Over the past few days, we have investigated two towns in the Kenai Peninsula--Homer and Seward. We left Palmer (near Anchorage) and traveled the Sterling Highway to our next camping spot--the Kenai Princess Lodge and RV Park. There are about 23 sites at the base of the lodge, and any campers can use the services of the lodge as if they were staying there. Princess Cruise Lines calls this their "Wilderness Lodge," as it sits on a hill overlooking the Kenai River and Lake at a small town called Cooper Landing and is at least an hour from the nearest town with major services. The lodge has a nice restaurant, and I'll post a recipe from the dining room manager for Smoked Salmon Dip-yum!
The Kenai is all about fishing. Period. Whether the salmon are running or not, people are out on the river, on the lake, on the banks of the river, on the banks of the lake, wading in the river and putting those lines in the water! We are currently in between salmon runs, but people are still fishing! Brad spoke to a fisherman in the motorhome beside us, and he said that today the fishing was lousy, but they saw a lot of bear, including grizzlies. When you are trying to get salmon up a river stream, what you are really doing is snagging the salmon, so no live bait is used--artificial bait called flies are used.
From where we are staying at Cooper Landing, we drove the Sterling Highway about 2.5 hours southwest to Homer, AK, at the end of the Kenai. We drove through a small community called Anchor Point, whose claim to fame is that the Sterling Highway's most western point of any highway in North America goes through their town. Homer has a small downtown area, but is really better known for something called "the Homer Spit," which is a small piece of land jutting out into a body of water where one side is salt water and the other is fresh water. The tides come in and out of land areas, and there is a place called the fishing hole where halibut are caught at 200 to 400 pounds. On the spit, there were motorhomes and campers everywhere, backed up to the ocean and bay. When the tide is out, they rest; when the tide is in, they fish. While in Homer, we toured the Pratt Museum and the Island and Oceans Federal Research Center.
Another day we drove from Cooper Landing to Seward, AK, about 1 hour from our campsite. About 10 miles from Seward, we stopped at Exit Glacier. It was named because in 1968 a group of climbers were on the Harding Icefield, and they were trying to find a way to Seward after missing a boat connection. That location seemed a good one to "exit" the Icefield. Brad and I hiked the 2.6 mile round-trip to the face of the glacier. It was very cool temperature-wise. Blue ice as well as all the rocks and materials glaciers collect was visible. An interesting note is that they have tracked the glaciers receding and have signs posted where the glacier began in 1815. There is no doubt that this glacier is receding at an accelerating rate in the past 20-30 years. Glaciers are moving ice with waterfalls and glacier silt coming under and out of the glacier, so it is obvious you can see it melting. From Exit Glacier, we traveled on to Seward, which seems more of a port town with shops and museums. There is a wonderful harbor and boats of all sizes were in port. The Alaska Train also has a terminus there. There weren't the individual fishermen everywhere like in Homer, but there were several fishing charters for hire to fish on the Sound.
Leaving the Kenai Peninsula, we headed to our final seaside town--Valdez. We are staying at Eagle's Rest RV Park. Along the way to Valdez, we started passing bicycles somewhere in the area of Sheep Mountain on the Glenn Highway. The further along we went, the more bicycles we saw. We arrived at the Eagle's Rest RV Park on the outskirts of Valdez and found out that the Fireweed 400 bicycle marathon was occurring the weekend we were there. By the evening, our campground was packed full of cyclists and their tents and their families, and their RVs! It was a crowded camp!
Along the Richardson Highway from Glenellen to Valdez, we stopped at what may be our favorite National Park in Alaska--Wrangell - St. Elias National Park. There is a very nice visitor's center near Copper River that is really worth a stop. The park actually has the highest coastal mountain range in North America with many high peaks (only Mt. McKinley is higher). Brad would like to fly over the park the next time we are in Alaska. There is great potential here, but it is difficult to get into the park very far at this time. The park was authorized in 1980, so it is very new and beautiful as well as being the largest U.S. national park.
During our drive to Valdez, we drove over Thompson Pass and through Keystone Canyon, both extremely scenic. The town of Valdez is an ice-free port, so it serves as a transportation hub for ferries, freight, and oil. The town was actually moved four miles from its original location in 1969 because of the 1964 earthquake damage. The museums are excellent in Valdez and worth a stop. Animals abound in the bay off Dayville Road and include sea lions and bald eagles. We did not see any bear (black nor grizzly), but they often come near the fish hatchery for fast food we are told by the locals.
We enjoyed each of these Alaskan seaside towns--Homer, Seward, and Valdez. We both agree that Valdez is our favorite of the three.
We arrived back in Tok on July 10 and now feel we are headed back home via ferry as much as possible!
Jane and Brad
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