Chuginadak

 Monday August 24

This morning we approached Chuginadak, the largest of the “Islands of the four mountains” group west of Unalaska. These are volcanic islands created only about 10 thousand years ago. They are so rugged and isolated that they have never been inhabited. All four islands are part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and permission must be obtained to land in specific locations. Chuginadak includes Mount Cleveland, a still active volcano (last eruption 2022) which is monitored because an ash cloud here could disrupt a lot of pan-pacific flight patterns. As far as the local pilot knew, no tourist vessel has gone ashore here in recent memory, and certainly none of the staff or crew of our ship had. 

As we pulled in to Shiff Cove, the winds were at 40 knots and gusting higher, with the beach a collection of kelp-covered (slippery!) boulders. Not a good landing spot, although the landscape itself was lovely and green. We proceeded to the second of our permitted landing sites (Appleton Cove), and while the wind was still fierce, a gently sloping black sand beach allowed us to land and go ashore. A bumpy zodiac ride got us to shore, where we disembarked in knee-deep surf. We hiked for about 90 minutes through a landscape our guide described as “the surface of the moon”. It was great to hike, but between the wind and the sand, it was a workout!  Once back on the ship we cruised past the other islands, pausing by bird cliffs full of Common Murres. The volcano cones of the islands played hide and seek with the clouds and fog throughout our visit. 

Pictured: sunrise, lovely waterfall at Shiff cove, our black sand hiking landscape, Mount Cleveland from Appleton cove, fumerole from our ship cruise, the cliff of murres.