Flowers and WWII Bunkers in remote Dutch Harbor, Alaska

On the spit hike in Dutch Harbor on a beautiful night.

Dutch Harbor is about as remote as a town gets. I find myself out in the Aleutian Island chain. These are the string of volcanic islands that stretch from the Alaskan peninsula to the Kamchatka coast of Russia. Dutch Harbor is a crossroads of ancient native culture, modern commercial fishing boom, rugged vulcanism, and wilderness adventure. I am on the 150ft expedition ship, Safari Explorer, about to start a 10 day trip from Dutch to Seward.

There are 33 guests onboard this week, and I am part of 16 crew aboard that will take this on this adventure. The first night onboard I give all the guests a route talk, where I talk about what to expect, where we will go, and how we will do it. Then, even though its almost 10pm, I took them on a hike, right off the boat, onto a natural spit of land that heads way out into the bay. The top of the spit was covered in purple lupine and wild geranium, and lapland longspurs were flittering to and fro. It was a great start of our Dutch harbor exploration, but we had a full day of it still to come!

The next morning, we were picked up by our local drivers to get an in depth tour of Dutch Harbor and the nearby community of Unalaska. We started at the WWII museum, which is right next to the airstrip in Dutch. The stories here draw you right in. Seeing artifacts, and reading about pilots using dead reckoning to try and find their way to islands that disappear in the fog are quite wild. These islands are so remote, yet even they were not untouched by that horrible world war.

Then we traveled to the famous Russian Orthodox Church. The telltale green onion dome, and double crossed graves give it away as part of the Russian America history of this part of the world. After Vitus Bering put Alaska on the map for Russia back in 1741, it didn't take long for Russian interest to focus on the valuable fur pelts of sea otters and fur seals. Naturally the Russian Orthodox religion followed, converting the native Aleuts. The church is still active today, with many of the local people being an ongoing part of the church and religion. The church itself is quite beautiful, filled with alters and interesting paintings. The bald eagles nesting on the cliffs nearby also add to the wildness of the place.

Finally we stopped at the Museum of the Aleutians. Here we could step through time, starting with the Aleut culture that has thrived here for 10,000 years, leading up through the king crab boom made famous by the Deadliest Catch TV show. Our morning was a great overview of the many aspects of these remote islands. But after riding in a van all morning, I was ready to get out and get moving. So off we went.