Deception Island / Whalers Bay

Though steamy, you wouldn’t want to get too comfortable in this variety of natural hot spring. Just south of Point Wild is the aptly named Deception Island. Shaped like a C, the island’s natural harbor, Whalers Bay, is actually the crater of a volcano that spends most of its time sleeping underwater.

The nearly mile-long stretch of beach is littered with the remains of its formerly active whaling and research station. Whalers Bay was startled by successive eruptions in the late 1960s yet is typically considered a “safe” harbor. If an eruption does occur, seismic monitors pepper the coast, enabling the ship to offer you a generous six-minute warning to get the hell out of there. So no matter how enticed you are by the large oil barrels or other dilapidated artifacts on shore, don’t stray too far from your ship.

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