Capturing the Moment

  My hearty group of bushwhackers. We were wet, and they were probably a bit tired, but we made it to Fish Lake and were rewarded with this magnificent view of the lake and the glacier beyond. We’ve had a lot of first on this expedition trip; landing on Kayak island, taking guests paddling at Hubbard Glacier, exploring the coastal town of Yakutat, touching glaciers in Icy Bay, and now, entering and exploring the infamous Lituya Bay, on the outer coast of Alaska. This was a place that the crew has been hearing about for years. I was very excited to check it out. Lituya Bay is home to the highest tsunami run-up ever recorded. In 1958, a 7.8 earthquake struck the fairweather fault, just offshore. This triggered a massive landslide to collapse in Gilbert Inlet, at the back of Lituya Bay. The rock hit the water with such force that it generated a huge wave. Instead of traveling across the Pacific like a normal tsunami, it slammed into the nearby mountains, surrounding the bay. The wave ...

  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 earl...

  Long exposure of a sub-glacial melt river coming out the bottom of this glacier. I flew to Anchorage, took a bus down to the port city of Seward, and boarded the expedition cruise ship, Safari Explorer. This 36 passenger expedition ship is where I will be working, leading expeditions for the next month. I'll be covering nearly 2,000 miles, traveling slowly in order to check out all the fun stops between Seward, Juneau, and Seattle. Our first trip is a 13 day brand new itinerary from Seward, along the outer coast, down to the Inside Passage, ending at Juneau, Alaska. 33 passengers are signed up for this inaugural trip. With this kind of trip, there is a lot of ambiguity about where we will actually be stopping and what we will be doing. It'll be very weather dependent, but we do have a top notch crew, that are very good at their jobs. After a smooth night out from Seward, we stopped in at the southwest corner of Prince William Sound. Two beautiful glaciers sit at the back of I...