The USFWS offers varied tours and events on Midway Island on a complimentary basis as a part of the ongoing management of and interpretation within the Refuge.  Your refuge fee of $5 per day goes toward maintaining the island and offering these events, so there is no fee associated with them.

Many events and activities are available on an ongoing basis, or on a rotating schedule.  Several special tours are not regularly scheduled, but can be easily done by the ranger staff with advance notice.  A partial list is noted below, and please inquire if you have special interests:

• videos are scheduled three nights a week and others can be scheduled upon request
• night walks, star gazing and other special tours can be arranged with advance notice
• presentations by visiting staff or researchers on the subject of his/her expertise.

Sand Island Tour:

This 1 hour walking tour explores the center of Sand Island and covers the historical and natural history of Midway, up to and including the environmental cleanup, and USFWS activities.  Glimpse a century of history on Midway through artifacts of those eras encountered on the walk.  Look into the biology of birds encountered on this walk: Laysan albatross, black-footed albatross, white terns, black and brown noddies, curlews, plovers, ruddy turnstones, even imported mynahs and canaries.  Points of interest include:

One of the memorials visited on the tour

Eastern Island Tour:

After a 15 minute ride from Sand Island to Eastern Island in an LCD (a landing craft still operable from the military days), rangers will introduce you to the historic site of the Battle of Midway.  You will walk on the historic runways (now used by nesting sooty terns and Laysan and Blackfoot albatross), see artifacts like anti-aircraft guns/DEW-era antenna locations, plane revetments, ”instant pillboxes” and get a pictorial glimpse of what it was like nearly 60 years ago.  See birds that aren’t on Sand Island: great frigate birds, boobies (red-footed, masked and brown), sooties and Christmas shearwaters.  Understand how and why these beaches are used by monk seals and turtles, and learn about marine debris, its sources, hazards and victims.

Remains of the historic runway on Easten Island

See an experiment in progress: USFWS has started a short-tailed albatross decoy “colony”, also hopefully view and discuss the single short-tailed albatross found lounging often in colony.  Rangers will discuss native plants and plant restoration efforts, as well as historical uses of current plants like the sea grape.  The Navy planted it as camouflage and now it serves as nests for red-footed boobies.

This 2 hour excursion to Eastern Island is truly a Natural History open lesson plan!

Wild West Beach Trail:

The West Beach Trail was set up for the purpose of closing West Beach to human use and making it more available for the Hawaiian Monk Seal and Green Sea Turtle, while still making it possible for people to view the seals and the beach. In addition, it makes available some hard to find relics of WWII era Midway.

Rangers will discuss various topics in this area of the Island, such as:

Looking down the west beach

Self-Guided History Tour:

Go at your own pace as you work your way through the significant points of interest in Midway’s history.   Did you know President Roosevelt sent the first telegram around the world through Midway?  Or that President Bush, after being shot down by the Japanese, was picked up from his life raft by an American submarine that carried him to safety on Midway?  And that President Nixon used Midway as the setting for secret peace talks with President Thieu of Vietnam to find a way to halt the war?  Find out about all these fascinating facts as you take this self-guided tour through Midway’s Sand Island.

Some points of interest: