Our 6-month adventure continues as we transition to Homer Alaska for a week of exploring the southern portion of the Kenai Peninsula.
Wasila to Homer
We will spend the next few weeks in an area of Alaska known as the Kenai Peninsula. This area is a large peninsula that juts out for 150 miles and is below Anchorage. The waters of Cook Inlet are to the west and the waters of Prince William Sound are to the east. The Kenai Mountains run along the spine of the peninsula, particularly in the southeast area. They rise above 7000 feet and are covered with the Harding Icefields and numerous glaciers The general climate is that of a temperate rainforest – for those familiar with the Pacific Northwest region of the US (Seattle), that’s the type of climate we’re entering.
There are only 2 weather stations in Alaska with one in Fairbanks and one in Anchorage. In a state the size of Alaska, each has a huge territory to cover so the further away you are from the station, the less accurate it is. This is particularly true with forecasts 3+ days out – and in this area, it means that EVERY day’s 3+ days out has a 58% chance of rain. Even the “day of” forecast is suspect. A forecast may call for 75% chance of rain, but it never pours – it mostly a constant drizzle with brief respites of the sun trying to poke out. Even so, it seems all of Alaska is have an abnormally wet summer and our week in Homer calls for rain and clouds every day.
The map below shows the area this post will cover.
Day 1: Transition to Homer (day 90 of the overall trip)
Eklutna Spirit Houses
On our way out of town, thanks to a reminder from some friends, we stop at the Eklutna Spirit Houses. This is an unusual cemetery that blends Russian Orthodox culture with Native American culture. Graves have brightly painted wooden houses built over the gravesites so the dead person’s spirit had somewhere to go before making it to the great beyond. When the missionaries first arrived, the Athabascan Indians cremated their dead. As the cultures merged, they changed to burying the dead. The houses were built 40 days after the burial and unlike cemeteries in US cultures, the houses are not maintained. They are left to eventually decay and return to the earth from whence they came.
Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm was named by William Bligh of HMS Bounty fame while exploring this part of Alaska looking for the Northwest Passage. Legend has it, he had to repeatedly turn and turn again, and turn around again – and hence it got its name: Turnagain. On a clear beautiful day, it is arguably one of the most beautiful stretches of highway in America. However, we are traveling on a gray overcast day and can only catch glimpses it such a grey day. Thankfully over the next few weeks we will be passing back through this area.
Beluga Point
Along the Turnagain Arm is a large pullover at a site called Beluga Point. It’s named for the whales that are often spotted in this area. This location offers 180 degree views of the water with dramatic tall Kenai Mountains in the distance. It is known as a great location to watch the tide come in.
There’s a large number of people pulled over and walking out on the point and we decided to stop for a few minutes and check it out. There are a set of confusing signs where one tells you to look for trains as you cross the track and the other declares no trespassing. Since there are dozens of people on the other side of the track and walking all over the point, we decide its ok to go over and check it out for a few minutes. We don’t see and whales, but we do get a few photos of the area. We will be back though this area in a few weeks on our way to the Alaska State Fair and perhaps we will have better luck then.
Scenic Driving along Seward Highway
As we push south over the next few hours towards Homer the skies brighten up and we get clear views of the volcanic peaks looking across Cook Inlet towards Lake Clark National Park.
Cooper Landing
Cooper Landing is one of the premier fishing locations in all of Alaska. Situated along the Kenai River, the King and Silver salmon run strong as they return to their spawning grounds to spawn themselves before dying. Trout and Dolly Varden are other prevalent fish sought after by anglers in this region.
SalmonFest @ Ninichik
As we near the small town of Ninichik the travel slows to a crawl. As we inch along the highway, we start to understand why – this weekend is an event called SalmonFest. This is a huge 3-day festival known for its “Fish, Love and Music”. With 4 music stages, each day offers over 30 different musicians/bands. As we do a quick internet search, we learn the event is sold out! Multiple food vendors are on-site providing such food choices as Thai, BBQ, deli sandwiches and of course, salmon prepared in a variety of ways. We see than many people come here and camp out in RVs. We are sorry we missed this Alaskan experience. As a foot note, once we got to Homer, a few restaurants were closed because they were either a food vendor at the event, or their staff was attending the event so they couldn’t be open!
Pioneer Inn
For our time in Homer, we wanted to stay in the main tourist district. We chose the Pioneer Inn, an old school hotel that consists of 6 “apartments” (bedroom, bathroom, living room & kitchen). The location is perfect, very centrally located to numerous bars and restaurants, yet up off the road with an amazing view of Kachemak Bay. It isn’t fancy, but offers what we need.
Twisted Goat
Just 2 buildings away is the Twisted Goat, a slightly eclectic restaurant with some great food. We highly recommend the appetizer called “goat balls” – goat cheese mixed with dried cranberries and pistachios served with baked pita bread.
Day 2: Homer Spit & The “End” Drive (day 91 of the overall trip)
Homer Spit Exploration
The Homer Spit is a 4.5 mile stretch of narrow land that extends into Kachemak Bay at the southern tip of Homer. A natural land mass, the Spit features the longest road into ocean waters in the entire world. The spit offers access to both a large boat harbor and a small boat harbor serving approximately 1500 commercial and private boats each year. There are several lodging options including a waterfront campground, a resort and a few smaller motels. It is home to numerous tour companies that offer halibut fishing and kayaking options. Souvenir shopping options are not as numerous as expected – in fact most are only selling the wares of local artists. Much to our dismay, there are very few restaurants – only 2 are open for lunch and they are packed to the gills already at 11:30am. There’s a fairly well-known dive bar on the Spit called The Salty Dawg Saloon. We pop into this very small establishment and it too is packed with people – barely any room to enter and walk around. It is very dark inside and it seems like every inch of ceiling and wall space is covered in dollar bills. While we usually love a good dive bar, we decide it isn’t worth the wait to get a beer. We give up and head back to town for lunch.
East End Drive
Since it is only 11:30am, we decide to do one of the scenic drives in Homer before having lunch. As we exit the spit, we turn right onto East End Road (instead of left back into town). This 24.1 mile drive will yield a few high elevation overlooks with opportunities to see the waters of Kachemak Bay with the glorious Kenai Mountains in the background.
Alice’s Champagne Palace
Just 3 blocks up the road from our lodging is a long-time Homer restaurant, Alice’s Champagne Palace. We grab 2 seats at the bar and our bartenders Josh and Orion take good care of us. We learn this place typically has live music on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Sadly, with SalmonFest in progress, there’s none tonight. The place really starts to get busy and we meet a few locals that help us to understand the inside scoop on Homer. We meet a particularly interesting gentleman (name withheld to protect the innocent) who tells tales of his patented inventions when he worked in the oil industry. FWIW – we “google” him and he’s the real deal!
Day 3: Seldovia (day 92 of the overall trip)
They say that a trip to Home isn’t complete without spending some time in Seldovia, a small town across Kachemak Bay that can only be reached by boat or plane. It has a population around 300 and was once home to fox farming, commercial fishing, logging and berry picking. Today it is primarily a place to charter boats for sport fishing. Berry picking is still an option (in season) as is kayaking and hiking.
Homer Port
We get to the Homer Spit very early which gives us time to walk around the Homer Small Boat Port area for a bit.
Seldovia Ferry
We’ve chosen to travel to Seldovia via the Seldovia Bay Ferry. The 45-minute ride is uneventful, but wonderfully relaxing.
Seldovia Waterfront
We arrive in Seldovia and first explore the harbor area at the waterfront.
Seldovia Visitors Center
Seldovia Boardwalk
One area highlighted in the tour books is the Historic Seldovia Boardwalk. Signs along the waterfront point us in its direction and we just have to go see it. Seldovia’s entire road structure used to consist entirely of wooden boardwalks. The devastating earthquake of 1964 changed that when the entire town sunk 4 feet. Most of the town had to be rebuilt. Only a small section of the original boardwalk remains. It is built on stilts to accommodate the tides and is lined primarily with private residences and a few shops. As we walk, we see most houses in the waterfront area are built on stilts, again, to accommodate the rising waters of the tides. Water levels typically change by 20 feet each day, but when storms are raging, it can be more dramatic.
Walking Around Seldovia
Seldovia is a walkable town. We are surprised by the number of vehicles here but we do know the Alaska Marine Ferry System comes here, so transporting a vehicle to Seldovia isn’t a challenge. We also learn that gasoline is currently over $7 a gallon here at the one and only gas station. We go looking for a hike called the Otterbahn Trail and decide to go up and down a few residential streets – all unpaved. We find the trail – but decide to forego hiking it when the mosquitos come out in full force (and we forgot to bring insect repellent).
Seldovia Downtown
Downtown Seldovia is about 3 blocks long and offers 3 open restaurants and a few gift shops.
Lunch and Deck Sitting
We stop at the Linwood Bar & Grill for lunch. It has a long bar and several tables with decent food. After over an hour there, we walk a few building down to Seldovia Boardwalk Hotel, Bar & Grill and enjoy a few beers out on the patio to wait for the ferry back to Homer. We meet a family who went on a hike and their daughter realizes she left her jacket somewhere along the trail when she took it off for a photo. There isn’t time to walk back and get it so she laments in a wonderful semi-whiney tone that she’s going to have to get a new jacket. We watch the tide coming in. When water levels rise about 20 feet over a 6-hour period of time, it is easy to see the change as we watch a submerged tree branch become visible in the short hour and a half.
Day 4: Rainy Day of Regular Home Life in Homer (day 93 of the overall trip)
With another rainy/cloudy day forecast, today will be a day of rest and everyday life. Since Homer is the Halibut Capital of the World, we’d love to go fishing. Unfortunately for us – there’s nothing available. You know we’re planners and some people question that we plan too much – but this is a prime example of why you need to book reservations well in advance. Not only is there nothing available here this week in Homer, but there’s nothing available in Cooper Landing or Seward where we’ll be next week (that’s salmon and trout fishing territory). Even worse – we’ll be in Kodiak in a month – and all that is booked up as well! Lesson learned – and something to save for the next time we go to Alaska.
We plan to eat lunch out today, but we need to do a grocery store run so that’s first up. The parking lot is jammed and we barely find a space. Once inside, the store is hard to negotiate with so many people and carts everywhere. As we check-out, we learn it is “Senior’s Day” and with a 10% discount on groceries, it draws a lot of senior citizens to the grocery store. We decide to drive around and explore more of Homer itself, hoping to find a fun place for lunch. Every place we drive by or look up on the internet – is either closed on Tuesdays or only open for dinner. The one place we find open is packed to the gills, so we just give up and return back to the Pioneer Inn for lunch in the room.
Dinner at Don Jose’s wasn’t anything special, but it was a nice change of pace.
Day 5: Our Katmai Wilderness Hike into Bear Country (day 94 of the overall trip)
We have been anticipating this day for months as one of the major highlights of our time in Alaska. We are blessed with a clear day to get started! We are going to fly into the Katmai National Park Wilderness on a float plane and spend the day hiking and getting up close and personal with Kodiak Brown Bears with a naturalist guide. This is a unique experience only offered by one or two companies. Most people that go on a bear viewing tour are taken to a wooden deck viewing platform at an area of Katmai called Brooks Falls.
Getting Prepped and Ready
We arrive at the Emerald Air Service office at 8am and Crystal checks us in. We meet our guide, Erica, who gets us fitted with hip waders – we will often hike through streams and rivers on our bear viewing wilderness hike. There will be 8 of us plus the guide in this all-day adventure. The other six tourists are 3 generations of a family traveling together. After getting everyone suited up, we gather for a conversation on bear safety and what we will be hiking into. There is also a final check that we didn’t bring anything was made out of fish for our lunch.
We are soon ready to load our backpacks onto the plane, get on the plane and take off.
Flight Out
Before taking off, Dave, our pilot gives us a safety overview and laughs that float plane require life jackets in case of an emergency water landing. Our flight over the Katmai from Homer takes about an hour and 15 minutes. After we get airborne, we are treated along the flight to views of snowcapped volcanoes from the Pacific Ring of Rire. As we approach Katmai, we start to catch a glimpse of some of the braided waterways we will hike across today.
Our First Look at the Type of Area We Will Hike Into
According to our guide, the bears do move around a bit and before the final decision of where we are going to land and hike is made, we do a low-level flyover. The pilot points out that the huge number of red blobs in the rivers below are salmon. It doesn’t take long to see bears in the river and the go ahead to land is made.
Landing and Disembarking into the Water
Float planes don’t need much space to land and our plane touches down in a small lake. The wind is blowing pretty hard and the pilot isn’t able to get close to shore so we disembark in knee high water and go ashore to get our gear. This lake is too small to take off fully loaded. We watch Dave fly off the lake. He will land in a much larger lake where our hike will end. It is nice to learn this isn’t a round trip hike.
The Hike into the First Bear Area
The wind is blowing at least 45 miles an hour or maybe more and the group bundles up a bit. We are wearing a long sleeve undershirt, a top shirt, a zip up jacket and a rain jacket – plus the hip waders. Heads are covered with knit skull caps, rain jacket hood on top, and some people wear gloves.
So, what’s the first thing after we gather our gear that our guide Ericka tells us? We are going to get to know each other pretty well today with bathroom breaks. Boys on one side and girls on another with backs turned to each other. No one is to turn around until everyone is done. And so, we have our first bathroom break.
In a few more minutes, we are ready to hit the trail, and proceed single file into the tundra. It is about a 1.5-mile hike to the river where we should see bear. After a bit of hiking Erica stops and picks a few blueberries for the group to sample. Not too bad but not really sweet.
Pressing on for a bit we come to rise that we need to hike down in order to get to the first main area where the bears are.
Bear Area 1
It doesn’t take long at all before we start seeing bears. Our guide moves the group slowly through this area trying to not be surprised by a bear. We pause now and then to let a bear pass and then figure out how to slowly move on.
In about a quarter mile we reach a place where several mothers and their cubs are fishing and playing. We stop, admire and take tons of photos with only occasionally have to group up because a bear has gotten too close.
Sometimes, they get pretty close, but they are more interested in fishing than they are in us. The bears in this area are somewhat used to human onlookers and as long as they don’t feel threatened, they just move on.
Erica uses marine flairs as a last resort bear defense. We talked to another guide we meet later, and he confirmed that is the preferred item guides carry and there is a strong believe that this is far more effective than bear spray. “Every animal runs from fire, flares aren’t effected by the wind and they last longer than 15 seconds of bear spray”. Although bears are all around us Erica only starts to reach for the flares a couple times as a precaution.
We could spend all day here but after a pretty good bit we need to move on to another area.
Lunch with Bears all Around Us
Time is flying and its lunch time. We find an area of green grass where we can sit down as a group and start eating. It’s not long before a mother with 3 cubs starts to pass near us. One of the cubs gets curious and starts to approach us. Erica gets up and basically starts talking to cub to go away. “No”, she says as she points her finger at the bear. “You do NOT come this way”, she continues, once again sternly pointing her finger. After standing up briefly, he decides to rejoin his mother and siblings and they move on.
Bear Area 2
It’s not long before the bear action really picks up. We spot two males fighting over a salmon fishing spot. Their fight doesn’t last very long but it was one of the highlights of the hike.
Shortly afterwards we spot another big bear just sitting in the river watching the world go by. Nancy names him “Sitting Bull”.
All our time seeing bears involves walking in streams and rivers. The salmon are swimming by as we walk. These are bright red sockeye salmon and at times it looks like the river is flowing with blood. We navigate mostly 2″-4″ water, but occasionally we traverse through knee deep sections over slippery rocks and decent currents. All said and told, we spend about 3.5 hours with the bears hiking approximately 2 miles.
Hiking out
The plane dropped us off at one lake and will pick us up at another, so we reach the point in the day where we have to leave the river region, and hike just over a mile across the tundra again to reach the plane.
About halfway down the trail, we spot a bear sleeping on the trail and this forces us to have to go across the raw uneven tundra to get around the bear. After miles of hiking, this up and down, wet spongey walk-around was unwelcome, but manageable.
Finally, we reach the banks of a 75′ wide swiftly moving river. We had been warned at the beginning of the hike that the toughest water crossing was at the end and that we also had to hike up the side of a steep embankment after that. We don’t have pictures of us crossing because the group had to lock arms with toes pointed upstream to get across the river. The water was swift and about mid-thigh deep as we shuffled slowly across. Shorter folks had water occasionally lapping above and into their hip waders. The embankment is steep, but the footing is good, and soon we are all at the top.
Flight Home and Wrap-up
We reach the plane and learn because of the wind we are going to have to go back into the water and pull ourselves up on the float in order to board. It turns out this IS as hard as it sounds, but we are all soon loaded and ready to go. As we get airborne, we get one last glimpse of Katmai.
Returning to the home office, we take off our equipment, enjoy some homemade cookies the owner’s wife made. We thank our guide and say our goodbyes.
Day 6: Another Rainy Day in Homer (day 95 of the overall trip – the estimated 1/2 way point)
Ninety-four days done, ninety-four to go! We’ve reached the halfway point of this trip and that is hard to comprehend since we’ve never done a trip this long before. We think about past, shorter road trips and that halfway point was always a sad thought. Like when you are on a 2-week trip and it was half over, you felt like it just can’t already be half over and now we only have half left. You were just getting into the groove of being away and now you started thinking about the end and of being home again. The longest trip we’ve done prior to this one was 10 weeks (basically around ninety-four days) – and even with that trip, halfway was a sad revelation. Perhaps it was because Nancy was still working on that trip so going home meant returning to full-time work again. It is different this time. The halfway point is almost a celebration of all the amazing times we’ve already had and the realization we still have so much time to look forward to. We’ve gotten into a pattern of being together 24/7 and longer stays in places. We don’t “go-go-go” every day like we did in those 2-week vacations where you had to fit it all into a compressed timeline. Here’s to the next ninety-four days!
Another day of pouring rain means we’ll just hang out at the room for a bit and then go watch some pre-season football. We go back to the Otter Room since it is the closest thing to a sports bar in Homer. Alaska is 4 hours behind East Coast time. Watching sports is wonderful for us. For example, on this day, the game started at 3pm while at home it was 7pm. There are other days where games start at 1pm at home so here, you start watching at 9am! The same bartender, Tim, is working today and there are several local folks here to watch the game or just to pass the rainy day away.
Day 7: Our Last Day in Homer (day 96 of the overall trip)
Skyline Drive
On our last day in Homer, we need to spend time finishing up and publishing our blog post from the previous trip and start re-packing the truck. It can’t all be a day in the room, so we head out to do a short, nearby scenic drive along the road called Skyline Drive. On our way we encounter yet another major road construction project that involves one-way traffic and a pilot vehicle for about 1 mile. Once on Skyline Drive, it is a lot of uphill driving, but we don’t see anything but grown trees blocking the view of the town and the water below. We are finally rewarded with a pull-out and decently clear skies! We follow the other end of the road back to Homer and it too has a stretch of construction.
Bishop’s Beach
Right in downtown Homer you’ll find Bishop’s Beach along Kachemak Bay. Tides vary by as much as 26 feet in Homer and we arrive about 2 hours after high tide. The beach can be best described as sand, rock and a little mud thrown in. We walk the shoreline for quite a while looking for Alaskan Jade and other pretty rocks for Nancy to potentially turn into jewelry. She’ll tumble them once we get home and hopefully find a few that work well.
Crystal Shopping
Nancy found a crystal shop in downtown Homer and with her jewelry making side-gig, this is a must shop place. Salt & Pine was a delightful place with a great vibe and she purchased several great pieces to turn into pendants.
Alice’s Champagne Palace – again
When it comes time for dinner, we choose to return to one of our favorite places, Alice’s Champagne Palace. We grab seats at the bar and end up sitting next to another bear viewing guide from the same company we toured with. It was really a wonderful conversation! We ask him about the “bear flares” as a defense against bears and he explains how bears truly dislike fire and bright lights, so they are very effective. Bear spray is only effective within 15′ of a bear, but a flare can be used from a greater distance and the “fire” lasts longer than how the long the spray expels. He can’t explain why they aren’t more widely advertised but does say to use one made with magnesium because they burn brighter.
We get back to the room and Nancy optimistically does one more search for a halibut fishing trip in Homer. Someone must have cancelled – she finds 2 spots available next week, so we make our reservations and are giddy with excitement that we won’t miss that Alaska experience.
Summary
Homer was a great little stop for us for a week. Lots of nice restaurants and enough things in the area to keep you busy. If you are ever our in this area, the bear wilderness hike is an absolute must do. That trip was so much fun that we would do it again and we would recommend the folks at Emerald Air Services. Just a great experience!
Up Next
Time to head into the east/central area of the Kenai Peninsula – the seaport city of Seward, Alaska.
Prior Legs of the Journey
Part 1 – The Trip to Key West is located here.
Part 2 – Cross Country to Bellingham Washington is located here.
Part 3 – The Alaska Ferry Inner Passage to Juneau is located here.
Part 4- The Alaska Ferry Inner Passage to Haines & Skagway is located here.
Part 5 – Haines to Fairbanks Alaska is located here.
Part 6 – Three weeks in Fairbanks is located here
Part 7 – Fairbanks to the Arctic Ocean is located here.
Part 8 – Denali National Park is located here.
Part 9 – Denali & Richardson Highways (Central Alasks) is located here.
Part 10 – Wasilla Alaska Area is located here
So enjoying your blog posts and the trip. Your photos are a wonderful bonus to the text. Have a blast and thanks for sharing all this. The bear photos were just amazing. Safe travels you two.
thanks tami!
Wonderful review of the bear hike! I was actually nervous for you both including getting back on the plane!
Nancy says she was nervous too. 🙂