Unalaska Points of Interest

A vis­it to Sum­mer Bay beach reveals a wild and rugged vista. All thoughts and sounds of the busy port of Dutch Harbor/​Unalaska are swept away as the ocean waters of the Bering Sea enter the bay and pound the shore­line with mes­mer­iz­ing force. Rolling green hills sur­round­ing the bay are car­pet­ed with wild­flow­ers in sum­mer and berries in the fall.

This peace­ful cove at the end of Sum­mer Bay Road wasn’t always so qui­et. It’s been the site of a native Unan­gan vil­lage, a fox farm, a cat­tle ranch, and also served as part of the Amer­i­can mil­i­tary coastal defense strat­e­gy dur­ing World War II. Today Mor­ris Cove main­ly draws recre­ation­al vis­i­tors for hik­ing, camp­ing and hang­ing out on the wide, sandy beach. It’s also a jump­ing off point for extend­ed hikes on Split Top Moun­tain, to Constantine  ...more

In the high reach­es of Unalaska’s vol­cani­cal­ly-formed peaks, the flo­ra hugs the ground, a nat­ur­al defense against Aleut­ian winds, snow and cold. Between June and August, Unalaska’s wild­flow­ers dec­o­rate the undu­lat­ing green hills in a pro­fu­sion of blue, pur­ple, pink, white and yel­low. This nat­ur­al flower gar­den greets the eye vir­tu­al­ly any­where you wan­der, and is delight­ful to explore on foot.

Catch up on cur­rent news, check your email, or immerse your­self in the past at the Unalas­ka Pub­lic Library, open sev­en days a week on the shores of Unalas­ka Lake. The library has more than 42,000 items in a col­lec­tion that includes books, movies, audio books, peri­od­i­cals, and free Wi-Fi access.

Unalaska’s Front Beach, on the shores of Ili­uliuk Bay, is both invit­ing and pic­turesque. Look­ing toward the bay, watch for boats com­ing into har­bor, eagles fight­ing over salmon, or mist engulf­ing the sur­round­ing hills and moun­tain tops. Back toward Unalas­ka, you’ll find more emer­ald green moun­tain views and his­toric sites.

When you live on an island, being in and around water is sec­ond nature. The rough, cold waters sur­round­ing Unalas­ka are inhos­pitable to swim­mers, though, so the Aquat­ic Cen­ter is their com­mu­ni­ty mec­ca. In this small, far-flung spot on the Aleut­ian chain you might not expect to find a nata­to­ri­um where you can rock­et down a water slide, swim 25-yard laps in the 6‑lane heat­ed pool or fin­ish up in the sauna. But here it is.

Before the Emmy-award-win­ning Dead­liest Catch began air­ing in 2005, only cap­tains and their crew real­ly under­stood the extreme ups and downs of the crab­bing life on the Bering Sea. Mil­lions of view­ers in more than 200 coun­tries now know what goes into bring­ing Alaskan crab to mar­ket: hard work, a lot of dar­ing and at least a lit­tle dra­ma (or maybe it’s hard work, a lot of dra­ma and at least a lit­tle dar­ing!). When in Unalas­ka, you can check out  ...more

This active 5,906-foot vol­cano shroud­ed in ice on the west­ern lobe of Unalas­ka Island last stirred awake in 1995, when it pro­duced tremors and spit out a small cloud of steam and ash. Ris­ing only 16 miles from the vil­lage of Unalas­ka and the port of Dutch Har­bor, Makushin Vol­cano has seen at least five oth­er erup­tions in his­toric times, and pro­duced rum­blings or ash reg­u­lar­ly since the 1980s.

Berry­ing is a soul-sat­is­fy­ing past-time shared by young and old in a fall sub­sis­tence tra­di­tion that fills buck­ets, bel­lies and freez­ers. Berries are all over Unalas­ka, but to find an ulti­mate berry patch takes patience and maybe an inside connection!

While vis­i­tors, fans of the area, and WWII vets often refer to the area as Dutch Har­bor, you will hear long-time res­i­dents using the offi­cial name, Unalas­ka, or even the old­er ver­sion, Ounalash­ka. Find out why.

Memo­r­i­al Park was built in 1992 in hon­or Coast Guard and Navy per­son­nel that lost their lives dur­ing WWII.