Misty Fiords National Monument, Wilderness area in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska.

This monument spans more than 2 million acres of wild terrain shaped by deep fjords, towering granite walls, and thick coastal forests of spruce and cedar. The landscape is defined by countless small islands and interconnected waterways that create a complex maze of inlets and passages.

The area became a national monument in 1978 when President Jimmy Carter used federal authority to protect this vast stretch of wilderness from development. This action came during a period of heightened concern about preserving Alaska's remaining untouched coastal lands.

The monument lies in the homeland of the Tlingit, whose name for themselves, Lingít, means "people." The area is also known for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough's Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian communities, and the Alaska Marine Highway ferries that pass the monument's west coast carry residents between Ketchikan and Juneau. The Forest Service rents 14 cabins on the coast and larger lakes, reached by floatplane.

You can only reach this place by floatplane or boat from Ketchikan, as no roads lead into the monument. Plan for wet and changeable weather, which is typical for Southeast Alaska's coastal environment.

Congress excluded 151,832 acres around Quartz Hill from the wilderness designation in 1980 because of a molybdenum deposit called possibly the largest in the world; no mining has taken place there. The monument's glaciers are small ice fields on high plateaus in the Lincoln and Seward Mountains, not tidewater glaciers.