Alaska adventure, Mid to Late August, 2019 - Hope, Seward, Homer, Kenai, Kenai Peninsula, AK

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Glacier near Whittier

Passing through Anchorage we stop at the Marsh Bird Sanctuary.  There are only a few ducks swimming along the stream and ponds surrounding the boardwalk.  We also notice very few birders which should have been an indication that this is not necessarily the best time to visit.

Hope, AK

Marsh Bird Sanctuary

Driving onto the Kenai Peninsula, we detour to Hope, Alaska.  It is a very small town, the only activity is at the RV park about half full of campers; all of which seem to be salmon fishing.  The pinks (humpys) are not to be taken, only silvers, the limit based on their size.  People are catching salmon, but throw them back, another humpy.  We don’t see any shops to visit so we enjoy the views, talk with some of the people fishing, continuing on to Seward.

Hope,Alaska

Seward, AK

The mountains on the way to Seward are a steep patch work of green some of them topped by glaciers.  They look inviting to hike but again we know better from our discovery hike in Denali.

Seward Municipal Campground

Arriving at Seward we drive through the multiple campgrounds along the shoreline.  They are grouped from water/electric RV sites, to dry camping RV sites, to tent sites.  All of the RV sites resemble oversized parking spots employing white lines painted on the gravel denoting where one site ends and the next begins.  There are only a few available sites throughout the campgrounds.  Not wanting to camp under such potentially cramped and noisy conditions for the next five days we opt for an RV park a few miles up the road.  These sites are larger with grass.  We have a site for most of the days but another caravan of campers is due, taking up the entire RV park.  We will worry about the last day of our camping accommodations later.  We concentrate on more important items – laundry; once done we are set for another week.

We decide to set an alarm for 7 AM each morning. The soft sides of the camper block out enough light that having the sun set after 10 then rise again very early the next morning does not interrupt our sleep.  Instead, we find we sleep past 8 on several mornings.  We have things to do and see so the alarm at 7 is a good compromise.

Exit Glacier

The Exit Glacier of the Kenai Fjords National Park is only a 15 minute drive away.  The road leading to the park parallels the braided river running from the glacier.  People are boondocking along the riverbed.  Not knowing any better we don’t feel comfortable setting up camp that close to flowing water.

Devils Club

Signs along the road indicate the end of the glacier for a particular year, 1815 the first.  Joining a guided hike fills in our knowledge about glaciers, the Exit in particular.  Cottonwood trees surround us as we make our way towards the glacier.  They are the first and quickest growing trees after glaciers recede with Alder trees following.  There are no spruce trees to be seen.  The gray, ‘flour’ filled river flows fast.  The summer heat is melting the glacier at a high rate causing the flow.  The ‘flour’ is suspended silt from the rocks that have been ground to a powder by the heavy glacier flowing down the mountain.  The blue ice is caused by the heavy weight of the snow compressing most of the air out of the ice, only blue light reflecting.  We visit with the ranger that conducted the tour after it finished.  She had last visited the glacier three days ago commenting on how much it has changed over those three days.  More signs are along our path giving a time line of the glacier.  The years are getting closer and the distances are spreading apart.  We see a 100’ change in glacier position in less than a 10 year span.

Salmon

Returning to the visitor center we scout for additional hiking trails.  Caines Head trail is suggested and we are interested until we find out we have to plan our hike based on the tides.  If we are wrong we can either hike back through the surf where there was beach at low tide or wait for the next low tide.  Tonsina Point is along the same trail as Caines Point but ends before the beach and tide issue.

Our search completed we stop at a few tourist shops to see what items we absolutely need.  We find birch syrup.  We buy a small bottle to compare with the traditional maple.  It has an earthy, less sweet flavor, we like it.

Bear Glacier

The next day we have a day-long boat ride to the Kenai Fjords National Park.  It is somewhat the same trip we took a week earlier with Nicida’s friends but we see the Aialik Glacier instead.  On our way, the captain takes us to an area where a pod of about a dozen orcas has been seen.  This pod is particularly active; tail slaps and many breeches.  They are not close to us, but a long zoom and steady hand help to record nice images of the activity.  We also spot a Humpback Whale, Kitiwakes, Puffins, Sea Lions, Otters and Dall Porpoises.

Aialik Glacier

The Aialik Glacier is huge, only another tour boat in front of the glacier gives it perspective.  It frequently calves in the warm air.  As we approach the glacier we are surrounded by sea ice.  I get the feeling we are in the middle of a slushie.

Our tour includes a salmon and prime rib buffet on Fox Island.  Lines quickly form, plates fill with a bit of salad, a few vegetables, some potatoes, lots of salmon and piles of prime rib.  There is no dessert.  I don’t think it is missed.  Instead, the ship’s crew pass out hot, freshly baked, chocolate chip cookies as our dessert as we board the ship …. Mmmm, my mouth is watering as I write this.

Resurrection Bay

We hike the Tonsina Point trail.  The trail splits almost immediately; low and high.  We opt for the high trail putting us in dark, green, lush forest setting.  The green is so intense it doesn’t look real.  Plant leaves are huge.  I never expected to see this scale of leaves in Alaska; the tropics yes; Alaska, no.  We spot Devils Club, one of the plants with the huge leaves and red fruits.  What is hard to miss is the thorn laden stalks making my thorny blackberry plants at home look mild.  Continuing, we cross small waterfalls finally coming to a salmon filled stream.  They are spawning.  We see the activity of clearing a spot to place the eggs, there is a lot of competition between the salmon, territorial squabbles are constant.  Leaving the trail we find the beach open and dry.  Groups of kayakers paddle along the coast.  An adult bald eagle, chased by a bird less than half its size, lands in a tree overlooking the river.  A few minutes later it takes off gliding over the river snatching a salmon landing in another tree to enjoy lunch.   

Returning, we hike the low trail ending up at a beach on Resurrection Bay.  It is full of people.  You can tell the Alaskans from the tourists; they are going into the water and are laying on the beach in swim suits or shorts and T-shirts.  The rest of us are wearing long pants and shirts with long sleeves; maybe even a light jacket.

We spend rest of the warm and sunny afternoon enjoying Resurrection Bay from Seward.  This is the first time on this trip we have really come to a dead stop….  Nicida prepares dinner; spinach salad topped with leftover home-grilled chicken breast.  We enjoy our memorable meal viewing this wonderful scenery.

Today we are kayaking.  The air is beginning to get a bit hazier from the continuing wildfires as each day goes by, but it is still pretty clear.  We are expecting low 70’s for the high.  We meet Joe, our kayaking guide.  Another couple is kayaking with us so there is a total of five.  A 40 minute water taxi ride takes us to Kayaker’s Cove near Fox Island in Resurrection Bay.  We get a quick class on kayaking; getting in and out, putting on all the gear and paddling.  Each couple gets double kayaks while Joe is in a single.  He tells us how the doubles are also called divorce boats.  There is no breeze and very calm water.  We paddle in and out of small coves seeing a few river otters. Paddling towards a small stream we start seeing salmon heading towards their home stream to spawn.  Some look healthy, others like they have already spawned, ‘zombie fish’ according to Joe.  We paddle upstream as far as we can.  
With the exception of the aroma, the canyon is beautiful.  There are salmon everywhere.  The stream itself has salmon still going to spawn, the rocks lining the stream are filled with dead salmon in all states of decay.  Gulls become boisterous at our arrival.  With so many salmon we become aware that bear may be in the area.  This is our planned lunch stop.  We partly walk, partly scramble up to the top of a small ridge in our oversized heavy rubber boots, seeing a beautiful 30’ waterfall with pool below.  The pool is swarming with salmon.  Stopping for photos we return sampling salmon berries on the way.  Joe decides that while this is a nice area to visit we will find a better spot for lunch, we all agree.

Filleting salmon

Filleting halibut

Ghost forest

Finding a small stone beach we munch on sandwiches, crackers and snacks before moving on to our next destination.  A breeze has come up and the tide has turned causing the water to become a bit choppy.  Crossing between islands, the chop is a bit higher and the breeze stronger, consequently our effort to cross the open water must also increase.  We become mindful of the wakes boats push our way.  We want to face into the waves lessening the chance of tipping.  Getting closer to the island the water calms, and the breeze lessen making the last of the crossing easier.

Resurrection Bay

Disembarking on Fox Island Spit we learn many different things.  The spit was partly formed by the 1964 earthquake which devastated Alaska.  On the spit as well as a few other places in Alaska there are ghost forests.  Here the land dropped up to 20’ allowing salt water the flood the land.  The salt water killed all the trees in the area at the same time partly preserving the remaining trunks, a ghost forest.  Sea anemones and star fish live in a few of the pools on the spit.  High tide is high enough to partly flood parts of the spit allowing these sea creatures to live here.  On the beach itself, we sample one of the green plants high in vitamin C used in the 19^th century to prevent scurvy.

Homer, AK

Homer spit

Leaving Seward, on our way to Homer we see many people fishing the Kenai River for salmon or trout.  It’s not as crowded as the photos of combat fishing I have seen, but it is still crowded.  We will be fishing here in a few days on our way back from Homer so I am interested in seeing the conditions.  The wildfire haze comes and goes.  We see individual spots of smoke rising from the forest surrounding us.  Areas are also burned out.  We know the fires have been recent, the ground is completely black and the smell of smoke is in the air.  We come to Sondotna, the biggest town we have seen since Juneau, it has several stop lights which in our minds makes it bigger than most of the areas we have been lately.  As we approach the north coast of the Kenai the winds pick up.  The view clears because we are suddenly west of the fires on the Kenai.

Rising moon

We drive along the top of a bluff overlooking the Cook Inlet which runs all the way to Anchorage.  Across the Cook Inlet we see multiple volcanoes which make up part of the Ring of Fire.  Many other snow covered mountains interlace with the volcanoes.

Homer is pretty much the end of the Kenai Peninsula, at least easy to get to.  People go to Homer to sport fish, flight see some of the remote areas and flight see bears, which is the reason we are here.  One of the visitor center volunteers suggests several things for us to do and see.  We visit the Pratt Museum displaying natural and settler history in Homer and Kenai Peninsula.  We also learn of the different methods of commercial fishing.

We camp at the Homer Spit campground getting a front row site facing the Cook Inlet.  The views are fantastic.  We see glaciers and a few other volcanoes making up the Ring of Fire.  We witness the moon rising over the glaciers just after sunset, still after 10 PM.

We attend the Homer Theater’s version of the Jungle Book.  The kids, elementary and high school age, play the parts and assist with producing the show. We get to sit in the front row and win the prize for coming the farthest to see their show.

We wake early the next day driving to the airport meeting Kirsten part owner of Ultimate Adventures.  She flies the helicopter taking us to Lake Clark National Park to view grizzly bears.  There is a total of four of us on the tour including Kirsten.  She fits us for hip boots; we will be getting out for close views of the wildlife; bears in particular.  After putting on our PFD’s we get in the copter for the flight to Lake Clark.  Lake Clark is one of the hard to access National Parks.  There are no roads coming here; fly, hike or boat your way.  Mount Iliamna, a dormant volcano, is the place to aim for to come to Lake Clark.  We could see it as we were driving all along the north coast of Kenai Peninsula.  Once we cross the Cook Inlet we see grizzly bears patrolling the beach looking for salmon or crustaceans.  One runs back and forth trying to scare up food while the other lays alongside the stream cooling off and occasionally digging for food.  Finally even that one gets up, walks upstream a bit to roll around in the stream before walking back into the forest.  Noting the bear prints, he walked quite close to our ride but didn’t pay any attention to it.

Mount Iliamna

We return to the copter taking off for a closer look of Iliamna.  The glacier below it is several hundred feet thick.  Small ponds of glacier blue water fill voids in the glacier.  Orange and red rock remind us of the Argentina side of the Andes from our trip last year.  We see many smaller glaciers and resulting waterfalls as we continue flying around Iliamna.

Flying to another bay we stop to visit the ‘official’ Lake Clark National Park Visitor Center but nobody is home.  The rangers are out working elsewhere.  We fly out looking for more bears on the flat of one of the rivers.  We find a mom and two cubs following one so we land upstream from them anticipating them coming our way.  Once we see them the mom raises her nose in the air, takes a sniff, and promptly turns away from the river, and us, her cubs following.  Each of us did see and get a few photos of them before they headed into the tall grasses.

From there we fly up another stream for lunch and a stroll along the river.  Here too the salmon are running, most are in good shape but there are a number of dead ones, most of them being victims of bears.  Bear scat is in the area so we don’t wander too far.

Flying over the sun lit braided river reveals all kinds of random patterns.  We also see patterns of animal trails across the flats leading to the rivers.  We shoot many abstract images of these patterns.

Kenai

We finish our trip with a detour.  Nicida mentions she likes one of the glaciers on the west side of Homer, totally away from Lake Clark.  Kirsten turns the copter in that direction for a look.  We fly another 20 minutes looking at the glacier and the lake below before returning.  We have a great time.  Kirsten is very attentive to our requests, and answers all our questions.  Highly recommended.

Returning to the center of the Kenai Peninsula we stop at the town of Kenai viewing Russian Orthodox churches.  Russian presence in Alaska dates back to the mid 1700’s, before America became a country.

Cooper Landing, AK

We end up camping at a campground outside of Cooper Landing.  We are meeting a guide from Fishing 4 Fun to do some fly fishing.  Our goal is to catch salmon.  This year’s salmon season is irregular given the extreme heat.  On our way to the campground we see small tails of smoke from not yet extinguished wildfires at random locations in the forest with some fairly close to the road.

Salmon fishing

 We comment but don’t think too much about it since we had seen the same type of activity when we passed this way several days ago.  We enjoy our stay for the night getting ready for an early morning rendezvous with our guide.  We are up at 3 to make the 5 AM meet.  Driving back west towards Soldatna we smell smoke and see many orange glowing hot spots in the forest.  Turning on the truck’s hi-beams really shows how bad the smoke is.  Meeting James we ride to Skilak Lake deploying his boat to head towards the headwaters of the Kenai River.  We see sunrise over the mountains riding across the lake.  Another 15 minutes puts us in the river looking for a spot for us to wade.  We pass others already fishing; some for salmon, others for trout.  Finding our spot James passes us the fishing rod, gives us a brief description of what to do and lets us go at it.  This is unlike any fly fishing I do in NM.  We are fishing with 9 Wt rods, with 30lb test line.  The line has a heavy lead weight 5’ above a bare hook.  We use a roll cast move to forcefully throw the weight/hook into the river, let it drift about 8’ then cast again.  Catching salmon is totally by chance.  We feel the lead weight bounce on the rocks on the bottom of the river.  If it feels different - pull hard, we may have a salmon.  The aim is that the hook is in the salmon’s mouth when we pull then we reel it in.  At the end of the day we caught 6 salmon, keeping 5.  Nicida and I are happy we each caught a salmon; she got one, I got two, James three.  We had many more strikes but lost them while reeling them in.  James cleaned them using a portable table he set up in the river.  Gulls hung around knowing salmon parts would be coming downstream at some point of our adventure.

We stop by a processing house in Cooper Landing to have our salmon cut into pieces, vacuum packed, frozen and shipped to NM.  This will be some expensive, but good salmon.

Whittier, AK

Buckner building

Leaving Cooper Landing we notice the smoke has become very thick.  Continuing on to Whittier the air clears.  There is a single lane tunnel between Whittier and the rest of Alaska.  It was dug in the 1940’s during World War II.  There is a specific schedule when one can drive to Whittier or from Whittier.  Missing it means waiting for the next window.  The campgrounds are full forcing us to stay in a hotel for the evening.  We walk the town and port to pass the time admiring the views along the channel.

Salmon

The next day we do our weekly laundry, find a campsite and explore trails and other parts of the town.  The Buckner building built for the army in the ‘40’s is a large abandoned structure.  It was designed to hold 1,000 personnel; has a bowling alley, store, jail, hospital, bank; all the necessary things to support that many troops.  It was abandoned for various reasons and now is too expensive to take down given all the hazardous stuff associated with 1940’s construction.

Buckner building

Whittier

This port has quite a number of larger commercial fishing boats.  We are amazed at the size of the boats, hydraulic arms and nets they use to pull in fish.  By far the largest we have seen to this point.  A small cove on the opposite end of town has another stream full of salmon futilely working their way upstream to spawn.

Portage Glacier

Not having seen the Portage Glacier from the Anchorage end we hike to it from Whittier.  From the  trailhead it is a steep a one mile hike to the pass with an additional mile to Portage Lake providing a direct view of the glacier.  The views from the pass are stunning; we see the channel out from Whittier in one direction and the Portage Glacier in the other.  We enjoy lunch on the shore of the lake.  A tour boat brings tourists close to the glacier for a closer look.  The boat looks like a  toy beside the glacier.

We hike the Horsetail Falls trail.  It starts in a forest working its way up a low mountain.  You can’t get lost, most of the trail is boardwalk.  It starts out three boards wide; after some distance two boards wide and ends with one. Unfortunately the falls portion is under construction but trail ends with a beautiful view of Whittier and the mountains/glaciers lining the channel.  Our last hike is to Emerald Cove, another forested hike leading to a rock lined cove with salmon, driftwood and seaweed lining the low tide coast.  Truly beautiful.

Our day ends up at the Whittier Museum a gem of a museum covering the development of Whittier and Alaska’s part in World War II.  Two islands were actually invaded and occupied by the Japanese, Attu and Kiska.  Jimmy Doolittle was born in Nome.  These are only a few of the stories covered at the museum.  We spent over two hours taking in all the history this museum provides.

Haze from fires builds as we prepare to leave Whittier.  We are taking the Alaska ferry to Valdez, the next stop in our journey.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark