Yukon Island Kayaking

When we reached the end of our hike we were greeted by the beautiful scene below. It was still early and the misty day created a surreal atmosphere for our adventure.



We took a boat to Yukon Island, an area known to harbor lots of beautiful scenery and wildlife. On the way there a magical thing happened! Griffin spotted a floating wine bottle near Gull Island. The kind lady driving the water taxi made a U-turn so that we could grab it on the off chance that there was a message inside and there was! Look how happy he is.



Inside was a dollar bill and a phone number. We called the number and recieved the confused brother of he who owned the bottle. Moments later, I spotted another bottle several hundred feet away! This bottle contained a child's handwriting, reading "Free role at Bread House" and a phone number. We have no idea where this Bread House is but we are planning on finding out.




This is where we launched our canoes from Yukon Island.



Griffin was particularly interested in the outhouse. There's a noticeable lack of flushing toilets in many areas of the Kenai Peninsula, especially on the opposite side of the bay. I promise you that getting creative with the aesthetics of the outhouse doesn't change the fact that it's an outhouse.


Finally, we took off on a double kayak into the open ocean! (Side note: Using a double kayak was really for the best considering that the last time we went kayaking Griffin ended up completely immersed in water. [Super side note: This is still really funny to me.])

The photo below is of an old sleepy man otter. They cover their face with their hands to keep warm and it is the most adorable thing you can imagine. Look how close I am to the otter. We ended up within arms reach of this otter from the kayak!



I could've taken a million photos of the rock formations. The rock layers are a phenomenon that happens around here known as "salacious chert". Each layer is a specific microorganism that evolved through specific environmental conditions and died out when they changed. Think about that and look at how many layers there are in this small small section of the rock.



This is Elephant Rock.



This is us kayaking through Elephant Rock!



Here's an eagle friend on top.

This is the point in the trip where I nearly pissed our double kayak right onto Griffin's back. We kayaked into a small cove and were surrounded by jellyfish. I wish I could remember the type of jellyfish they were. It has the word "fire" in it. I can't even describe how amazing they were. Every shade of orange, red, and yellow was in one of these streaming undulating creatures. Of course, the water prevented a good photo of them.


A little cave we went into.



Finally, a photo of Griffin and the beautiful scenery. If anyone can get him to shave that beard, I'll bring you an otter home in my bag.


We're getting geared up for a pretty exciting 4th of July. Apparently, the local festivities include things like "canoe jousting" and "greased totem pole climbing". Unfortunately, fireworks are less effective when it never gets dark so that will be missing from our holiday. We miss everyone terribly at home and wish we could spend the holiday together! Someone light a sparkler with us in mind.