Misty Fjords National Monument Floatplane Tour

Misty Fjords National Monument is one of the last places in the United States that has stayed almost exactly as the glaciers left it. Sitting roughly 40 miles east of Ketchikan across the Behm Canal, it protects around 2.3 million acres of the Tongass National Forest — sheer granite walls, hanging waterfalls, sea-level fjords, and mirror-still lakes with no roads, no towns, and no easy way in. You reach it by floatplane or by boat, and nothing else. That single fact is what makes a Misty Fjords floatplane tour less of a sightseeing add-on and more of the main event of a day in Ketchikan.

This site helps you book the top-rated Misty Fjords National Monument floatplane flightseeing tour and understand what you’re actually signing up for. We’re an independent travel resource, not the U.S. Forest Service and not the flight operator — the tours are run by established Ketchikan air services, and everything below is written to help you choose the right way to see the monument.

What Misty Fjords Actually Is

The Forest Service manages Misty Fjords as a national monument within the 17-million-acre Tongass — the largest national forest in the country and the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest. The landscape was carved by ice: fjords bite deep inland, and the granite cliffs that wall them in rise as much as 3,000 feet straight out of the water. Waterfalls drop from hanging valleys, and in early summer there can be dozens of them running at once after rain and snowmelt.

The monument’s signature landmark is New Eddystone Rock, a 237-foot pillar of basalt standing alone in the Behm Canal — the eroded core of an ancient volcanic vent, named by Captain George Vancouver’s expedition in 1793 after the Eddystone Lighthouse back in England. Deeper in, Rudyerd Bay and Punchbowl Cove are the classic postcard: dead-flat water ringed by vertical granite, with a 1,800-foot waterfall feeding down from Big Goat Lake. From the air, the scale of it only makes sense when you see how small a floatplane looks against the walls.

Why Fly: The Floatplane Experience

The floatplane is the iconic way to reach Misty Fjords for a simple reason — it shows you the whole monument, not a corner of it. A typical flightseeing tour uses a classic De Havilland Beaver or Otter carrying a small group, lifts off the harbor near downtown Ketchikan, and climbs east over the rainforest and Behm Canal. The featured tour on this site is a one-hour flight with a guaranteed window seat, live pilot commentary through a headset, and a private van transfer from the Ketchikan waterfront to the floatplane base. It’s a premium experience, priced accordingly at around $389 per person.

Many — though not all — Misty Fjords flightseeing tours also include a water landing on a remote wilderness lake, where the plane taxis in and you can step out onto the floats in complete silence before flying back. If that moment matters to you, confirm at the time of booking whether your specific flight lands or is a fly-over only, because the shorter flightseeing options don’t always set down.

Floatplane vs. Boat: An Honest Comparison

There is a real choice here, and the floatplane isn’t automatically the right answer for everyone. Boat tours — most famously the Allen Marine catamaran — cross the Behm Canal at sea level and put you right beneath the cliffs and waterfalls. A plane cruises around 120 knots; a boat moves near 20, so it lingers, and it’s far better for spotting whales, seals, and other marine mammals. Boats are also generally cheaper and more weather-tolerant.

The trade-off is time and perspective. A floatplane tour runs about two hours door to door; the boat is typically a 4.5- to 5.25-hour commitment. And only from the air do you grasp the sheer geography — the fjords branching inland, the waterfalls threading down thousands of feet, New Eddystone Rock from directly above. If your schedule is tight (a cruise port day, for instance) and you want the bucket-list aerial view, fly. If you have most of a day and care most about wildlife and being close to the water, the boat is a genuinely strong option. Our floatplane vs. boat guide breaks the decision down in detail.

Weather Is the Real Variable

The monument is not called “Misty” by accident. Ketchikan sits in a temperate rainforest and is one of the wettest inhabited places in North America, and the mist that gives the fjords their name is also the thing most likely to change your plans. Floatplanes need reasonable visibility and a workable cloud ceiling; if the fjords are socked in, flights are postponed or cancelled. The good news is that reputable operators don’t penalize you for the weather — cancellations for poor conditions or cruise-ship delays are normally refunded in full, and the featured tour offers free cancellation. Guided tours generally run May through September, the summer window that lines up with the cruise season and the best flying weather. Our best-time-and-weather guide covers what to expect month by month and what happens if you’re weathered out.

Coming In on a Cruise?

Most people who fly Misty Fjords are in Ketchikan for the day off a cruise ship. That’s very doable — the floatplane’s short duration is exactly why it fits a port stop — but it takes a little planning. Tours depart from the downtown waterfront near the cruise berths (Norwegian guests docking at Ward Cove are shuttled the roughly 20 minutes into town), so timing and a weather backup plan matter. Book ahead: the good flights sell out, and summer capacity is limited. See our guide for cruise passengers for how to slot a flight into a port day without cutting it too fine.

Whichever way you choose to go, Misty Fjords rewards the effort — it’s wild country you can’t drive to, photograph from a viewpoint, or see from town. Scroll down to check live availability and pricing for the floatplane flightseeing tour, compare it against the other ways in, and read what recent travelers had to say.