Best Hike in Southeast Alaska

Baily Bay Hot Springs Trailhead

   Working as expedition leader for the Un-Cruise boat Wilderness Explorer in Southeast Alaska gives me the opportunity to explore the different secluded bays, hiking trails, islands, and most recently, hot springs. Like many fun adventures this latest one to the hot springs came about by a friend telling me a story about this amazing hike that ended up in these hot springs about a days travel from Ketchikan. So with an inquisitive mind I checked out my huge map of the Inside Passage, checked in with the boat that my friend was traveling on, and tracked down the bay in which the trail can be found.

Group of Hard Chargers

   The bay is a small secluded bay high up in the Behm Canal, 90 or so miles north of Ketchikan. I had taken our boat near to this area many times on our way to Misty Fjords but for a number of reason I had never planned a stop in Baily Bay. But with this new information it made its way to the schedule for Week 1 of the summer Alaska cruising season this year.

Top of the Falls

   I kept the description of the trip pretty vague while describing it to the guest. I didn't want everyone to attempt it since we had to cover some ground in order to make it all the way to the springs, plus I wasn't sure what kind of condition the trail was in. So I billed it as a hard charger which turned into 3 guests, and 5 crew amped for breaking new ground.

  The trail turned out to be difficult in the uneven terrain sense but after the initial uphill it leveled out quite a bit. We passed a massive waterfall which you can actually stand on top of and peer over the edge. There were giant boulders that created caves and squeezes along the way. A high elevation lake sent a cascading waterfall across the trail that we carefully waded through. For most of the trail we winded our way along the shoreline of beautiful Lake Shelokum.

  Snow capped peaks surrounded the lake with the only noise provided by some migrating Canada geese and the wind flowing through the trees. As we made it to the back corner of the lake the trail peel off down a secluded valley along a marshy river basin. Sporadic boardwalk kept us above most of the mud on the trail. Then we saw the little cabin, tucked into its own secret valley, surrounded by mountains, with a river running through it. And this is where we found our hot spring.

   Tumbling down a rocky stream, hot water, smelling like sulphur, mixed into the cold snow melt of the river. As I followed the rocky stream upwards towards the steam I found brightly colored algae that reminded me of hydrothermal vents in Yellowstone. At the top of the stream 198degree water bubbled up from the rocks and steam whined as it forced it way out of the ground. I could only imagine on a cold snowy day the amount of steam coming off these hot springs must be awe inspiring.

  We spent a couple of hours exploring the area, lounging in the hot springs and enjoying the solitude. This is Southeast Alaska to the max. I've been on a lot of hikes here and this might be the best overall hike I've done yet. So thanks Ben and Kim for doing a bit of recon and I can't wait to share this place with more excited hard chargers.

Hanging in the hot tub

Southeast Alaska Hiking Solitude

Me in front of some falls