Walden Point Road
Walden Point Road is a State Scenic Byway in Alaska. Within Alaska it covers roughly 15 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Walden Point Road with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Walden Point Road runs about 15 miles across Annette Island in Alaska's Inside Passage, linking Metlakatla to a ferry terminal near Ketchikan. The road fulfills a promise the U.S. government made to the Metlakatla Indian Community during World War II, when it built a military airbase on Annette Island in exchange for eventually connecting the town to the rest of Alaska's road and ferry network. Construction didn't start until 1997 and wasn't finished until 2010, carried out by a joint military task force led by the Missouri Army National Guard as a training exercise. The finished road gave Metlakatla, previously reachable only by boat or plane, year-round ferry access to Ketchikan and the Alaska Marine Highway System. Along the drive, pullouts overlook Annette Bay, Walden Rocks, and Japan Bay, with regular sightings of humpback whales, porpoises, and eagles from the roadside. It's one of Alaska's newer scenic byways and one of the only ways to reach Metlakatla by land.
- Metlakatla
- Annette Island
- Walden Rocks
- ~15 miles
- Alaska Marine Highway ferry
- WWII treaty road
- whale watching
Plan a drive on Walden Point Road →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along Walden Point Road
No campgrounds are listed close to Walden Point Road yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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