Whittier, Homer and Seward

Our travel down south was to see and experience the areas of Whittier, Homer and Seward in that order. WOW! just beautiful.

Leaving the city of Anchorage behind we had a great drive along the coast following the railway line a lot of the way until we reached Portage National Park and as it was still early we set up camp in a beautiful bush setting and went for a walk. The blue ice trail took us to Portage lake, the visitors centre and lodge where we had the chefs speciality, chowder soup for dinner before our return walk back to the RV having done a little over 5 miles.

The following morning we continued our walk along this trail in the opposite direction to moose flat before we drove the short distance to Whittier, this quaint remote located town on Prince Willam Sound. Access to Whittier is via a single lane 2.7 mile tunnel which is shared with the train. The tunnel is open for access into Whittier on the ½ hour and returns on the hour at a cost of $12 per vehicle. After a walk around town and lunch on the deck of a cafe overlooking the sound we continued on until it was time once again to pull up for the night.

Our camp was alongside the Kenai river, a sport fishing river which has produced a world record king salmon of just over 97lbs. As it was the first pleasant night we have had in a while we ate our meal in the great outdoors.

The following morning we continued along the Sterling highway, slowly the terrain becoming flatter until we arrived at Homer. Well informed about this town from a gentleman who lived there who was camped alongside us in the RV Park at Anchorage, we headed to the first point of interest, the Alaska Island and Ocean Visitors centre. This centre has a hands on Research Centre and is packed with information and displays. While there we also watched a movie on the Wildlife Research Experience.

It was then lunch at the "Fat olive" before seeing Bishops Beach, then it was a drive to where the "Land ends" along the 4.5mile long sand bar called "The Spit". From there was a view of 5 Glaciers on the mountains across the Bay. We soon realised this little town with so much character was worthy of an overnight stay so we booked into an RV park overlooking Kachemak Bay, put on our walking shoes and went for a look. Salty Dawg Saloon was our last stop before calling it a night. The Saloon is very unique with the $1 bills signatured and left all over the walls by the many that visit it. No dollar bill left by us as we had no pen to autograph it but we did leave behind our business card.

Homer is known as a quaint drinking village with a fishing problem. and is the Halibut fishing capital of the world.

Leaving this great town we then travelled along the National Scenic Byway winding along the coast to the town of Seward on the shores of Resurrection Bay. We visited the Sea life Centre where the underwater and above ground viewing tanks gave us a view of what can be found in Alaskan waters. The touch tanks allowed us to encounter the marine life and there were many short documentaries to watch. We then drove to the Bluff and had the opportunity to stop and admire the antics of a sea otter near the shores of the bay. It was back to the RV where we watched the movie" A girl who kicked the hornets nest". the third of a series that we all really enjoyed.

Back to Anchorage but along the way we went out through Girdwood to the Alyeskan Ski Resort for a look and ended up spending a while in this area so it was late when we got into the city so spent the night. We are now heading to Denali National Park ...



reflections of mountains

 


Lake on Blue Ice Walking Trail

   


Old Boats at Homer

 


Camp site at Bear Creek

 


Road alongside  scenic railway



Camp at Homer on the Bay

  


at sea life centre



Duck at Wildlife centre



Gift store at Homer

 



road to Seward



Blue Ice Trail



Glacier Lake




Boat Mooring at Homer



Halibut caught at Homer

A great catch of Halibut



Homer fishing capital of the world




Kachemak Bay



Overlooking the Bay

Leaving our business card at the saloon

Main street of Seward




Nilchikink Russian Church

 


Road South

 


Portage Lake

 


Portage River

 


On Road to South

 


Puffin Bird at Sea Life Centre

 


Salmon Fishermen at Kenai River

 


Salty Dawg Saloon

 


Salty Dawg Saloon

 


Sea Lions at Sea Life Centre



Sea Lion at Sea Life Centre



Sea otter relaxing on the bay



Earthquakes everyday in Alaska



Blue Ice Trail



Whittier Tunnel

 


 

Wildlife refuge



Wolf Taxidermed



Alyskan Resort Hotel