On the road: July 2023

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Kenai Peninsula

July 21, 2023

After leaving Seward, we drove down to Homer and experienced more rain and fog. We camped at Anchor Point State Park and were surprised to find ourselves at the most westerly point on the US highway system.

Anchor Point - across is Cook Inlet is Katmai National Park - not visiting because of the

pricetag to fly over there.

We made it out to the end of the Homer Spit to Land's End. When in Homer, it is something

you have to do.

From the highway overlook as we approached Homer, fog completely covered the town

and water with the mountaintops sticking up.

We have visited numerous visitor centers in state and national parks, national forest ranger stations, and other public facilities and we were blown away by this one in Homer. The detail of the displays was amazing

down to the kelp-shaped bronze hardware on the doors and shells and fish figures embedded in the floor. We saw a film about the amazing people who endure much hardship to conduct wildlife studies in the Aleutian Islands.

In Soldotna, we stopped at another visitor center. We have skipped other opportunities in Alaska to "kiss a moose", but this one was hard to pass up.

Early morning moose sightings after leaving Captain Cook State Park Campground...

The town of Kenai has Russian roots. While there, we had a very clear morning to see some of the volcanic mountains across Cook Inlet, some quite active as recently as 2009.

Mt. Redoubt, erupted in 2009

Mt. Iliamna

Before leaving Soldotna, Kris was able to get a refill on her seizure meds in preparation for going back into Canada in about 10 days. She felt like she had an ear infection so we stopped in at an urgent care clinic. Surprise! We both tested positive for covid for the first time and were handed boxes of paxlovid. We returned to our favorite Alaska campground in the Portage Valley to rest and recuperate for four days. Our symptoms were very mild and we were able to nap each afternoon and hike a little each day.

Not a bad place to isolate!

Glacial erratic behind one of the outhouses in the campground

Cottonwood seeds in drifts along the "Bird to Gird " Trail

(Bird Point on Turnagain Arm to Girdwood)

equipment used in avalanche mitigation

Before leaving the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet, we finally timed it right to witness the bore tide.

With tide chart in hand, we settled in at an overlook and saw one come in. This is the only place in the US that one can be seen. We saw one in New Brunswick back in 2015.

These were the only belugas we were able to spot in the area:

We made a short overnight visit to Anchorage for an oil change and to buy groceries. While there, we had a picture-perfect day to make a return visit to Hatcher Pass north of Palmer. I think half of Alaska residents were waiting for the great weather because the place was overrun with people and cars. Below are pictures of both of our visits, taken about two weeks apart:

Our van was the only vehicle in the parking area on our first visit.

Look at all the cars! We had to hike up to the Hatcher Pass monument.

a "Sound of Music" moment

A woman gave us this painted rock some weeks ago at an overlook along

the Alaska Highway. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to take a photo

and post it on her Facebook page as requested.

Just down the road from Hatcher Pass is Independence Mine State Historical Site with the ruins of a gold mining operation.

Monday, July 24, 2023

Kenai Fjords National Park

July 24, 2023

The Kenai Peninsula has special significance to Kris. In 1975, she spent two months

in Alaska visiting relatives, camping, and fishing on the Kenai River. She caught a king salmon on the Kenia, had it packed in dry ice, and flew home to Houston with it. Her father grilled salmon steaks

and pronounced them the most expensive salmon we ever ate. So many good memories of that

summer as we traveled around the Kenai Peninsula!

My favorite flowers were growing in passes along the roadway for miles!

The splash of a spawning salmon heading upstream next to a roadside pullout.

According to the locals, the weather has been rainy and cloudy most of the summer with only a handful of sunny days. When we arrived in Seward and stopped at the Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center, we learned of a guided ranger walk at the Exit Glacier part of the park (the only part accessible by road) so off we went. We were very fortunate to have good weather while up there and the ranger was excellent. While only 24 years old, her parents were both park rangers and she grew up in Seward. She related her experiences with the retreat of Exit Glacier in her lifetime as documented in annual family photos taken at the glacier. We did not hike all the way to the Harding Icefield, but did make it out to the point where the toe of the glacier was in 2005.

For several years, we have anticipated a boat cruise in Kenai Fjords NP to see whales. While the weather was miserable, the wildlife viewing was epic. The boat crew said we were fortunate to see all of the different animals we encountered in the 8 hours we were in Resurrection Bay and the Gulf of Alaska - sea otters, sea lions, many kinds of birds including two species of pufin, humpback whales, and orcas. The humpbacks in the Gulf of Alaska use a feeding technique known as "bubble netting". It is a learned, cooperative behavior not observed in other parts of the world. They only use it for a short period each summer and we witnessed it! We kept pinching each other to reassure ourselves that we were really experiencing it. Although pictures can't do justice to what we saw and the boat captain had to keep his distance by law, here are my feeble attempts at photographing what we saw.