We moved south on the Kenai Peninsula toward Homer, AK, stopping at various points to enjoy the view across Cook Inlet.
There are several small communities along the Sterling Highway between Soldotna and Homer, including Ninilchik, AK. The Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Chapel is a popular stop along the way.
Upon arriving in Homer, the van went on autopilot and delivered us to Homer Brewing Co. A bit of an offbeat place with an outside beer garden, good beer and, on our second visit, a patron doing an impromptu mandolin concert in the beer garden.
Craft breweries in Alaska are subject to some ridiculous rules designed to protect traditional bars and restaurants from competition. They are only allowed to serve a customer 36 ounces of beer at one sitting. The result is 12 ounce servings at what I would consider pint prices with some breweries charging $10. Homer Brewing circumvents this somewhat by selling “beer to go” in 18 ounce growlers with a cap to take outside and drink in their beer garden.
The dominant feature of Homer is The Homer Spit, a 4.5 mile strip reaching into Kachemak Bay. The spit is center of the action in Homer with campgrounds, boat harbor, shops/restaurants, etc. BTW, whenever I mention campgrounds in coastal Alaska towns, you should envision a gravel parking lot for $75 a night.
The Salty Dawg Saloon is the big landmark on the spit with its walls and ceiling papered with dollar bills.
We ended up spending six nights in Homer, settling into a nice routine of some sort of daytime activity, cooking dinner out at the beach……..
….and camping on the street in front of the library. For the record, Alaska has the best libraries I’ve seen anywhere in my travels.
Hiking is somewhat limited in this area, but we did do the Diamond Creek Trail. A nice easy 4 mile stroll to the beach.
We took a boat ride with Mako’s Water Taxi to Kachemak Bay State Park. A quick half hour and we were deposited on shore at the Glacier Lake Trailhead. Very easy hike through some great scenery, a glacial outflow and a glacier lake.
Now, for a good laugh…….
We visited Grace Ridge Brewing. Great beer and a nice outside beer garden, however, those $10 twelve ounce beers made it a one hit wonder. We’ve had exceptionally good weather so far on this trip, but a rainy day is occasionally welcome to do laundry, catch up on finances as well as this blog.
We visited the Otter Room to watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It was a packed house of Edmonton Oiler fans and one waitress, but we managed.
In what I consider to be the highlight of the trip (so far,) we flew to Katmai National Park with Bald Mountain Air Service for a day with the bears.
The owner of Bald Mountain Air Service, Gary Porter, was our pilot and guide, along with Co-Pilot Ryan. After a very scenic 45 minute flight across Cook Inlet….
….we landed on a small lake in Katmai NP. From there we walked single file along the edges of a grassy lowland area.
We probably walked a total of two miles the whole day and at any given time we had 10-20 bears in sight…..all grazing on grass like cattle.
At various points, we would sit down on logs or in the grass and just watch. On numerous occasions, bears passed within 50 feet of us….aware of us but generally unbothered. Gary explained his 25 years of experience with Katmai brown bears throughout the day to my fascination.
It was an incredible day and well worth the $$.
One last view from the flight back…..
We left Homer and spent another night in Soldotna, resupplying at WalMart and Fred Meyer. We also visited St. Elias Brewing Co., which we missed on the first pass through. Great beer and what looked to be really good pizza. From there we moved on to Sterling, AK, where I somehow missed Naptowne Brewing Company on our previous drive through. Great beer and an awesome log cabin building!
I wanted to check out Izaak Walton State Recreation Site on the Kenai River as a possible fishing spot. We ended up finding an awesome riverfront campground spot and stayed for 2 nights.
Leaving there, we hiked the Skyline Trail near Cooper Landing, AK. 2.5 miles of unrelenting ascent.
We dropped by Cooper Landing Brewing again (just to make sure) before settling into our free campsite alongside Quartz Creek.
We continued the next day to the Seward Highway and stopping to hike Ptarmigan Lake Trail, a beautiful hike along a creek ending at a very pretty lake.
I managed to catch a number of trout and Dolly Varden in the creek after the hike. We continued on to Seward, AK and camped in the Resurrection River area for a couple of nights.
We hiked up to the Harding Ice Field/Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. This is the only area of the park that is accessible by car. Amazing views and the fact that the icefield feeds 40 glaciers plus was only 2% visible to us was even crazier!
We visited Seward Brewing Company after the hike. Huge place, great beer with what looked to be great food.
Well, we have to head to Anchorage to pick up one of our daughters who will be traveling with us for a week as well as some friends who have rented an RV to travel with us. We will be back to Seward and (hopefully) on to Denali in the next week.
Stay Tuned!