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...

  Overlooking a secret bay on the island of Unga. Once the bustling home of the Unangan Native people, this island has been taken over by wildflowers and feral highland cows. This makes it a perfect place to explore by hiking....if you can get here. What a treat! We had great weather and beautiful conditions for our hiking adventures on Unga Island, Alaska. This is one of the Shumagin Islands, near the Aleutian Island Chain in southwest Alaska. It is very remote, and not many people ever stop here. Most people who see the island are fishermen, coming to and from the fishing grounds of the Bering Sea. But for us adventurous few who make it here, and get to land on the island, it is a hikers paradise. We anchored in a picturesque bay called Delarof Harbor. There is a big back bay that is too shallow for us to boat into. On one side is the remnants of an old Unangun Village, now in ruins and being overgrown with wildflowers. But our hiking started on the far side of the bay, near a gi...

  A brilliant horned puffin, lit up by the mid morning light streaming through one of the sea arches. Today was one of our best days of the entire ten day expedition cruise here in Alaska. We visited one of the Shumagin Islands, called Unga Island, and explored by kayak and on land. We were greeted with early morning fog, so intense that we couldn't see the land on either side of the small bay. Luckily the fog started to lift just as we started launching our kayak group from the back of the Safari Explorer. The water was calm as glass, with no wind and no swell. Perfect for exploring all the nooks and crannies of the shoreline. And the shoreline here is about as wild as it gets. We started off by paddling over to the outer point of Delarof Bay, where we could see a giant sea rock arch that looked perfectly for kayaking through. I caught some photos of the guests as they came through behind me. I like that in some of the photos you can also see the Safari Explorer, far in the backgr...