First Time Landing at Alaska's remote Kayak Island

 

I had a chance to fly my drone over the western tip of Kayak Island. We scored with blue skies and calm seas for our explorations of the island. We sent out hikes, beach walks, skiff tours, and a big boat cruise. Yesterday we took out kayaks for a 6 mile down the coast paddle. We had sea otters, sea lions, eagles, a brown bear, and a humpback whale on our visit.

This week, for the first time ever, we are taking the Safari Explorer to a very remote corner of the Alaskan coast, a place called Kayak Island. It is very hard to get to, so there isn't a lot of information on it. But it is famous for being the 'discovery point' of Alaska for the western world. On July 20, 1741, a landing group from Vitus Bering's expedition of discovery came ashore on Kayak Island. George Wilhelm Steller, the expedition's naturalist and physician, was among them. Bering never actually came ashore, and Steller only ended up having 10 hours to make observations that became some of the earliest scientific records of Alaska's plants, animals, geography, and indigenous presence.

On the southwestern point, the Cape St. Elias lighthouse stands at the bottom of a massive cliff, looking out at Pinnacle Rock, and the Pacific Ocean beyond. We sailed around the lighthouse, and I was able to fly my drone for a few different angles. It looked very difficult to land near the lighthouse, as shallow rocks extended beyond the shorelines quite far. Farther up the north side of the island turns into an Alaska State Marine Park. This includes the famous landing site of Steller, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978. It was along this coastline that we hiked, bushwhacked, kayaked, and toured by small boats.

However, it could have gone very differently. First of all, this island is very exposed. We were very lucky that the winds were light, coming out of the southeast, and even though swells were coming from the SW, they were relatively small. We also had difficulty at first finding out where we would anchor. We quickly realized that there were far more uncharted rocky reefs than originally thought. The low tide not only showed exposed rocks, but crashing waves on other shallow rocks were all around us. We ended up sending one of our small boats ahead with a portable depth sounder to record a safe path through the reef.

Here are some of the photos of the adventures and places we visited on Kayak Island, Alaska.

First steps onto Kayak Island. The swell was a bit much to stern-load our kayaking group, so we towed the kayaks to shore, making us the first to land.

The Safari Explorer in front of Pinnacle Rock at the entrance to Kayak Island.

Our ship sails in the background as my drone hovers just behind the famous lighthouse of Kayak Island, Alaska. The light is fully automated now, so no need for a lighthouse keeper, however the buildings are still sometimes used by visiting artists, who are transferred here by helicopter.

View of the boat peeking around the corner from behind the Kayak Island lighthouse

The Cape St. Elias lighthouse, on the SW tip of Kayak Island, was fully automated in 1974, and added to the list of National Historic Places a year later. It was originally built in 1917.

We explored the nearby Wingham Island by skiffs and with a big boat cruise. There were sea lions and puffins on the rocks, and the rocks themselves were quite spectacular. A lone humpback whale cruised the shoreline and gave this guests a thrilling show as it breached out of the water.

Getting unique perspectives on the coastline.

Flying over Wingham Island, looking out towards Kayak Island.

We had a lovely beach walk along the North coast of Kayak Island. Our small boat pickup was a bit exciting in the breaking waves, but all went smoothly. The beach was filled with tracks of different animals....but no human footprints at all.

Here is my shorewalking group for our second day exploring Kayak Island. The beach here was such a nice even surface, that we ended up walking end to end, just over 3 miles.

There wasn't as much driftwood on the beach as I thought there would be, judging by the satellite images, but this huge tree provided some fun beach art, and a nice place for the group to sit and relax for a bit.

Walking on the mud flats off a point of Kayak Island.

A moon jelly sits high and dry, left by the low tide.

A short bear path through this tall sedge grass led us from the top of the beach to the banks of a beautiful river. A kingfisher hunted below us while we searched for large mammals in the meadow.

The largest river on Kayak Island, snaking down from the highlands into a flat peninsula near the Northwestern tip of the island.

Moose tracks next to bear tracks on the beach at Kayak Island.

Gulls fly off the beach.

After dropping my hiking group off on the mud flats, Andie took these three guests on a wild skiff tour around Wingham Island.

We did have one rainy afternoon here on Kayak. We spent it doing some exploratory hikes along the coast near our anchorage. Some of the rock formations along the shore were quite photogenic.

More cool geology during our coastal walk.

There has been lots of erosion along this cliff. It looked like pretty crumbly conglomerate.

Large rock that made for a good group shot.

Salmon berries were one of the star species that the naturalist Steller collected from his 10hr visit to Kayak Island.

We found a few different bones from a whale skeleton.

I popped into the forest to get a look at this beautiful waterfall coming out. I would love to come back here and do a hard charger hike up into the woods.

This was our first sign that brown bears were on Kayak Island. Notice the claw holes that are visible a few inches in front of the toe pads.

Paddling past an offshore rock, covered in steller sea lions.

We paddled for about 3 miles down the coast before slipping past these sea lion filled rocks, into a picturesque bay.

I figured a lone kayak, on Kayak Island, would make a fitting picture.

My bold kayaking group, ready for exploration from the shores of Kayak Island.

My coworker, Christian, stepping his first steps onto the famous Kayak Island.