Homer, AK to Seward, AK (via town of Kenai) – 193 miles
This turned out to be a fantastic day, weather-wise. It was 46 degrees, clear and blustery as we awoke. After lolling around for a while, we finally got on the road about 9:45. We stopped at the overlook on the hill just above Homer and the massive volcano, Mt. Iliamna, was dominating the western skyline, across the Cook Inlet some 50 miles away. This snow-covered peak is 10,016 feet high, but rising as it does from seal level it appears much taller. It is part of a chain of four volcanoes that form the head end of the Aleutian Range, the string of mountains that arcs out into the ocean forming the islands of the Aleutian Chain. The other three volcanoes in this 150 mile-long cluster are the Augustine Volcano, the and southernmost and smallest at just 4,025 feet, Mt Redoubt, across the inlet from Soldatna and 10,197 feet, and finally, across the inlet from Anchorage, Mt Spur, 11,070 feet. Of these, Mt Redoubt is the only one that has been active in recent times, recording five eruptions since 1900. The most recent was just a couple of years ago in 2009. As we drove north, all but Augustine were clearly visible on the western horizon. Keep in mind that we never saw any of these on the way down the peninsula a couple of days ago because they were completely obscured by the clouds and rain over the Cook Inlet.
As we worked our way north up the Sterling Highway, we paused and re-shot several photos that were taken in the less than ideal conditions earlier. I was particularly pleased to be able to get new photos of the Russian Orthodox church at Ninilchik. While at the church we ran into the German couple we had met at Talkeetna last week. They were on their way down to Homer, traveling in their massive German expedition vehicle. They had the vehicle shipped from Hamburg to Halifax, and are spending a year touring North America.
Since we bypassed the city of Kenai on the way down, we detoured the few miles north to see what it looked like. It is the largest city on the Kenai Peninsula, but oddly enough, it is not on the main highway. It is modern city with all the fast food chain restaurants, and boasts not only a Home Depot but a Lowes as well. We had a quick pizza at a Subway shop (we didn’t even know that Subway sold pizzas) and then drove over to see another pre-1900 Russian Orthodox Church, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. This small church (although larger than the one at Ninilchik) is just wrapping up a renovation project. When we arrived, the priest was giving a tour – actually just telling the history of the church and explaining the difference between the Orthodox churches of the east and the Roman churches of the west. He was an interesting fellow, and very proud of his Russian heritage.
The remainder of the day was spent driving down to Seward, which like Homer, is an end-of-the-road city, but on the opposite (eastern) side of the Kenai Peninsula. It is situated on the shore of a narrow fjord-like inlet called Resurrection Bay. Steep, snow-capped mountains rise directly from the opposite shore, many with small glaciers in the upper valleys. The lower slopes are covered with spruce trees which have been decimated by spruce beetles, a cousin of the pine beetles which have destroyed so much of Colorado’s western slope. Seward has a population of roughly 3000 people, but it’s a cruise ship destination and when a ship is in, as it was today, the population increases by at least 50 percent. Add in the normal land-touring tourists like us and the weekenders from Anchorage and it probably increases by another 50 percent. The main drag is a strip of restaurants and shops about four or five blocks long, and it is really congested with people and vehicles of all types – cruise line land-tour buses, RVs, delivery trucks, and of course cars. Coming into town we stopped and booked a tour on one of the small ships that does one-day glacier and whale-watching cruises. We then found a spot at the municipal beach-front campground and grilled the first of our fresh halibut fillets for dinner…delicious!
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