Misty Fjords National Monument – Alaska
Once the habitat of the Native Americans
According to Acronymmonster, Misty Fjords National Monument is located in far southeast Alaska, near the border with Canada. Established in 1978, Misty Fjords National Monument is the largest national monument in the United States by area at 9,285 km². The closest community to the National Monument is Ketchikan, Alaska.
Virtually Untouched Wilderness – Misty Fjords in Alaska
Ketchikan was founded around 1900 by the American salmon industry. Today the “Native Americans” of the Tlingit live there. There are numerous totem poles to discover there.
Grizzly and moose
The wildlife of Misty Fjords National Monument can be described as very unaffected and original. There are moose, wild mountain goats, mule deer, black bear, wolf and grizzly in the sanctuary. The waters within Misty Fjords National Monument are very rich in fish species; five different species of salmon live there.
Limited leisure activities possible
There is almost no transport infrastructure in the protected area. The region is best reached by seaplane or by ship. Trekking tours are only recommended for very experienced backpackers.
Houses of Ketchikan, located west of the sanctuary on an island
The US Forest Service has a number of log cabins for rent within Misty Fjords National Monument, and there are also a number of hiking trails in the area. Kayaking along the coast is very popular.
Aircraft noise disturbs the idyll
An impairment takes place in the protected area due to aircraft noise. Many airplane routes pass over the area. For this purpose, a large number of seaplanes touch down on the water surfaces of the region to drop off visitors. Cruise and tour boats also pop up in the fjords along the Alaskan coast. The otherwise untouched nature of the region is thus increasingly being disturbed by man-made influences.
Rock painting of the indigenous people
Rock art has been discovered within Misty Fjords National Monument. This shows that native aborigines must have stayed in this region a long time ago. The Tlingit people still live in this part of Alaska today. With luck, whales and dolphins can be seen in the fjords and sea lions on the beaches.
Prince of Wales Island, west of the Misty Fjords
Coastal mountains with rainforest and deep fjords
The protected area includes the coastal mountains of the Boundary Ranges together with the fjords that penetrate deep into the country. The valleys are covered with temperate rainforest, which is also within the Tongass National Forest. There is a relatively large amount of precipitation in the rainforest region each year. The composition of the forest consists mainly of different species of conifers. Evergreen forests border steel-blue lakes and fjords. Many waterfalls rush towards the sea.
Cape Krusenstern National Monument
Living with the permafrost
Cape Krusenstern National Monument is located on the western coast of the US state of Alaska. The name “Cape Krusenstern” comes from the first white explorers of the region. Cape Krusenstern National Monument is located on the Chukchi Sea, the polar sea between Alaska and Russian Siberia. The ground in the region is frozen all year round (permafrost). The Inuit still live in the “Cape Krusenstern” region of Alaska today. The Inuit hunt whales and seals to fill their pantries, just as they did thousands of years ago. The killed animals are almost completely used. The oldest archaeological finds of the Inuit culture in the region have been dated to be at least 5,000 years old.
Sea lions hiss at each other in the fight for the best berth
Important archaeological site of the Inuit culture
The central element of the Cape Krusenstern National Monument is, in addition to a large lagoon, a coastline with countless large, parallel sand walls that were formed by wind and water. More than 100 of these “walls” contain proven archaeological material such as stone tools and settlement remains from numerous Inuit generations.
Cape Krusenstern – only for specialists
Leisure activities such as boat trips or hiking are actually only recommended in the summer in the area of the Cape Krusenstern National Monument. The Cape Krusenstern National Monument can only be reached by plane or boat. Only in the northern part of the protected area does an access road lead past a nearby mining industrial plant. Otherwise, Cape Krusenstern has no transport infrastructure.
Big deserted country
The National Monument was designated in 1978 and also has the status of “Historic Landmark”. The size of the Cape Krusenstern National Monument is about 2,200 km². The next inhabited settlement at the National Monument is Kotzbue. Kotzbue is located at the end of a peninsula jutting into the Chukchi Sea, south of the sanctuary, on the opposite side of a sea bay.
Killer whale – orca – dives in the sea off Cape Krusenstern
Colorful in summer
The Cape Krusenstern National Monument area is home to caribou, moose, bears and wolves, as well as other smaller mammals. During the summer, Cape Krusenstern is an important area for nesting birds. Away from the coast, the landscape changes into a barren, but damp and slightly hilly tundra landscape. There are countless small lakes to discover there. In the short summer, the flowers of the region blossom into an unexpected sea of colour.
