A jaw-dropping pocket anchorage at the mouth of Rudyerd Bay in Misty Fjords, where a roughly 3,000-foot granite wall plunges straight into deep, glassy water. It is one of the signature stops of the monument, but the same vertical walls that make it spectacular make it a tricky place to set a hook.
Punchbowl Cove is the first cove off Rudyerd Bay, a glacially carved fjord branching east off Behm Canal in Misty Fjords National Monument, east of Ketchikan. The cove is a small basin ringed by steep wooded slopes, with a sheer granite cliff rising some 3,000 feet directly above its eastern shore and the water below nearly as deep as the rock is tall.
Like most of Misty Fjords, the water here is very deep right up to the rock, then shoals abruptly where it shoals at all. The U.S. Forest Service maintains a single mooring buoy in the cove, which is the simplest and most popular way to spend the night; boats that anchor generally do so on the limited shallower shelf and run a stern-tie to shore to keep from swinging into deep water or the wall.
This is a day-tour hotspot. Float planes and tour boats from Ketchikan come and go through the cove for much of the day, so quiet usually arrives only in the late evening and early morning. Despite the traffic, it remains a bucket-list anchorage for the scenery alone.
Approach notes, hazards to watch for, and what's available once you're tied up.
Approach is from Behm Canal into Rudyerd Bay; the bay and cove are deep and largely clean, but depths are extreme, often well over 100 feet close to shore, so a usable shelf is hard to find. The dominant hazard is the depth itself: anchoring without a stern-tie is impractical because a boat can drift from anchorable depths into very deep water within a boat length or two. Most cruisers pick up the single USFS mooring buoy or anchor on the narrow shelf (reported as shallow as about 50 feet in places) and stern-tie to shore.
Expect heavy float-plane and tour-boat traffic in and out of the cove through the day, plus their wake. Williwaws and gusts can funnel down off the surrounding high terrain. There is no protection or services nearby; this is a remote wilderness anchorage with unreliable cell/VHF coverage among the walls.
Wind protection summary and tide planning at a glance. Full per-direction and 7-day detail with Plus.
Live readings from the nearest OpenWeather station and WorldTides; refreshed every few minutes.
Source: OpenWeather One Call API + WorldTides.
A curated photo + map walkthrough showing approach, mooring options, and points of interest.
A guided walkthrough of Punchbowl Cove with approach photos, depth notes, and points of interest — written by members who have been here recently.
Real first-hand reports and questions answered by members who have actually been here.
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