Among the vast uninhabited islands, bottomless bays and fjords, massive trees, and inconceivably towering cliffs of the Southern Alaska Panhandle are 2.3 million acres of magnificent wilderness, rugged peaks and dense forest. Jimmy Carter made this a National Monument with a stroke of his presidential pen in 1978. There are sheer cliffs that rise 3150 feet straight up which are instantly breathtaking. The calm water mirrors the sheer peeks that rise all around you and the immensity of it can only really be appreciated from the air or from a ship. The extraordinary majestic scenery qualifies it as one of America's greatest wild places where wildlife includes brown and black bears, mountain goats, Sitka deer, bald eagles and a multitude of marine mammals. The true beauty of Misty Fjords lies in the granite walls and tumbling waterfalls when they are wrapped in a veil of fog and mist.