Capturing the Moment

  Hiking up verdant green hills, filled with wildflowers across from the deserted village of Unga. One of my favorite stops on our expedition cruise along the Alaskan Peninsula, out to the Aleutian Islands, has got to be the Shumagin Islands. One of these, Unga Island, has it all. It has incredible geological features like rock arches, steep cliffs, offshore rocks, and sea caves, so the kayaking is amazing. The offshore rocks are covered with seabirds like puffins and kittiwakes...so the small boat tours are amazing. There are no trees, just soft tundra covered in flowers...so the hikes are amazing. And to top it all off, it has the remains of a native village, deserted and dilapidated. And as long as you avoid any confrontations with the semi-wild cows, you should be totally safe from any animals, since there are no bears or other large predators on the island. We spent the whole day, kayaking, skiffing, hiking, and exploring. Its nice to be able to let folks wander at their own l...

  Parts of the estuary maintained enough wetness to throw off some beautiful reflections on our hike back. At one of the least visited National Monuments in the USA, our group braved boot sucking mud and massive brown bears to hike deep into the valley at Aniakchak Bay, Alaska. This is a truly wild place. There are no building, no roads, no facilities.... just pure Alaskan wilderness. Brown bears roam, unimpeded by anything man made. And if people do arrive, we are just temporary visitors.

  We found these caribou antlers along our nature walk at Wide Bay. Streaks of clouds were all the broke the blue of the sky on this beautiful day in Alaska. Imuya Bay and Wide Bay are two bays on the outer coast of the Ugashik National Wildlife Refuge. This is where we explored today. Being way out on the Alaskan Peninsula means that this coastline is about as wild as it can get. We didn't see anyone else all day, and the only footprints on shore were from us or bears. And we did see bears. Even if we don't see bears, I am thinking that they are out there seeing us. This case was proven when we first landed. Imuya Bay was the landing of choice in the morning, just because of the wind direction and the forecasted change for the afternoon. I took a group of hard charger hikers to shore and we immediately set out for some high ground to get a better vantage. The hillsides were covered in wildflowers, making the entire area look like a painting. Sandy beaches and mudflats were unc...