Bailey Bay Hike 1 of 4

Ok - I finally had a few minutes to upload some photos from my hike at Bailey Bay. This was a few weeks ago, but was one of the best days spent up here in Alaska. It was a gorgeous hike with good friends, lots of adventure and a hot springs too!

July 17, 2009

We left Yes Bay around 10 a.m. and it was cold and rainy. There were 7 of us on the hike: Nicky, her boyfriend visiting from Hawaii, Josy, PJ, Joel and me. From here, we took a boat 20 minutes back to Bailey Bay. We also had to bring a raft to row into the bay since it was too shallow for the boat. (See photo 1)

From there, we followed the trail up and around and back. It was a better trail that the one we have around the Lodge, so that was nice. It was also more exciting, as we got to hike through streams and waterfalls. (See picture 3 and picture 4 - where we all posed on the waterfall) Good thing they had ropes tied up so we could hang on.

About 1/2 hour into the hike, you can walk out onto the top of this huge waterfall. (See picture 5 and 6 (with all of us)) This was amazing...we were so far up and even though it was raining and foggy, the view was still amazing.

On the other side of the waterfall was this gorgeous lake. (picture 7) The actual hike takes you all along the bank of the lake and winds you back into another bay where the hot springs are located. However, being the adventurous, or stupid individuals that we are. (We can blame it on being young), we found a canoe and decided it would be faster than walking. Then we proceeded to put all 7 of us, with our packs into the canoe and rowed along the shore instead. (I would guess that we shaved off a good hours worth of walking, which gave us more time at the hot springs, so that is good.) (See photo 8 of all of us in the canoe, and picture 9 is a shot of the lake - beautiful!)

After disembarking from the trip down the lake, we had to hike a bit further (see photo 10) until we got to the lean-to by the hot springs. (Photo 11, 12, 13) Since we packed in a huge lunch, drinks and beer, we decided to have lunch! Joel made us a bon fire (so we could attempt to dry our clothes out a little bit) and we chowed down!
Then we got our swimsuits on and headed for the hot springs. The hot springs were cool because the hot water actually comes down a series of waterfalls until it pools into a rock basin that has been built up on the side with rocks. Then it turns into a hot tub! (See picture 14 of all of us sitting in the hot tub.)
Now, since it's a natural hot spring, it smells like sulfur (i.e. rotten eggs), so, once everyone got nice and hot, we had to run down to the nearby stream and wash off so we wouldn't itch all the way back home. What a shocker that was - the water was freezing cold - worse than the ocean water - take your breath away - toes numbing cold water (I'm sure due to ice melt!) In photo 15 you can see the guys tip-toeing into the water and complaining about how cold it was! Then of course, us gals decided we had to be cool and just run and dive right in! (I mentioned the water was cold, right?)

After drying off and getting our still-wet clothes back on, we headed back. This time it really poured raining! Oh well.

Half way back we decided we wanted to see the bottom of the waterfall instead of the top. (This is stupid move #2) So, we follow Joel and PJ off the path and all the way down to the river. Once we finally made it, the view was great. (See photo 16) Now, the trip back up the hill to the trail (which we were all just PRAYING we would find back again) wasn't so pleasant and there was a lot of complaining going on!
But, we found the path and made it back to the pick-up spot right on time at 4 p.m.
(See photo 17 - the survivors!)

Hope you enjoyed the story and photos!
Luv from AK!