Three villages in one day

sunlight on an island

Today our stops are King Cove, Cold Bay and False Pass.  King Cove and False Pass are mostly fishing villages, Cold Bay is a remnant from WWII – and it has a large airstrip capable of landing any plane…even the very largest planes, which is odd for such an out-of-the-way village.  They were the city where, last year, a flight from Asia to San Francisco landed when it was experiencing engine trouble.   

Every day we had nice weather and beautiful scenery.  The light in the evenings was perfect for moody photos.

A highlight of the Cold Bay stop was a chance to visit the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.  Federal park officers meet with boat with all the vehicles they can round up and take 25 lucky ferry passengers on a trip to the refuge.  They hold a lottery on the boat – 62 people signed up, and 25 names were chosen. Dad and Steve won seats, but dad gave his seat up for me (aww, thank you dad!!).

Large map of the Cold Bay region at the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge visitor's center

It’s a long, bumpy ride on a gravel road to the refuge, where you have a chance of seeing migrant birds, fox, bears, and marine mammals, as well as views of the surrounding volcanoes.  Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy so we didn’t see the volcanoes, but did see a fox and a dead walrus (a looooong ways off, far from the ‘bad smell’ distance).  The refuge was pretty neat, and I’m glad I got to see it.  While we were on the tour, Dad and Barb walked into town to check out the grocery store-liquor store-hotel-and more, and wandered around town. 

View from Grant Overlook at Izembek

Everything was blooming!

Pretty foliage at Izembek NWR

The only bear we saw, and it wasn't real.

The ferry dock in Cold Bay was a good place to see puffins and pigeon guillamots. 

Our tour guide told us that Cold Bay’s single school has 7 kids in it, for K-12.  There’s one  teacher and one teacher’s aid.  That’s it.  Oye.  That would be tough!

Pigeon guillamot deciding I was too close.

Horned puffin

Bright orange feet on a pigeon guillamot

Our last stop of the day (and the only town other than Unalaksa/Dutch Harbor that we don’t visit twice) was  False Pass.  It is a very small village, and it’s on Unimak Island.  This is the farthest place out to see brown bears, since once you’re beyond this it’s all islands that are much farther apart.  

Approaching False Pass.  These small houses (?) are on the Peninsula side of the pass, not the village side (which sits on an isalnd).

Unimak Island is only about ¼ mile from the Alaska Peninsula at it’s narrowest point, so bears could swim here.  It was crazy windy in the ‘pass’ between the peninsula and Unimak Island, and the wind kicked up waves opposing the tide and the water was very choppy.  The is the first place where you can enter the Bering Sea from the Gulf of Alaska.    We got off in this town and walked quite a bit.  There’s an abandoned cannery here, which was fun to explore. 

 

Just another beautiful day in the Aleutians. 

False Pass, AK

An abandoned (but very clean) ambulance in False Pass.

Fresh, tasty berries, yours for the picking

Also, the salmon berries are ripe and EVERYWHERE.  OMG, they are so big!  We picked and ate them while we walked.

Volcanoes in the dusk.

So far, my favorite town has been Cold Bay.  But I don’t think I could live there permanently!  Talk about isolated…even with a big airport this would be a tough place to live.