Girdwood, AK to Soldatna, AK – 155 miles
After leaving last night’s campsite at the Crow Creek Mine, we drove the short distance up the road to take a look at the village of Girdwood, a small town of vacation homes and condos at the base of the Alyeska Ski Resort. Driving back down to rejoin the Seward Highway, we stopped for breakfast at a restaurant at the intersection with the highway. Then we continued southeastward up the north shore of the Turnagain Arm. At the head of the arm the road turns due south, crosses Portage Creek, then swings back to the northwest, completing a U-turn. Almost immediately it begins a rather steep climb for ten miles or so up to Turnagain Pass, elevation 966 feet. All along this climb it’s a wide, three or four lane highway. It climbs up a valley between steep mountains, some with patches of snow still holding in the folds of the mountainsides. Small creeks flow from each patch of snow, tumbling down the sides of the hills in a series of mini-waterfalls. It was raining all the way, but nevertheless we stopped several times for photo ops.
The highway veers around to the southwest for several miles, passes a couple of lakes, and then drops down to cross Granite Creek. It then swings back to the northwest until it comes to the junction of the Hope Highway, a short, 16-mile, two-lane road that winds down to the small village of Hope, Alaska. The description of Hope in the guidebooks is rather vague, so we didn’t know what to expect. Was it going to be another Talkeetna? No, it’s just a sleepy little cluster of fishing cabins at the mouth of Sixmile Creek, most dating back to the glory days of mining around 1900. There’s a bar, a small restaurant, and a building with a sign labeling as “Social Hall – 1902.” There’s also a really sparse campground, filled with fishermen, most of whom were out along the banks of and wading in Sixmile Creek, fishing for salmon as they begin their upstream spawning run.
After shooting a few photos of the old buildings, we headed back up and south to the Seward Highway. We stopped for lunch at one of the roadside turnouts and had a delicious sandwich of Black Forest ham and Swiss cheese, with a cookie from this morning’s restaurant bakery for dessert. Another twenty miles down the Seward Highway and we came to an intersection called Tern Lake Junction. To the left, the highway continues to Seward, and to the right begins the Sterling Highway, which goes to Soldatna, Kenai (the town), and eventually to Homer at the end of the road. Our plan was to do the Soldatna/Homer thing first then backtrack and hit Seward on the way north again, so we made the right turn and headed west.
The first several miles of the Sterling Highway are narrow with no shoulder, making it necessary to really pay attention to the driving. As with most of the highways in Alaska, there are strategically placed turnouts, some apparently just for slower vehicles to pull over and allow others to pass, but many serving as scenic overlooks. It’s just ten miles or so to Kenai Lake, a long, narrow alpine lake fed by glacial streams. The road passes along the extreme northern end of the lake, which is the beginning of the Kenai River. Just past the outlet of the lake the highway gets congested as it passes through the village of Cooper Landing, a hot spot for rafting, float fishing, and wade fishing. A few miles Cooper Landing, at the point where the Russian River joins the Kenai River, the road runs along the river bank. As I glanced down to watch a raft full of fishermen, I noticed a grizzly bear in the stream, fishing for salmon as well. We pulled off onto the extremely narrow shoulder to watch the bear and take a few photos. Apparently we were the first to spot the bear, other than the fishermen who were sharing the river with her (it looked somewhat small so I assume it was a female), because we were the first to stop. Soon there were ten or twelve cars stopped along that very narrow stretch of road, creating a real traffic hazard.
After leaving the bear sighting the highway rose up onto a broad, boggy plateau, replete with small ponds, marshes, and the scattered forest of scraggly black spruce – a place only moose and mosquitos can appreciate. The rain was finally letting up and the clouds were thinning enough that we could actually see shadows on the ground, but it was a short-lived respite. As we reached the small town of Sterling, it was beginning to sprinkle, but not very hard. As we neared Soldatna, I noticed the price of gas was going down a few cents to (gag) $4.16 per gallon, so we pulled into a Tesoro station and topped off the tank. Then it was just a short hop into the outskirts of Soldanta where we stopped for the night at a Fred Meyer store. Fred Meyer is a chain of large combination food/hardware/sporting goods/automotive/apparel stores in Alaska that are very similar to Walmarts, although there are now Walmarts in most of the larger towns. They allow free overnight parking for RVs, and this one at least, even has an RV waste dump and fresh water station. Best deal in town if you don’t mind dry camping.
I took advantage of the pause in the rain and while Jeanette fixed dinner I applied a bead of sealant along the joint between the top and sides of the motorhome, hoping to stop the leak above the door. The forecast calls for more rain over the next couple of days, so I guess we’ll see if it works. Keep your fingers crossed.
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