Alaska Itinerary: Misty Fjords National Monument in 7 Nights

The charter begins in Ketchikan, the southernmost major city in Alaska — sometimes called the salmon capital of the world for the volume of the working commercial fishery, and the first port-of-call on most cruise ships' Inside Passage routes. Crew meet the group at Bar Harbor Marina or Thomas Basin depending on which dock the yacht is on, with hot drinks and the chart briefing once luggage is aboard. The town's grocery and provisioning runs the strongest in southern southeast Alaska; the chef typically does a final-day produce run before guests board.

The opening leg is short by design. Lines off mid-afternoon for a thirty-nautical-mile run north up Behm Canal — the 110-mile waterway that encircles Revillagigedo Island and forms the western boundary of Misty Fjords National Monument. The route stays inside protected water; the captain reads for the working-harbor cruise-ship traffic out of Ketchikan in the first ten miles, then the canal opens and the rest of the run is the open central Behm. Bell Island sits on the western side of the canal with a protected anchorage and a private fly-fishing lodge that has been operating since 1925.

First night at anchor at Bell Island or in one of the smaller western Behm coves. Dinner aboard. The northern twilight runs late — the sun sets after 9pm at solstice — and the bridge crew typically uses the opening evening to walk the chart for the next day's entry into the monument proper.

Lines off mid-morning from Bell Island for the thirty-nautical-mile run east-northeast into the western entrance of Rudyerd Bay. The route crosses Behm Canal's wider central section, passes the New Eddystone Rock (a 240-foot basalt column rising out of the canal — the remnant of an ancient volcanic plug, named by Captain George Vancouver in 1793 after a lighthouse in England), and turns east into the bay's mouth. Past the entrance the geography shifts immediately: the cliff walls climb a thousand feet straight from the waterline, the hanging-valley waterfalls open off the upper rim, and the canal traffic disappears.

Rudyerd Bay runs about thirteen nautical miles east-southeast into the heart of the monument. The route is slow by design — the captain idles the yacht through the bay's central run, reading the walls and the waterfalls as the day's main work. The bay's southern shore carries the densest waterfall run on the route — six or seven significant cascades from the upper rim, plus a dozen smaller ones, in the span of a few miles. The bay's water is clear cold green; the bottom drops to seven hundred feet in the central channel, and the shoreline-to-keel-depth transition is steep enough that the chart sounds zero shallow water along most of the run.

The yacht anchors in the inner basin at the head of the bay — protected on all sides by the cliff walls, deep enough for the yacht to swing on a long rode, and quiet enough that the saloon picks up the waterfall's white noise from a half-mile off. Tender out for a slow run along the southern shore to read the waterfalls at deck-level. Dinner aboard at anchor. Most weeks the inner basin holds the yacht and no other vessel.

Short hop today — fifteen nautical miles south-southeast from the head of Rudyerd Bay around the corner into Punchbowl Cove, the trip's marquee anchorage. The cove sits at the head of a side branch off the southern arm of Rudyerd; the entrance is narrow enough that a yacht running it for the first time slows to read the chart and reads the walls more than the depth sounder. Past the entrance the cove opens into a circular basin a half-mile across, with the cliff walls closing in over the cove so completely that the sky is a slot above the masthead at midday.

The afternoon is built around the cove. Kayaks down from the swim platform; the basin's water is calm enough that a two-hour paddle along the walls is the day's main work. The kayaks run the shoreline-to-wall transitions at close range — the perspective from the water reads the scale of the basin the way the deck of the yacht doesn't. A trail runs up the eastern wall from a beach landing on the cove's eastern shore to a small lake above the cove; the climb is a two-hour round trip and is well-maintained by the Forest Service for floatplane day-tour visitors. Most yachts skip the trail unless the group has a strong hiker contingent — the cove itself is the day's program.

Overnight at anchor in the basin. The northern twilight runs longer here than the open canal because the cliff walls hold the light against the rim; the saloon evening reads the basin in the long light until past 11pm at solstice. Dinner aboard. The cove is most weeks empty of other yachts overnight — Punchbowl is a known anchorage but the access pattern (no road, no scheduled boat service, only the floatplane day-trippers and the occasional charter yacht) keeps the traffic light.

Lines off mid-morning from Punchbowl for the twenty-five-nautical-mile run north up Behm Canal toward Walker Cove. The route stays in the inner Behm — the canal's eastern shore carries the densest hanging-valley waterfall run on the canal proper, with smaller-scale cascades than Rudyerd Bay's but at closer range to the yacht's deck. The captain runs the yacht slow through the strongest waterfall section; lunch on board at slow drift.

Walker Cove sits on the eastern side of the canal at the canal's northern half — a smaller-scale marquee anchorage than Punchbowl, with the same hanging-valley geography and cliff-wall closing-in. The cove's entrance is wider than Punchbowl's; the inner basin is shallower and the holding ground is muddier. Most weeks the cove holds the yacht and no other vessel — Walker is far enough from the floatplane day-tour radius out of Ketchikan that the access pattern keeps it quieter than Punchbowl.

The afternoon runs the cove the same way Punchbowl did — kayaks down, tender ashore for a short walk on the beach landing, lunch and dinner aboard at anchor. The northern twilight stretches the saloon evening past midnight at solstice; the cove holds the light against the walls in the same way Punchbowl does. Overnight at anchor; the cove is sheltered enough that the rode runs short and the yacht swings inside the basin.

Lines off mid-morning from Walker Cove for the fifty-five-nautical-mile run south down Behm Canal and out into Bradfield Canal to the Anan Creek anchorage. The route's longest single passage, and the day the geological-density week shifts to wildlife-density for the marquee bear stop. The route passes the southern entrance to Misty Fjords on the way out — a last look at the monument's geography from the canal before the yacht turns east into Bradfield.

Anan Creek's bear-viewing area sits a half-mile inland from the anchorage at the head of Anan Bay on the eastern shore of Bradfield Canal. The site is permit-controlled — the Forest Service caps visits at sixty people per day during the run, and the captain books the permit slot a year ahead for the dates the trip is built around. The yacht anchors in the bay a few hundred meters off the creek mouth; the tender lands at the beach, and a Forest Service guide meets the group at the trailhead for the boardwalked walk to the viewing platform.

The platform sits above the falls where the pink-salmon run stacks the fish. Both brown and black bears feed at the falls — Anan is one of the few places in southeast Alaska where the two species share a salmon stream — and the Forest Service guides explain the species' feeding patterns and the platform's distance rules through the visit. The pink run is at its peak from mid-July through mid-August. Back to the yacht for lunch and the afternoon at anchor; dinner aboard. Overnight at anchor in the bay.

Lines off mid-morning from Anan for the forty-five-nautical-mile run south-southwest down Clarence Strait toward the Cleveland Peninsula's southern tip and the small fishing village of Meyers Chuck. The route passes from Bradfield Canal back into Clarence Strait — the open central waterway between Revillagigedo and Prince of Wales Island — and runs slow through the strait's whale-watching windows. Clarence Strait carries summer humpback density and the occasional orca pod; the bridge watches for surface activity on the way.

Meyers Chuck sits at the south end of the Cleveland Peninsula, with no road in and a community of about a dozen year-round residents. The village's single dock holds a half-dozen yachts on a busy day; the post office, gallery, and bakery (Cassy's, which runs on the seasonal schedule of the salmon fleet) are the town's three commercial concerns. The yacht ties to the public dock for a short walk ashore — about an hour is the typical visit — and lines off mid-afternoon for the second leg of the day.

The closing run is south through the strait into the upper end of Behm Canal and west around Revillagigedo's northwestern shore into Naha Bay. Naha is a protected inner cove twenty miles north of Ketchikan with a Forest Service trail from the beach to a small lake above the bay (about a mile each way, well-maintained, with bear-warning signage in the late-summer salmon-run weeks). The afternoon settles into the cove — kayaks down, the chef working on the closing dinner, the captain reading the chart for tomorrow's run back to Ketchikan. Overnight at anchor.

The final cruising day. Lines off mid-morning from Naha for the twenty-five-nautical-mile run south down Behm Canal's western side and into Tongass Narrows — the waterway between Revillagigedo and Gravina Islands, and Ketchikan's working harbor approach. The Narrows is one of the busiest floatplane waters in the world; the bridge slows the yacht for the approach and reads the floatplane traffic on the radio. Ketchikan's commercial fishing fleet runs in and out of the Narrows on the same water; the working-harbor density is the highest the trip has seen.

The yacht ties at Bar Harbor Marina or Thomas Basin in the early afternoon depending on which dock the yacht is on. The closing afternoon ashore in Ketchikan is part of the trip's program rather than the wind-down — Creek Street's historic boardwalk on pilings over Ketchikan Creek runs the salmon run underneath it in late summer, and the Totem Heritage Center on the upper edge of the town holds nineteenth-century Tlingit and Haida totems salvaged from village sites along the southern Tongass. Dinner ashore at Bar Harbor Restaurant on the marina or Annabelle's Famous Keg & Chowder House on the downtown waterfront, depending on the captain's call.

Last night aboard or ashore depending on the morning's departure logistics. Most charters keep the group aboard for the closing night; the saloon evening runs the trip's wildlife log over coffee, and the chef plates the closing dinner with the week's catch in mind.

Breakfast aboard, luggage off, and a straightforward transfer to KTN. Ketchikan International Airport sits on Gravina Island across the Tongass Narrows from the city — the airport ferry runs on a schedule timed to outbound flights, a five-minute crossing from the marina-side terminal to the airport. The crew handles the move and the ferry crossing; pre-booked private transfers handle any flights with restricted timing. Direct flights to Seattle (SEA) run multiple times daily on Alaska Airlines; from Seattle onward connections to most US hubs are single-flight days.

The southern Alaska week ends the way it usually reads best — drier than guests feared and quieter than guests expected. Most groups that run this route come back for the Inside Passage and Glacier Bay charter on a subsequent trip; the captain typically walks through the second-charter option with the group before the dispersal at the marina.