North to Alaska - Homer

We arrived at the Homer Spit early this afternoon. The Spit is a long and narrow piece of land jutting out 4.5 miles from the end of the peninsula. It’s only about 200 yards wide but is lined with shops, restaurants, fishing and sightseeing charters and campgrounds for about 2 miles.



This photo is at the memorial for lost sailors next to our campground, right next to our camp sight on the beach.

During one of the girls shopping sprees they came across this shirt and had to get a picture for our friends who worked at John Deere.

We ran across one of the charter companies that had just returned for the day. This was an average days catch for a halibut charter.

The girls couldn’t resist climbing inside a King Crab Cage. Al said, “they look right at home”.



I mentioned in a previous post the days in Alaska are very long. This photo of Barb and Al was taken at 11pm.

North to Alaska - Soldotna

We headed out of Seward this morning on our way to Homer. The road curves around the mountains and runs along the Kenai River. The picture below is just below the confluence of the Russian and the Kenai. The King Salmon were running and the banks were lined with fishermen hoping to catch their quota for their quota for the day.



We decided to stay over in Soldotna and tour the area for the remainder of the day. We setup camp at Fred Meyer's parking lot. We had learned that this large chain not only allowed, but encouraged RV'rs to spend the night on their property. They even had an employee to direct you to your site. I imagine they discovered that RV’rs spend lots of money in their stores. I know we do. Barb and Al took a rest after walking up from the fishing platform at the visitor’s center.



Below is an original Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1849. It’s located in the town of Kenai. In 1970 Holy Assumption Church was designated a National Historic Landmark. You will recall that Alaska was originally owned by Russia.



This very small church has fewer than 30 parishioners, but is ably staffed by Father Thomas Andrew. He has been married for 47 years has been in Alaska since the 1960’s. He was quite informative and told us all about the history of the church over the years.



Late this afternoon we decided to take a hike through the Kenai Wildlife Nature Refuge hoping to find some wildlife. At the halfway point, the trail opened up on a beautiful lake with a great view of the mountains. But, no wildlife other than the three senior citizens accompanying me.

North to Alaska - Seward 2

We decided to get some exercise today by hiking to a nearby glacier. It's named Exit Glacier because it was the most convenient way to exit the Harding Ice Field. There are about 15 glacier that come off of this ice field.



There is an excellent visitors center staffed by 2 very knowledgeable rangers. The hike we selected for today is about 3 miles long with about 1/3 of it being up a rocky trail to the glacier.



The glacier has been moving quite a bit over the last several years and you are no longer allowed to come very close to it. Over the last 100 years it has receded nearly 1 mile.



As expected the temperature drop was considerable the closer you got to it. With the wind blowing you can see that Barb and Kathy were quite cold. We all were glad we brought along a backpack along with jackets and gloves.



We replenished our energy at Alaska Nellie's with a couple of large hamburgers and fries. Nellie's must be a hometown favorite based on the line to get in.

North to Alaska - Seward

The drive down to Seward was right along the water, a bay called Turnagain Arm. With each each corner we rounded there were breathtaking views.



As Kathy was taking my picture she kept telling me to backup. I didn't realize there was a ledge, did she?

We drove down to the docks and found this fellow cleaning about 40 Salmon that the fishery had given him. These fish did not fit the criteria for sale by the fishery, so they were pulled out and donated to the senior center.

During our walk around the docks we ran into this group of girls who were set on showing their Alaskan toughness by jumping into the 35 degree water.

They have a great small boat harbor here in Seward. There are a lot of nice sailboats here.

This afternoon we visited the Ocean Sea Life Center. It was fairly expensive but the aquariums with seals, sea lions, salmon displays, halibut were very impressive. The girls couldn't resist having us make a fool of ourselves.

The sea lion below called "Woody" weighed in at 2000+ lbs.

North to Alaska - Anchorage 3

On Friday afternoon we picked up our friends Al & Barb Reiff at the Anchorage International Airport. They flew up to spend some time with us on our visit of the Kenai Peninsula, Denali and the Fairbanks areas.



Alongside the International airport is the worlds largest floatplane base on Lake Hood. The number of planes is unbelievable. There are at least a thousand or more around this lake. Many are tied up at docks just like boats, while others are parked in multiple rows in parking lots around the lake. I just happened to grab this shot of one taking off. I'm told there are as many as 800 takeoffs and landings per day on this lake. By the way there are 3 other small plane airports in the area.




For dinner we headed out to the Sourdough Mining Company. Al, Barb and I each sampled each of the Alaskan Micro Brewery Beers. Following diner we listened to Dusty Sourdough spin some tales about his grandfather tracking down Alexander King in the late 1800's. King, who was rumored to have started the Alaska Gold Rush in 1895, had killed his partner.

North to Alaska - Anchorage 2

Today is absolutely gorgeous in Anchorage. The temperature is in the low 70's with a beautiful blue sky and puffy clouds over the mountains that border the east side of the city. With such a great day, we decided to take a bicycle trip into the city through the green belt to the coastal trail.



Anchorage has a great bicycle trail system through the city with much of the trails running through green belts with multiple parks. Upon reaching the coastal trail, we headed west out to Point Woronzof with a great view of the city and many of the far away mountains. On the way we checked out Earthquake Park that commemorates the devastating 1964 earthquake that devastated the city. On our 6 hour ride, we logged over 30 miles, got lost twice and had lunch in the park.



Our campground is the nicest in Anchorage. They have over 200 fairly large sites with hookups, a nice laundry and host many RV caravans.



This evening the campground owners hosted a cookout complete with entertainment. These two brothers are a local favorite and play a variety of music.

North to Alaska - Anchorage

We arrived in Anchorage about noon today, my birthday. The last 25 miles into Anchorage was on a 4-lane divided highway. I have to say I found it refreshing after driving over a 1000 miles in the mountains on 2-lane roads, where many were narrow and others had tight turns and drop offs with no guardrails. The Chamber of Commerce had a great Visitors Center right in the middle of the city. By the way, the population here is over 284,000.



After spending some time to catch up on the laundry, we headed into town to check out the sites and do a little shopping. There were numerous people fishing in the stream for King Salmon that have begun their migration up stream. We took a picture of me in front of this bear to give you an idea of their enormous size.

Here is one the King Salmon that was caught by a fellow from Hawaii. It weighed in at 30 lbs.

This evening we celebrated my birthday by taking in a movie, Super 8. The popcorn was great and the movie was pretty good too!

North to Alaska - Palmer

We headed out of Valdez this morning on the same road we came in on. On the way back down from the pass we spotted a great place to take a picture of the Alaska Pipeline.



When they constructed the pipeline they purposely included multiple bends because it allows for more flex as the temperature changes.



From Glennallen we headed west on the Glenn Highway. It traverses some incredibly beautiful mountains. The photo below is Lions Head, also called Glacier Point.

There are literally hundreds of glaciers throughout Canada and Alaska. Here is another you can view from the highway. Matanuska Glacier heads in the Chugach Mountains and runs Northwest for 27 miles. Its average width is 2 miles and at its terminus it is 4 miles wide.

This has got to be one of the ugliest animals I have ever seen. It's a Musk Ox and they are trying to domesticate them to harvest their fur called Qiviut. The amazing thing about the Qiviut is that it is 8 times warmer than wool. But, it takes a full year to harvest 4-5lbs so it's very expensive. A neck scarf is $175

Here is a 2 year old Musk Ox. When born, they weigh about 20lbs. Full grown a cow weighs 500-700lbs and a bull can weigh up to 1000 lbs. To determine which bull is the dominant bull for rights to breed with the cows, they charge each other at speeds up to 35mph and butt skulls. This farm has 67 Musk Ox. Some of the younger ones can be hand fed through the fence.

This evening we found a campground on the outskirts of Palmer, about 50 miles from Anchorage.

North to Alaska - Valdez 3

FYI, Sunset today is 11:42 pm. Tomorrow is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.

Following lunch today we decided to head to the Worthington Glacier. I mentioned it on our way to Valdez on Saturday. We heard there was a trail to the glacier and wanted to hike back to it.



In the 1960's, the glacier came right up to the road. Often they would have to chip away parts of it that begin to cover the road. Over the last 50 years it has receded about 1/2 mile. We parked at the visitors center and headed over the trail and then up the rocks to the glacier.

This closer view shows the blue cast that it gives off.

The water run off from the glacier flows into a pool and then into the creek bed that flows out to Valdez Bay.

I couldn't resist walking out and onto the glacier, much to Kathy's dismay. Hikes onto the glacier are conducted by a company in Valdez. They equip you with crampons that hook onto your boots. At the higher elevations there are large crevices that you can climb down with the use of picks and a rope harness. Not today!

Here is one of the much smaller crevices I saw at the bottom of the glacier.

As we finished our hike and climb we met up with Nel. She arrived here in the Valdez area in 1964 as a young lady, and never left. Today she oversees the visitors center. During our visit she pulled out many of her old pictures and shared some stories with us of the past 50 years.

Tomorrow we may head out to Glenallen.

North to Alaska - Valdez 2

The town of Valdez today is totally different than it was at the beginning of 1964. That's because it was leveled by an earthquake in March of 1964. The quake triggered an underwater landslide that washed away the entire waterfront. Three years later, what was left of the town was moved 4 miles west and rebuilt.



The town is populated by 4,100 full time residents. I'm not sure what they do during the winter since the pass over the mountain to the town annually receives 600 inches of snow and is often closed to traffic. Our campground is situated right in the middle of town. It's totally on gravel but we have a great view of the marina and the mountains surrounding the town.

Commercial and sport fishing is a big industry. As we were walking the dock, we came across some Halibut being cleaned and filleted. These 3 weighed in at about 50 lbs each and will yield about 35 lbs each of fillets. Fresh Halibut in the fish market here is running $15.50/lb.

The current leader for this months tournament weighed in at 193 lbs. but these fish can weigh as much as 500lbs. By the way, both eyes are on the same side.

This afternoon we headed out on an expedition to explore a nearby canyon. The trail was quite rough and required us to cross several streams coming down from the steep cliffs,

There are a number of trails that lead back to some beautiful waterfalls.

We couldn't get too close to some of these but were able to zoom in on them with our new Nikon camera. It has a 450mm lens that gets us in close.

Kathy wanted to have a snowball fight.

Following our return to civilization we headed to the other side of the bay to see where they load the supertanker with crude oil from the Alaska Pipeline. Unfortunately the area is off limits to the public so we settled for this picture.

If the weather is better tomorrow we'll probably head out on the tour of Prince William Sound.