Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park
Kodiak Island
This military fort, 4.5 miles northeast of Kodiak, off Monashka Bay Rd, was built by the US Army during WWII to defend against a Japanese invasion that…
Must-see attractions in Southwest Alaska
Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological Repository
Kodiak Island
The Alutiiqs (not to be confused with the Aleuts) are the subject of this brilliant Alaska Native museum. They were the original inhabitants of the Kodiak…
Aleutian Islands
This small but impressive museum is one of the best native cultural centers in Alaska. It relives the Aleutian story from prehistory through the Russian…
Aleutian WWII National Historic Area
Aleutian Islands
In 1996 Congress created this 134-acre national historic area to commemorate the bloody events of WWII that took place on the Aleutian Islands. Most of…
Katmai National Park & Preserve
Southwest Alaska
Sure, Katmai National Park & Preserve encompasses four million acres of rippling coastline, volcanic landscapes and mountain-fringed lakes, but the brown…
Southwest Alaska
Every year, hundreds of brown bears emerge from hibernation and make their way to Brooks Falls, a small but important waterfall in Katmai National Park…
Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center
Kodiak Island
This excellent visitor center focuses on the Kodiak brown bear, the most famous resident of the refuge, with an exhibit room that’s especially well suited…
Cathedral of the Holy Ascension
Aleutian Islands
Unalaska is dominated by the Cathedral of the Holy Ascension, the oldest Russian-built church still standing in Alaska. It was built in 1825 and then…
Southwest Alaska
A scar in the earth left behind by the massive 1912 Novarupta volcanic eruption, the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is a stark landscape of deep gorges,…
Kodiak Island
At the end of Pasagshak Rd, the cliffs on each side of this remote beach are lined with bowling-ball-sized concretions (where sand and silt has been…
Kodiak Island
Housed in the oldest Russian structure in Alaska, across the street from the visitor center, the Baranov Museum fills Erskine House, which the Russians…
Aleutian Islands
Part of the national historic area, this coastal battery was known to the military as Hill 400 or colloquially as Little South America (due to its shape)…
Kodiak Island
The pulse of this city can be found in its two boat harbors. St Paul Boat Harbor is downtown and the larger of the two. Begin with the Harbor Walkway,…
Aleutian Islands
To learn about the ‘Forgotten War,’ begin at the Aleutian WWII Visitor Center, near the airport, in the original air-control tower built in 1942…
Kodiak Fisheries Research Center
Kodiak Island
Opened in 1998 using funds from the Exxon-Valdez oil spill settlements, the center has an interesting lobby that includes displays about local marine life…
Kodiak Island
Near the Alutiiq Museum on Mission Rd, Holy Resurrection Church serves the oldest Russian Orthodox parish in the New World, established in 1794. The…
Kodiak Island
Reached as soon as you cross the bridge, this small park is laced with easy, forested trails that converge at a stairway to the shoreline. At low tide you…
Aleutian Islands
Next to a disheveled hillside graveyard overlooking the bay is Memorial Park. The park has several monuments dedicated to the Coast Guard and Navy…
Aleutian Islands
Commissioned by Bishop Nester, this house was first built in San Francisco in 1882, dismantled and shipped to Unalaska to be reassembled. During his…
Aleutian Islands
Bald eagles are as common as crows in and around Unalaska and Dutch Harbor. There are so many birds that locals view them as scavengers, which they are by…
Aleutian Islands
This national historical landmark within Dutch Harbor is where the Russians first planted Sitka spruce on the island in 1805. It’s the oldest recorded…
Kodiak Military History Museum
Kodiak Island
Run by local volunteers, this tiny museum contains exhibits related to the strategic importance of Kodiak in WWII. It also houses an extensive collection…
Kodiak Island
Kodiak's 'other' harbor is on Near Island (cross the bridge from downtown) and is a great place to look for sea lions and eagles.
Kodiak Island
A series of interesting interpretive displays line the boardwalk above the docks.
Kodiak Island
The northernmost island in the Kodiak Archipelago, remote and undeveloped Shuyak is 54 air miles north of Kodiak. It’s only 12 miles long and 11 miles…
Southwest Alaska
Aniakchak’s centerpiece is a six-mile-wide caldera (a massive crater formed when a volcano collapses inwards) that sits in the middle of the narrow Alaska…
Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
Southwest Alaska
By Alaskan standards, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is tiny, but within its 492 sq miles is one of Alaska's most ecologically unique landscapes…
Lake Clark National Park & Preserve
Southwest Alaska
Only 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, Lake Clark National Park & Preserve features spectacular scenery that is a composite of Alaska: an awesome array of…
Southwest Alaska
At 2500 sq miles, Wood-Tikchik State Park is the country’s largest state park. Thirty miles north of Dillingham, on Bristol Bay, the park preserves two…
Kodiak Island
Afognak Island lies just north of Kodiak Island in the archipelago. Some 75,000 acres of Afognak are protected in pristine Afognak Island State Park,…
