Misty Fjords - September 7, 2001

To quote travel authority Arthur Frommer's '99 Alaska Cruises and Ports of Call, "Only passengers on small ships will see Misty Fjords close up, as its waterway is too narrow for big ships. Unfortunately this means they will miss one of the least spoiled of all wilderness areas." At 3,600 square miles, this Connecticut-sized chunk of national wilderness is the largest of all preserves. And for those lucky enough to see the inner reaches of Misty Fjords aboard a small ship such as the Seven Seas Navigator, it is one of the most awe inspiring experiences of an Alaska cruise. Beginning near the British Columbia border, the Behm Canal winds around the Eastern side of Revillagigedo Island, becoming increasingly narrower as it heads northward, finally taking a left turn back into the Inside Passage near Ketchikan. Along its 900-foot deep chasm, 3,200-foot tall cliffs soar heavenward, appearing and disappearing into the swirling mists like phantom giants of stone. The dramatic spire of New Eddystone Rock is repeated in the spiky tops of spruce and fir trees which cast stalactite reflections in waters broken only by the ship's wake and the splashes of breaching humpback whales. Bears fish for salmon in the rainbow mists where waterfalls kiss the surface of the fjord, and Pacific loons yodel their mournful ballads of longing and love. In this mystical, supernatural place the world as we know it is no longer with us…