As we continued our journey north via the Alaska Marine Highway we woke up one morning as the ferry was docking in Whittier, Alaska. Back on solid land! We jumped ship with all our luggage and headed to the shuttle stop in a light and cold rain.
Whittier was only a short stop – long enough to get on the shuttle and head towards Anchorage, but we did learn a lot about this place as the shuttle driver had a running narrative to share with us.
We found out that Whittier is ‘the place’ in the United States with the most precipitation on record with an average of over 195 inches per year. The snow’s average depth during the winter is over 20 feet! After hearing that, we understood why the town looked like it did. One HUGE building in the center of the town with a tunnel running from the harbor docks. There were some outbuildings, mostly business related but the only thing bigger than that building was the boat docks. From what the shuttle driver told us the vast majority of the population live, eat, sleep, do business and whatever else from that one building. Interesting way to live.
As we left Whittier, the first thing we ran into (other than the rain) was a 9-mile long tunnel through one of the local mountains. The tunnel is shared with the Alaskan Railroad so each end has stop lights and waiting lines to get through since the tunnel is only wide enough for one train at a time or one line of traffic going one way.
As we came out of the tunnel we experienced our first bit of sunshine and a good look at the land that is going to be our home for the next few weeks. Lots of mountains covered with snow, glaciers, water falls, rivers and lakes everywhere we looked. Even a small iceberg in one of those lakes. Pretty awesome!
We made our way up to the Anchorage airport to pick up our rental car. It was hard for Linda to concentrate on her driving with being in a new place and the incredible scenery everywhere you looked.
We got settled in our motel, took a deep breath and headed out to do some causal exploring. We ended up on a shoreline walking path that included Earthquake Park and some more awesome views. That earthquake measured 9.2 on the Richter Scale and just swallowed portions of the town in 1964. You can still see some of the effects it had on the land in that area but most areas are now fixed or overgrown with vegetation.
Another of those things that said to me “Come take my picture”. I get a lot of that!
This is a toxic or psychoactive mushroom called Amanita that is normally fairly harmful to humans – but the squirrels love these things and actually store them for the winter months. Nothing like a little winter time hibernation “high” on some gnarly rooms.
Sorry – my mind wandered a bit there. Back to the story.
Being in Anchorage and hearing of a rather nice zoo we decided to take a quick visit as a warm up for our scheduled wildlife adventures in the near future.
The first guy we ran into was this little Harbor Seal.
The Sea Otters were in a rather feisty mood the morning we visited the zoo. These guys are fun to watch and we are hoping to see a bunch of them as we get up into the fjords and glaciers.
This owly little guy was giving me the stink eye as we wandered past. A Short Eared Owl.
This handsome young fellow is a Musk Ox. They currently have an ongoing program to reestablish them in Alaska as they were pretty much eradicated by hunting in the past century. They brought a breeding group in from Greenland and seem to be doing rather well with the reintroduction process.
The Snow Leopard seemed a bit out of place there but then so did the Bengal Tiger that lived next door.
One of the main animals people want to see (or in some cases not see) in Alaska – the Grizzly Bear. (Or for those of you who want to be more exact - The North American Brown Bear.) Meet Oreo!
This is Izzie – the youngest one of the three in the enclosure. Only 8 feet tall when he stood up. From what we were told they can get up to around 10 feet. tall when standing.
One day we wandered around in downtown Anchorage to see the attractions. The downtown area is pretty touristy with a lot of the “whats it/souvenir” shops and restaurants but does have a rather interesting feature with the Alaskan Railroad Depot and the river that runs through town. The salmon runs come right through town and you can see them as they make their way up stream trying their best to make it to the spawning grounds before some fishermen hook - or a bear -finds them. This is one of the areas that is known for its “combat fishing” which is where all the tourists line up shoulder to shoulder to try catch these salmon without hooking all of their neighbors. The locals pretty much stay away.
After a couple days stay in Anchorage we headed down the road with the next destination being Homer, Alaska. We made a number of stops along the way with the first one being around the area that was once Portage, Alaska - the Wildlife Conservation Center.
All of the animals here were in larger groups and enclosures but not quite the “free” roaming critters that we have been hoping to see. The first one below is a Lynx – native to the area but some one locked him up here.
The little guy below is a juvenile Artic Fox – stuck between his winter and summer colors - cute little guy!
Grizzlies – I think we are going to see a few of these guys.
After a short visit to the Center we headed down the road again and decided to make a short detour to Hope, Alaska.
Hope is a little town at the end of one of the roads on the Kenai Peninsula. Its a little place with few people and a whole lot of campers. We did have fun here walking around a small Alaska museum and watching all the campers that brought their kids - or inexperienced fishermen - to learn how to catch “Humpies” or pink salmon. Just a short detour and then back on the road to Homer.
The next little town we visited was called Ninilchik – an old Russian fishing village from the 1850s. We stopped to take some pictures of the old Russian Orthodox Church and fishing village. We got one of those pleasant surprises when Linda went into the gift shop and met one of the descendants of the original settlers. All this and the excellent view of the volcano Mt. Redoubt across the Cook Inlet. It spewed some lava and threw in a few earthquakes last March. But it’s quiet now. You could tell the fishing village is an old one as there are a few dead boats laying around, guess they don’t bury them here.
A few miles down the road from Ninilchik you get to Homer. It’s a rather interesting place with drop dead scenery and during the summer, thrives on the tourist business. It is also the place (or not too far from it) where the Alaskan Bush People film their reality show. I suspect they have a nice big house on the hill when they are not filming for the TV show.
It is rather pricey around here and being the peak of the tourist season doesn’t help much. We have some good friends that lived here for about nine years so we solicited some advice from them on the things to do and see around here.
Looking out over the harbor and the mountains from the Homer Spit.
As we wandered around town, walked the beaches, and out on the spit we found a few rather fun things to take note of. Yes, she really is wearing an Everglades sweatshirt in Homer, Alaska – and has been asked about it also.
We did something rather unusual for us one day, where Linda went one way and I the other.
Linda hopped in this helicopter and went for her first ever ride in a helicopter to view bears in the wild. There were two copters and seven people with a cloudy, rainy outlook – but in the end – a fabulous experience.
First stop, they found a mother bear with a cub that were digging for clams – very successfully, too. Next stop was viewing seven bears catching salmon, resting on the shore, or playing in the water. It was a great day because they had the bears all to themselves – other tours had cancelled due to the weather!
Linda came back with a very big smile on her face and lots to tell me!
My thing for the day was Halibut fishing. When we decided to do these things, the only fishing ride left was a half day (short trip) out to the local Halibut grounds (one hour – one way through rather rough seas). There were lots of people hanging over the rail and “chumming” by the time we got there so the interest in fishing seemed to be diminished a bit as people took time to recover. But even with the diminished numbers this was still “combat fishing” on a boat. I backed off for awhile (and visited with the captain) and let the numbers and interest decline before I decided to join the crowd. It only took me about twenty minutes to land three fish, only keeping two. It was actually kind of sad – these “keepers” were nothing more than babies in the Halibut world. (They were donated to the local inn.) But I did have fun!
On the way back it was much calmer and we were entertained by the seagulls trying to get a piece of the action while the fish were being cleaned. An added bonus were the hundreds of sea otters floating along on their backs as they whacked the mussels or clams laying on their stomachs with a rock. Clever little buggers!
We leave you with an aerial from the helicopter of a valley full of trails made by the Grizzlies on their way to find dinner on the Kenai Peninsula. We have been officially Homered! Next stop Seward, Alaska.
Stay tuned for the further adventure of:
Lee & Linda in Alaska
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