It figures! The day we were scheduled to leave Homer was the nicest day we’ve had. It was clear, blue, and calm.
This pair of eagles greeted me early in the morning as I stepped outside with my cup of coffee – no more than fifty feet away. Gotta love sights like this.
Homer was fun, a bit on the touristy side, but fun. A couple of the man-made sights you can see driving around town (besides all of the dead boats) include these over to the left. The one with all the buoys is actually the front of a café converted house with these spilling out the door – a form of art I suppose. It does catch the eye though.
From the Inn, the below was our view looking down Bishop Beach towards the Homer Spit and the mountains across the bay.
As we made it up the road a ways, Mt. Redoubt came into view again - and was looking so good I just had to take its picture and show it to all of you.
We made it up to the City of Kenai after a short drive from Homer. Kenai is one of the original early Russian towns built on the Kenai Peninsula and still has a fairly strong Russian heritage.
One of the reasons we wanted to visit Kenai was to see the Russian Orthodox church there that we had read about. The onion domes of these old Russian buildings fascinate me.
The Holy Assumption of Saint Mary Russian Orthodox Church was originally established in 1791 and the current building was built in 1894. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970 (one of 49 in Alaska) and is one of the oldest Orthodox Churches on mainland Alaska. They are still active and provide weekly services.
As a whole, this church is considered among the top and most lasting icons of Russian Alaska in Alaska today. Pretty awesome little bit of history.
A short distance away from the church is the Chapel of St. Nicholas – this little chapel was built as a tribute to Igumen (Abbot) Nikolai, the first missionary in the Kenai area and was built over his grave.
While we were in Kenai we took the time to go out on the beach for a short walk. One of the things that caught our attention is that this area has one of the biggest tides in the United States and when we looked over towards the harbor a lot of the boats were sitting on the sand. (It was low tide.) Most were moored to buoys further out though. Cute little sign on the beach with Mt. Redoubt in the background – what a sight!
As we headed towards Seward we were greeted with some of the most amazing scenery this country has to offer – I am so glad this day was sunny and mostly clear. Below is a view near Moose Junction, almost to Seward.
We got into Seward and was overwhelmed with this view of the harbor with all the mountains and glaciers in the background. Seward was named after Secretary of State William Seward who arranged for its purchase from the Russians for $7,200,000 (about two cents per acre). If you compare it with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo where the U.S. took control of half of New Mexico, most of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California and parts of Wyoming and Colorado the price worked out about the same – except the U.S. had to take Texas in the bargain (just pulling your strings David). Even with all the oil in Texas and gold in California, Alaska has provided three times the oil, gold and minerals of all these states combined. Pretty amazing place.
The historic Iditarod Trail started in Seward at Mile 0 of the Seward Highway or downtown – yes, Seward does have a downtown. There are tourist trips with the sled dogs but during this time of year most of the sleds have wheels.
When we made our reservations for all of our stops in Alaska you just can’t guarantee that all the accommodations will be adequate or even nice. We had booked a place in Seward called the Nauti Otter, not fancy at all, just a creaky old house with a few little “unique cabins” outside. But it did have its own special Alaska charm. We won’t be staying there again – ever! (Luckily it was only for two days.)
As we were walking along the harbor walk we ran into this little Sea Otter just floating along and munching on snacks that he gleaned off the bottom of the harbor. Did you know that the Sea Otter can live its entire life without leaving the water.
Did you know that the Sea Otter is one of the few mammal species on earth to use a tool to help it hunt and feed. It wedges a rock between its chest and the “armpit” of a foreleg and pounds shells against it to open them up. The Sea Otter also hammers rocks against strongly gripping Abalone shells to pry them off of rocks and feed on their tasty insides. I can honestly say that I have seen them do this and it is pretty cool!
Did you know that to keep from drifting apart while they snooze, Sea Otters often sleep holding paws. Cute!
The main reason we decided to come to Seward was the Kenai Fjords National Park. Of those who have not heard of Kenai Fjords National Park it is a hard to get to park. It has a dramatic landscape of ice, tidewater glaciers and deep sided fjords with stunning islands. The park is capped by the Harding Ice Field which feeds all of the glaciers (38 of them) and streams in the area. We were able to see Grey Whales, Humpback Whales, Sea Otters, Puffins, Orcas, Dall Porpoises, Sea Lions, as well as many others – and that was in addition to the glaciers. It was an extremely well run tour even though the seas were rough and the weather down right crappy. There were quite a number of people hanging over the rail “chumming” or sitting in their chairs with a slightly green tint and their face in a bag. We didn’t have any problems though.
These little guys are known as a Murre. They look something like a penguin but can still fly – although their landings are really comical. They are the deepest diving sea bird that can still fly and have been caught in crab pots down as far as 640 feet. I said they could fly – I didn’t say they were smart.
These guys are Stellar Sea Lions and are the largest member of the “eared seal” family. They can grow up to 11 feet long and weigh up to 2400 pounds. From what we saw they like to fight and bite at each other – they have really big teeth!
We saw a lot of whales on the tour but only caught this one giving us a “fluke” shot as it dived towards the bottom. Although we didn’t get many pics of the whales we did see ten to fifteen of them over the day but none of them gave us the full up out of the water breech we were hoping for.
This guy was a Humpback but we also saw Grey Whales, Dall Porpoises and Orcas.
Here are a couple of Horned Puffins just hanging around the cliff sides. More about them later. The tour boat captain would bring the boat right next to the island cliff sides so we could take pictures.
It took us about an hour and a half to get to the glacier and as we got closer and closer the temps dropped, the wind picked up and the rain increased. The last time I looked at the info screen on the boat it was 38 degrees near the face of the glacier – on the 4th of August!
When we got a bit closer to the glacier we started running into these little, but cool icebergs – this one was kind of eerie.
The main Glacier we went to see was the Aialik Glacier.
Aialik Glacier is the largest glacier on the Harding Ice Field and is known for its vivid blue coloration. The size of this thing, as our captain maneuvered the boat in close, was almost intimidating as it popped and cracked and the air turned colder and colder.
Cows have calves - glaciers calve icebergs, which are chunks of ice that break off glaciers and fall into the water. Ice breaks because of the forward motion of a glacier, which makes the end of the glacier unstable as it moves out over the water. We were lucky enough to be right up close when this one decided to give birth to a bunch of little icebergs.
The explosive sound they make as they calve is a cross between a very close thunder clap and a cannon shot, then the wall of ice fell off the face of the glacier rumbling as it went – you could actually feel the vibrations through the air and the boat as the ice hit the water below and created a 4 to 6 foot wave that came toward the boat. This was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! It was one of those experiences that made me say “Let’s do that again.” But the glacier didn’t listen – it does its entirely own thing.
We happened on to a pod of Orcas (or Killer Whales) in what looks like they were having dinner on some poor victim. These guys were another bunch that I just couldn’t get the camera up for fast enough.
The tour ended with a stop at Fox Island and a full blown Prime Rib and Alaskan King Crab (legs only) dinner – damn the bad luck! I was so looking forward to hot dogs and beans.
The next day we headed to the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward. This is Alaska’s Public Aquarium and gave us the opportunity to get up close to some of these awesome animals.
Close up of a male Stellar Seal – this one was a bit of a bully as he swam around and harassed all the smaller ones.
One of the many Sea Anemone at the Center. They get a bit dramatic with the lighting at times.
The Tufted Puffin – you can see the tufted part and how they got their names. They only come to land when it’s time to nest and have one baby – then back out to sea.
The Horned Puffin – can dive down to 250 feet and again only comes to land when it’s time to nest.
The visit at the Alaska Sealife Center seemed to fly by but we still had another stop this day.
Exit Glacier - another glacier that comes from the Harding Ice Field in the Kenai Mountains. It is one of Kenai Fjords National Park's major attractions and is accessible by car and a short walk.
It received its name because it served as the exit for the first recorded crossing of the Harding Ice Field in 1968 (by foot).
All around the glacier there are streams like these rushing down the mountain sides. There are hundreds of them and as you drive down the Alaskan roads we have covered so far they seem to be a constant companion.
The second two days of our stay at Seward we moved over to the Seward Military Resort. (Unfortunately we were not able to book all four days there when we made reservations so we could only get two.) We will know better next time and plan further ahead. Compared to our previous accommodations, this place was nice with a capital Nice and even had their own charter service for fishing and tours. We watched the groups come in one evening with fish big enough to hang over all the sides of wheelbarrows as they brought them in for cleaning. I couldn’t help but think that the fish I had caught in Homer were nothing but bait!
As with any place you visit, there comes a time to leave and it was time once again. This time it was back up through Anchorage and over to an area called Glacier View – Yup! - another glacier. (There does seem to be a few of those things around here.)
We moved on to our next stop - Majestic Valley Wilderness Lodge. It is quite the place and after two days here I would recommend it to anyone traveling in this part of the country. The lodge does double duty - in that in the winter time they use it as a heli-ski lodge and transport snow people up to unused slopes and snowboarding spots by helicopter. The grounds are filled with flowers and the surrounding trails filled with blueberries ready for the picking – we did get a few of those. Besides all that, the views were outstanding.
Just down the road is Matanuska Glacier. It is one of Alaska's most accessible glaciers, a 27-mile long river of ice poking out of the Chugach Mountains that is visible for miles along the Glenn Highway. It creeps along at about one foot a day and when it melts it feeds the Matanuska River.
The reason I mentioned that it was Alaska’s most accessible glacier is because we drove up to the trail head – paid our access fee and went hiking on a glacier. I can’t honestly say that doing this was ever on my mind or one of my desires, but the opportunity presented itself and I have to admit it was really cool – literally – really cool!
As we were hiking around and watching every step we took we ran into a woman and child who were checking it out also. All of a sudden there was a very low pitched crack and a small jolt under our feet. You should have seen her eyes! They were as big as dinner plates! I told her it was the glacier cracking and settling and she seemed fine with that. (I really had no idea.)
So we wandered about for a while avoiding the crevasses, mud, and water taking pictures as we went.
With this bit of our trip complete and a number of “firsts” for us out of the way, it’s on to Valdez - and perhaps other unknown adventures.
Since we haven’t seen a lot of sun these last few weeks (therefore no sunsets) I’ll have to leave you with a view of our current back yard – but that’s not bad, not bad at all.
Stay tuned for the further adventures of
Lee & Linda in Alaska
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