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Moderate Hike at Wide Bay on a Picture Perfect Day

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One little misstep could mean disaster, when hiking in Alaska. I may have been playing it up a little for the camera here.   Walking on the plateau, with beautiful lakes and ponds between the ridges. There is some interesting geology going on here. What scenery! The landscape here at Wide Bay is out of this world. I couldn't believe our luck as the weather held out for another wonderful day of hiking on our 10 day Alaska expedition cruise. Today we are at an outer bay in the Ugashik district of the Alaskan Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge. What a mouthful. I had a group of hikers who wanted something in between a hard charger level and a beach walk easy level. The moderate hike was born. I took them to a very nice beach landing, where we slid out of the small boat into the shallow water. Not a problem since we all had the 'Alaskan tennis shoe' on, aka. big rubber boots. We saw a couple of red foxes playing farther down the beach. I had been here before, but I wanted to tr...
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Stranded by the Tide at Aniakchak Bay, Alaska

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  The reflective surface of Aniakchak lagoon. I love bringing people here for the photographic opportunities. Sometimes, the best travel stories are from the times that don't go according to plan. I had one of those adventures today, at Aniakchak Bay. This spot is part of one of the most remote, and least visited, National Monuments and preserves in the country. The bay consist of a long stretch of beach, with big dunes, a river on one side, and a huge estuary on the other. I had been here once before, and had taken guests hiking deep into the estuary, which I wanted to do again. The entrance and dropoff were a breeze, and the hike in was as easy and picturesque as I remembered. It was the hike out that proved difficult. As we hiked in, we had marsh grass and dry bank to walk on. Or we could walk out on the wet mud of the estuary. This reflective mud is one of the most picturesque things about this bay. I took the whole group out in it for a picture at one point because it was so b...
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Diving into the History, and the Green Hills of Unga Island, Alaska

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  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...
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