Kayaking Among Waterfalls and Caribou in Alaska’s Wide Bay

I thought the clouds, the meadow, and the mountains all camme together for a great view in this photo.

In true expedition fashion, we anchored the Safari Explorer off a bay that we had only explored in satellite photos and dreams. It was located in the Northeast corner of Wide Bay. It had a very shallow entrance, which meant we couldn't get the big boat into the bay. But this afternoon was high tide, and we planned to send out a kayaking group and a skiff tour, so I made the decision to move activities to this unnamed bay, and do a little exploring with the guests.

I led the kayaking group, which was quite large. I had about 20 guests, in ten double kayaks with me. The bay is about 2 miles long, so I knew we were in for a workout, but we had all afternoon and were not in a big rush. We did have some waves outside the bay, where we anchored. Luckily the waves and breeze pushed all the kayakers towards the bay and towards a beautiful waterfall that would serve as our first gathering point. I snapped everyone's photo in front of the waterfall as we waited for the group to gather.

After that we circumnavigated the bay, checking out every nook and cranny that we could fit out kayaks into. We stopped at multiple waterfalls, one of which we could even paddle under. The water became calm and gorgeous, with some areas looking more like Hawaii tropical water than Alaska. There were a couple of beautiful streams in the back of the bay, but nothing too long or deep. I saw a few school of salmon at the mouth of the streams, but they couldn't have made it much farther than I did because of the water levels. It has been a pretty dry summer.

I kept scanning the shoreline for animals, but other than a few sea birds like common mergansers, we didn't see much. You can imagine my surprise then, when I paddled around another corner and a huge caribou popped out of the alder trees, very close to me. He was a little nervous at first, but then proceeded to walk by the entire group. He had a huge rack, and a dark, sleek coat. It was a magical animal encounter that the entire group got to enjoy. We ended up covering almost seven miles this afternoon, not wanting to miss any of the twist and turns of the shoreline. It was a very long paddle for some of the guests, but they all felt good about themselves once they made it back onboard.

Not only did we have a great adventure and get some exercise, but I was able to put a new location on our expedition map for UnCruise Adventures. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

I paddled as far as I could into the unnamed bay. This was a little stream at the end of the bay that eventually got too shallow, even for a kayak.

This was where we anchored the big ship, outside this unnamed inlet in the NE corner of Wide Bay. The winds had calmed down but there was still some wave chop out here. However, once we were in the bay, conditions got very nice. Check out the photo below to compare.

These are the kayaking conditions I was hoping for! We ended up exploring al the nooks and crannies and covering almost 7 miles in our kayaks this afternoon.

These light colored pebbles below the water made it look like we were kayaking in the tropics. The water was so clear and beautiful here.

We passed by multiple waterfalls, tumbling down out of the mountains. This one created a curtain of water that we could paddle right under.

Paddling through the dripping waterfall.

You never knew what to expect around each corner. This exploration with the guests is one of the best parts of expedition cruising.

The views here were just amazing. The water looks like it could be in Hawaii, while the volcanic mountains surrounding us look otherwordly.

This was one of the first waterfalls I came to on our afternoon kayak. I had each kayak paddle in front of the falls for a slideshow photo.

View from the salmon stream at the back of the bay.

Imagine my surprise when we came around a corner and a huge caribou popped out of the alder trees.

One of our stewards, Conner, jumped in a kayak with a guests this afternoon and got rewarded with a wonderful kayak experience, including this waterfall shot!

This was another little stream at the back of the bay. It also didn't go far, but it was quite beautiful and peaceful.

There was a lot of cool geological formations here in the corner of Wide Bay.

I hope you enjoyed the photos, and thanks for following along with the adventure.

As always, Keep traveling and keep posting!

• Dai Mar