the extra $121.
Book early and keep a spare port day in mind if you have one. The flight without a landing asks every passenger's name and weight at booking, with a 300-pound maximum. Its morning flights leave between 7am and noon, and afternoon ones between noon and 7pm. Every Misty Fjords flight confirms within 48 hours.
For the landing, you walk down a ramp to the dock, which can be steep at some tides, and climb a ladder into the plane. The pickup is at the downtown docks 30 minutes before you fly.
Cloud is part of the view here: Ketchikan averages 149.54 inches of rain a year. The Ketchikan weather page has the drier months.
If you have back problems or are pregnant, the flight without a landing is not recommended, and neither flight is wheelchair accessible. If you cannot walk a steep ramp or climb a ladder, skip the landing. If you want bears as well as flying, the floatplane to Prince of Wales Island is on Ketchikan seaplane tours. And if you would rather be on the water than above it, a whale boat covers the Narrows for about half the fare.
A 1.5-hour flight and 20 minutes on a lake or inlet, stepping out onto the floats. Pickup at the cruise docks.
Check availability from $470Next: why the flights are worth the fare on floatplane or whale boat, and the Monument's figures on Ketchikan facts. Every tour sits side by side on Ketchikan Alaska Tours.