Alaska Part III: July 4-July 10, 2005
Journals
What a week! It's been sunny and warm all week up here (warm being about 75 max) with only a shower or two-from everything we've heard about the Kenai Peninsula, this weather seems like great luck. We were even able to swim in a nice lake this week-warm enough to get in without a wetsuit, and stay in for a while too! More on that later. Monday the 4th of July, we drove south from Talkeetna about 100 miles to a state park right outside of Anchorage. We left the camper there and headed into town to check it out and get some shopping done. There was a 4th of July fair going on in a park downtown-music, food, etc. I had a reindeer polish there-tasty! Anchorage seemed like a much nicer town than Fairbanks-a little larger and more going on, probably in part due to the proximity of Anchorage to the Kenai-many of the cruise ships dock in Seward or Whittier on the Kenai, and many of the tourists probably make it to Anchorage, but not as far north as Fairbanks. On Tuesday, we drove south out of Anchorage, and down towards Homer on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula. What an outstanding drive-around the Turnagain Arm (tail end of the Cook Inlet coming in from the Gulf of Alaska), and then through the mountains. We found a nice state park on Johnson Lake about 50 miles north of Homer-as soon as we pulled in I knew it was a good spot for us-lakefront spots, and lots of people in the water swimming! We set up camp, got the kayak in the water, and hit the lake for the afternoon. The lake wasn't too big, but was kind of nice because it was a double lake with a passage from one side to the other-we were able to pretty much kayak the whole thing. On Wednesday, we left the camper behind and drove down into Homer-another beautiful drive along the coast. It was a sunny, clear day, so we were able to see several of the glaciated volcanos to the west, and all of the mountains and glaciers surrounding Homer. We parked in town and rode our bikes about 4 miles out on to the Homer Spit-it's a strip of land leading out into the bay until it terminates. Although you can drive you car or even an RV out there, we thought it would be more fun to bike. We had lunch out there, and then a beer at the Salty Dog Tavern-an historic old bar. We also stopped by the ferry terminal there to pick up our tickets for the ferry from Valdez to Cordova and back.Wednesday evening we headed back to the lake for more fun in the water. On Thursday, we pulled the camper back around towards Seward on the east end of the Kenai, and found another nice park on the shores of the Kenai River about 20 miles north of Seward. We left the camper there and headed into Seward to check out a couple of options for Friday. There is a mountain there called Mt. Marathon-they run a race to the top of the mountain and back each 4th of July-we missed that, but thought it would be a good climb for us. Although it's no marathon, it is a 3,022 foot vertical rise from town to the summit, and only a 3.5 miles round trip! That's a lot of vertical for 1.75 miles up-and the trail was that steep. Apparently, this year's winner made the round trip in 35 minutes-amazing. We left camp early on Friday morning, and it took us about 2 hours to get to the top even though we moved at a steady pace. After we broke out of treeline, the views of the town and Resurrection Bay were outstanding. The mountains around Seward are a lot closer than those around Homer: our peak was right on the edge of town, and surrounded by the higher peaks and glaciers of the Chugach Mountains. The trip down was much quicker, although still a lot of effort because of the steepness of the trail. From there, we drove over to the Exit Glacier: it's the only part of Kenai Fjords National Park that can be accessed by vehicle. You are able to park close to the glacier, and hike over about a mile to get pretty close to it-they do have it roped off so you can't actually get on it like we did in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. So, although it was worth the drive over to check it out, it was a bit anticlimactic because of our previous experience (it's also a far smaller glacier). We went back into Seward and drove by the two big cruise ships-one big, and one huge! Those look like a lot of fun, and we plan to take one up through the Inside Passage some day. After a quick snack at Taco Dan's (halibut quesedillas!), we left town and headed back to camp. Saturday morning, we broke camp and drove back north to the same state park from the 4th of July, just north of Anchorage. We drove back into town for another resupply and laundry, and then did a little more sightseeing around town before heading back to camp-it hit about 77 degrees in Anchorage, which for them is like a heat wave. While reading the paper, I noted that Denver seems to be sitting in the mid-90s every day this week: glad we are missing out on that weather! Sunday morning, we broke camp and drove east out of Anchorage towards Valdez-we had to cover about 200 miles on Sunday in order to be close to Valdez to catch the ferry at 7:15pm on Monday the 11th. It was another outstanding drive across the southeast part of the state through the mountains-some very large glaciers along this route (Glenn Highway). Sunday evening we prepared to leave the camper behind for about a week-we'll be roughing it in some forest service cabins without a refrigerator, running water, or TV! We've gotten so used to the camper these days-I hope we can handle it! This report covers some of the best scenery we have had so far on this trip-it sure would have been nice to have a couple more days to spend in the Kenai, but we've got these ferry reservations for Cordova. Oh well, we can always come back and Cordova sounds pretty promising too. Lisa and I wish everyone the best, and we are starting to look forward to beginning the drive home and seeing everyone back home. Next report may be somewhat delayed because I won't be taking my laptop to Cordova.
Click any of the above photos to enlarge the image!