Seward to Homer: The Charms of the Kenai Peninsula

(July 8) – Breakfast in Seward was back at Alaska Nellie’s Roadhouse this morning. Nellie’s was busy, but had room for us and fed us well. They even served grits AND prepared them well.
We headed out of town in the direction of Homer, roughly 170 miles away at the end of the Kenai Peninsula, west and south of Seward. We stopped not far out of town to see the Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park (KFNP). We keep remembering that there are said to be 100,000 glaciers in Alaska and we marvel anew at such a plethora of ice.

The news of the day included a story of hikers in the KFNP who were attacked by a bear. Everywhere in the Park we saw warning signs about the potential to come face to face with bears in the woods there. We didn’t see any bears, but saw a vehicle that had come there from Argentina. The folks had a huge map on the side of their car showing their path up through the Americas to Alaska.
Moving on down the road, we stopped to walk around near a boat launch on the Kenai River where we could see mountain goats high on a mountainside. Without binoculars, they were just tiny white spots against the green of the mountain. Even with the aid of binoculars, we couldn’t be sure they were goats rather than sheep. Again, there were signs of caution about bears.
Ellen had heard about a book that details Alaska’s roads, milepost by milepost. We found it very useful in knowing where we were and what was nearby along the way. We could identify the lakes and rivers we passed and we were amazed to find warnings about “Moose Danger Zones” along the highway. Apparently there have been many accidents involving cars and moose. The animals are so huge that such collisions can be fatal to all concerned.

Then we drove on to Cooper Landing to Gwin’s Lodge, a log cabin eatery and store with cabins for rent just between the Kenai River and the Russian River. We’ll be coming back to Cooper Landing in a couple of days to stay at a different lodge nearby. Gwin’s lunch today was hearty (including smoked salmon chowder) and good. We took advantage of a sale in the store to buy souvenirs and presents for the people back home.
This is sport fishing country -- in a big way. We passed one of many fishing charter companies and saw a group of men standing in front of a rack on which their catch of the day was displayed. They had a row of huge halibuts hanging there and looked quite proud of themselves. I don’t think any of the fish was close to the weight of the unofficial record halibut that weighed more than 460 pounds, but these guys had achieved what they wanted to accomplish, to come home with a big fish.
We stopped here and there along the road, once to attempt to capture four volcanoes that are part of the Pacific “ring of fire.” Because they are all the way across Cook Inlet from the highway, the nearest of the four is more than 50 miles away and the farthest two are more than 80 miles away. One of them, Mount Redoubt, only 54 miles away, erupted fairly recently. The cloudy conditions made this a difficult photograph, but the sight of that mountain range with snowy tops is an awe-inspiring sight.

The wildflowers are blooming everywhere along the roads here. There are beautiful blue and white lupines and some flowers that look like Queen Anne’ Lace, but are much larger than those we see in the Southeast. We found out later that these are called Pootschki or Cow Parsnip and if you touch them, you’ll break out in blisters. If they are burned, just breathing in the smoke can blister your esophagus. While Alaska has no snakes or reptiles, it does have a number of “defensive” plants that can hurt the uninformed.
We drove through the town of Soldotna, a fishing mecca that actually has many of the oh-so-American fast food outlets that we haven’t seen along our way until now. There was also, however, the local bakery with a sign outside that said something like: “When the aliens come, they’ll eat the skinny blondes first with a side of one of our muffins.” That, we’re thinking, is Alaskan humor.
Not far from Soldotna is Clam Gulch. As you might imagine from its name, it is famous for clam-digging and specifically for the razor clams that abound here. You have to have a license to dig and the rules for harvesting them are very specific as to the number one can take, regardless of size.
We cruised through Anchor Point, a little town that bills itself as “the westernmost highway point in Alaska.” It sits at the mouth of Cook Inlet, not far beyond Ninilchik with its famous and tiny old Russian Orthodox Church with onion domes. Once again, the influence of Russian history in Alaska was visible.

The road turns further south toward Homer and we stopped at a park overlooking Kachemak Bay to gaze across at the Kenai Mountains on the other side as we entered Homer, “The Halibut Capital of the World.” Homer lies along the end of the Kenai Peninsula, then actually stretches farther out into the bay on the 4.5 miles of Homer Spit, a narrow bit of land that ends at our hotel, the Land’s End Resort.
The spit itself is a mélange of RV’s, shops, hotels, boat marinas, campgrounds and other tourist sights. It’s not a pretty sight, but sits in the middle of gorgeous natural surroundings. Across the water from our hotel is the Grewingk Glacier in the middle of the long line of mountain peaks.

We’ve seen bald eagles, both sitting atop poles along the spit and flying nearby over the water. They are such a common sight that wildlife regulations remind us that it’s illegal to feed them. However much they seem at home close to people here, they are still wild creatures and deserve our respect and awe. In some Alaska communities recently, there have been stories about eagles hurting people, apparently because there’s more proximity than is wise.
We went out to dinner at Café Cups, a very kitschy little restaurant in a colorful building in Homer. The décor was inventive and the food was delicious. Coming back to the hotel after 11PM, we saw sea otters floating on their backs in the bay and an eagle perched atop a nearby light pole. It is, of course, still quite light at this time of night here in summer, but the sun was “setting” and tinting the tops of clouds a glorious pink color. We’ve had a long and pleasant day and will sleep well, no matter how light it is outside!

[Note: My apologies for any typos or strange construction in these Alaska posts. Many of them have been written very late and haven't undergone the rigors of editing from which they might have benefitted if Mike and I read and corrected them before publishing. I hope they give you some sense of the wonders we're experiencing in this magnificent place.]
[Photos by Mike Lumpkin]