Kiska Island...

was occupied by Japanese forces in World War II, but they retreated in advance of U.S. bombing raids. A beautiful sunrise greeted our arrival as some of the staff headed ashore for a reconnaissance:

I was fascinated by the cross-bedded volcaniclastic deposits in the sea cliffs, likely the result of a nuee ardente:

We led small groups of curious passengers through some of the Japanese fortifications, and here's a bunker that received a direct hit by a U.S. bomb:

The black sand beaches are exquisite, but the ripped up tundra has been slow to recover from the numerous bombing raids: