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.

I took a large group of guests on a hike up to the 400ft summit of Bunker Hill. This hill overlooks the town of Dutch, and has a beautiful view out of the entrance of both bays. Because of this, it was the ideal position to place defensive artillery, gun mounts, bunkers, huts, and anti aircraft guns. A lof of this infrastructure remained after the war, and provides alot of diversions and stops along our trek to the top. The huts are so interesting to go inside of, and the bunker at the top is just wild. When I go inside I try to imagine what these young soldiers must have felt like, on duty so far from home, not knowing if today will be the day they spot enemy ships or planes coming in.

But I will say, during peacetime, this hilltop bunker provides an amazing view, so we made sure to really stop and take it all in.

Hiking down from the top of Bunker Hill in Dutch Harbor.

The view from the top of Bunker Hill was amazing. We don't get too many blue sky days here, so we had to take advantage!

Climbing around the bunker gave some amazing views.

Looking down in Captain's Harbor, where a couple of the big fish processing plants area, and Carl Moses dock awaits the return of all the Deadliest Catch crab boats.

Descending into the bunker. Its much easier to enjoy the view from inside without the worry that someone is going to be dropping bombs on you during your shift.

Looks like the youths have gotten to the bunker and made it a bit of an artistic hide out here at the top of Bunker Hill. If you can climb down into it you will get an amazing peek-a-boo view of the entrances to the bay, as well as some broken glass in your shoe.

Beautiful day to explore Dutch Harbor.

*We found this carnivorous plant near the top of Bunker Hill. It is called common butterwort. The leaves have a sticky substance that traps small bugs before digesting them.

View from the top of our 2 miles hill. Just behind the town of Dutch Harbor, vestiges of WWII embattlements remain. On top of bunker hill, the old gun mount for some massive panama guns once guarded the entrances to the bays.

Checking out a few of the remaining bunkers that are still standing.

Inside the bunker, I told everyone to look up and act scared, like fighter planes were flying over, but Jill just smiled.

Intricate baidarka, or skin-covered kayak built by the Aleuts for traveling and hunting sea otters.

Inside the Roman Orthodox Chuch in Unalaska, just outside of Dutch Harbor.

This was one of twelve paintings like this in the Roman Church. They were each a different month, creating a calendar of saints.

The side altar room in the church.

We were lucky that they opened the church just for us.

The green onion dome is a tell-tale sign of a Roman Orthodox Church in coastal Alaska.

The church in all of its glory.

Memorial park, where a combination of graves from different times are located.

Climbing out of a WWII bunker near Memorial Park.

Walking through the fields of flowers in the middle of our Dutch harbor town tour.

Gene and Jill, pointing out where we are on the Aleutian Island Chain map.

July is a time for lupine here in the Aleutians. In the background is the fascinating WWII museum, next to the Dutch island airport.

Hope, listening in to try and break the code

The Aleutian WWII campaign is probably the least talked about part of that war.

This is what hiking in Dutch Harbor at 10pm looks like in July.

I walked with the guests to the end of the spit.

Even at 10pm there is still plenty of light let to light up these purple lupine.