Page 205 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

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SOUTHWEST ALASKA

The arc of volcanoes that form the Alaska Peninsula
and Aleutian Islands stretches through Southwest Alaska
likea fiery necklace. Lying across the fault line where
the North American and Pacific tectonic plates collide,
flanked by the North Pacific and the Bering Sea, and
almost continuously battered by the forces of the
wind and sea, this is a land of great extremes.

The original inhabitants of the region were churches that dominate nearly every
the Aleut islanders and the Alutiiq of the town and village are a lasting legacy
Alaska Peninsula. Over the millennia, they of the Russian era. Kodiak, the second-
wrested a living from the stormy seas and largest island in the US, was once the
managed to thrive despite the forbidding capital of Russian America and is the
climate and volcanic activity. heart of the Alutiiq culture today.
The first outsiders to arrive were the While the national parks of the Alaska
Russians in the mid-1700s. As the first Peninsula are among the most remote
point of contact for the Russians in in the US National Park System, they
Alaska, the Southwest experienced attract growing numbers of visitors
tempestuous cultural clashes. The with opportu nities to view brown
newcomers’ quest for the valuable bears and hike through stark volcanic
pelts of seals and sea otters led them landscapes. Enthusiastic naturalists
to first employ the locals for their head to the remote Pribilof Islands,
hunting expertise and to later where cliffs are packed with thousands
forcibly exploit them for their labor. of nesting birds and basking seals.
Today, visitors to the region come The ride down the stormy Aleutian
for both the culture and the incredible chain on the ferry Tustumena makes
wealth of natural beauty. The opulent an adventure-filled excursion.

The lovely Church of the Holy Ascension overlooking Illiuliuk Bay, Dutch Harbor/Unalaska
Brown bears fishing for salmon at Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park

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