Fri July 18, 2025
Hi Gang! Today we were scenic cruising in the Misty Fjords National Monument area. Misty Fjords National Monument is a wilderness area administered by the US Forest Service as part of the Tongass National Forest. Misty Fjords is about 40 miles east of Ketchikan and comprises 2.3 million acres of Tongass National Forest. All but 150,000 of those acres are designated as wilderness.
The national monument was originally proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter in December 1978. John Muir, the Scottish-American naturalist, author and environmental philosopher, compared the area with Yosemite Valley for its similar geology and glacial morphology. Many of the glacial valleys are near-vertical and often rise 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level, and drop 1,000 feet below it. That’s crazy!
As you know, scenic cruising is kind of like a sea day (you can’t get off the boat!). So we slept in a little and also got a little education. We entered the Misty Fjords area about 9:30 AM and that’s when the commentary from the Naturalist onboard started. So we chilled on our balcony and watched the amazing scenery float by. It started out as a really sunny day but then a little cloud cover rolled in. But no mist so it didn’t live up to its “Misty” name. YAY!
We also went out on the bow on deck 5 to watch the scenery. Those high cliff faces seem to be even higher than 3,000 feet! The naturalist spotted some Orca whales (killer whales) along the shore line but we missed them and didn’t get a pic. (Again, a day late and a dollar short! Lol). They said that Cunard is the only cruise line that sails into Misty Fjord. How cool is that!
Our first main area within Misty Fjord was called Rudyard Bay and the second main area was Punchbowl Cove (Love the name!). Both were spectacular and so isolated from the outside world. Pure peace and harmony with nature! Heck, makes me almost want to start doing yoga and meditation! Not!! Lol
After all the scenic cruising we had to sneak in a little education so we went to the session by the naturalist Dr Rachel Cartwright on the topic called “From Bears to Bigfoot; Life in Alaska’s Forests”.
She started talking about the various trees in the forests which were ones like the Yellow and Red Cedar, Sitka Spruce and Hemlock. The Totem Poles are made from the Western Red Cedar trees. She discussed the 5 different types of salmon in these waters which are Sockeye, Pink, Chum, King and Coho. And how when the salmon die after they spawn, the nutrients from the salmon fertilize the soil which makes the forest so green.
Of course she had to sneak in a little discussion about Bigfoot! The locals call him Kushtaka or Land Otter Man. There is so much wilderness and undiscovered land that Bigfoot may well live in these parts. But again, we didn’t get a picture of him! Lol.
After her session we went to listen to the classical guitarist we saw a few days ago named Tom Gamble. He is really good and wowed the audience with his playing. Even though he used a Classical guitar, he played all different genres, including The Who! Hope to see him again! After that we got ready for dinner. I’ll do another update later tonight. TGIF to all!
PS: It looks like I ran out of space on my blog!! (Or maybe I didn’t pay the bill??). Either way, I may not be able to do anymore updates until I get this fixed. Which may not be until after I get home next week. Sorry! Technical difficulties! Lol
The Wandering Italian 