You can do anything with numbers. Statistically, I'm averaging about 244 miles per day on my Alaska trip. That's a bit misleading, to be sure, because some days, where I stay in the same location for two or more days, I may not put on that much mileage, so I must be putting on lots of mileage on other days. Well, today was one of those other days.
I have to remind people that my objective for this trip was that it be a driving vacation, and I also call it an inventory trip. I do like to drive and sight see. I'm not here to fish for a week, or canoe and camp for a week. I've travelled to Idaho, Canada, the Yukon and now Alaska, just to 'see' what's here. And that, I'm doing.
I'm using Achorage as a base for four days. I arrived on Monday, saw sights in and around the city on Tuesday, and today I drove to Homer, Alaska and back. Tomorrow, I'll drive to Seward on the south coast, and back to my Anchorage hotel. On Friday, I'm going to drive over to Valdez and Saturday, on to Tok, Alaska.
My drive to Homer was mostly on Highway 1, which is called the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula. Why, I don't know. I began the day with a temperature of 56 degrees, cloudy and with wet roads. It either rained last night or the seacoast clouds around here hang so low, they just saturate the pavement. I'm not sure.
Leaving the southside of Anchorage, was much like driving against commuter traffic in any other American city of 250,000 people. This city reminds me a lot of Seattle, Washington, with a mixture of older neighborhoods but all the signs of new building and growth.
It became very windy south of town, in an area called Potter's Marsh. The wind persisted all day long, and it drove the wind chill down quite a bit when I got to the coastline. Brrr!! I did not stop at Potter's Marsh, but the State has erected boardwalks to enable people to walk out over the marsh and look for wildlife. I didn't see anyone there this morning (it was early), but I did see several dozen people on the boardwalk as I made my way back to the motel this afternoon.
Along Highway 1, there are many scenic vistas where you can stop. I stopped at a couple but certainly not every one with a sign. The waterway just south of Anchorage apparently has the name of Turnagain Arm (an interesting name, but I don't know where it came from). It is a scenic drive, with very high mountains on each side of the bay, and just a single railroad track and the road, making their way further south.
The mountains are impressive, but I'll bet they look even more photogenic in the winter when they're covered with snow. And the water in the bay is certainly misleading. I guess the tide was out when I drove through, because it appears the bay is not very deep. Not deep enough for any ships to use.
Because I was driving at sea level, I had to remind myself just how high some of the mountains are. My guess, about 4000-7000 foot range. Most of them are pyramid shape with slopes much steeper than say 45 degrees.
After driving for an hour, I was in Portage, Alaska and took a side road to go see a local glacier. How does that sound? "Local glacier"? Doesn't everyone have a glacier in their neighborhood? Well, I could only get so close to the glacier, but I did take a few pictures. The picture I think I will like best is where large chunks of ice have fallen off the glacier and are now floating in the lake. Brrr!! It look really, really cold!
Highway 1, south of Portage, is a very scenic highway. Probably the most scenic highway that I have been on in Alaska. It remained scenic until the road turned west towards Cooper's Landing, where afterward the entire terrain leveled out and stayed that way.
Alaska terrain is most interesting. Alaska has a short summer and growing season, so that has an effect on things like trees on mountains. At Denali, the mountains seemed bare above the tree line, but here in the Kenai Mountains, being close to the Gulf of Alaska, the mountain tops seem to be covered with a very light green moss.
Another difference I noticed in the scenery here, was how much darker the trees seemed to be. I would use the term "Forest Green" to describe them. And the brush and shrubs seemed more dense, and the low range grass, lush in color.
The road south to where Highway 1 and Highway 9 split seemed quite new, and as a visitor, I certainly appreciated the good road. Once I turned west on Highway 1, the road became narrow and in some places the shoulder was very narrow. But, overall, the highway system in Alaska is pretty good. I'm talking about the paved highways, not the gravel roads that I've been on (e.g. Top of the World).
Tank took my picture as we entered the Kenai Peninsula. About that time some other visitors from Texas drove up and I took their picture, using their camera. They were from Austin, so we had things to talk about during the brief rest stop. I lived in Arlington, Texas for sixteen years, and one of my sons lives in Austin.
When I'm back from my trip, I know people are going to ask, "what did you enjoy most?". Well, I would list Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada; Skagway, Alaska, and as of today, Cooper's Landing, Alaska. Tourism is a big business for Alaska, and I have seen countless cabins, motels, hotels, outfitters, fishing, kayaking, rafting, etc, etc, etc. But if I were to choose a location based on its looks, Cooper's Landing on the Kenai Peninsula would be high on my list.
I stopped for coffee and read the morning Anchorage newspaper. One big article that caught my eye was reporting the final standings and medals awarded at the Eskimo and Indian Olympics. I attended some of the games last week while in Fairbanks. You may have read my diary for that day. One of the competitors who did very well in the two foot high kick, won the gold medal. Another guy, doing the one hand stand high kick, kicked a hanging ball at 7'2". I can hardly stand on two hands, in a pool of water, much less stand on one hand and kick a ball seven feet in the air. Their games may sound a bit strange, but don't kid yourself, these are atlethes.
Continuing west on my drive today, I passed through towns like Sterling, Soldotna and over to Kenai itself. These towns hardly represent "early Alaska", but rather Kentucky Fried Chicken. These towns have all the modern services, and newer housing developments. What the economy is for these towns, I don't know, but I would guess tourism and its related services are a big business.
At Kenai, I drove to the coastline. It was a very cold 51 degrees, due to the stiff wind. I was not comfortable as I took 35mm and video pictures of Cook's Inlet (from the Gulf of Alaska). What really surprised me was the hundreds of people down on the beach fishing. I haven't done any fishing on this trip, but the newspaper is full of articles discussing which type of salmon are in season. Big stuff around here.
From Kenai, I could see Mount Redoubt Volcano, on the other side of Cook's Inlet. Further south on Highway 1, the weather became more clear and I could see quite a bit of the west coastline of Cook's Inlet. Depending on where I stopped to look, the distances were probably 15-25 miles. Many of the mountains are still snow capped, even though it's July.
The wind that I mentioned earlier, continued to blow the Explorer back and forth on the highway. That made me think what it must be like to be driving an RV or motorhome. Those big boxes have to catch more wind than my Explorer. RV and motorhomes were really streaming north off the peninsula, but they're just moving on to their next location. Later in the afternoon, as I was leaving the peninsula, a new crop of RVs and motorhomes were streaming southbound.
I stopped at Anchor Point, Alaska, which has the distiction of being the most westerly location in the United States with a paved highway. Highway 1 ends at Homer, Alaska, and I stopped there for lunch, gas and to have a look around. I drove out on what I would call a 'causeway' but the local sign calls it the "Homer Spit". Wind didn't matter to hundreds of people, that were out on the spit, with their fishing gear. I understand Homer considers itself the Halibut Capitol of the World.
When I say hundreds of people were fishing at Homer, I should mention that not all of them had RVs or motorhomes. Quite a few brave souls were camping on the beach in minimal tents. Brave souls, indeed!
Well, I enjoyed my drive, and took pictures to help me remember what I saw and where I stopped. There was one thing I meant to photograph, but I'll have to do it tomorrow. That was a sign to "give a moose a brake" because the road kill this winter was posted as 334. That's a lot of moose. I wonder what the vehicles looked like that hit those moose?
I rained on the way back to Anchorage, but I'm back safe and sound. Right now, I'm headed down the street to the Phillips Family Restuarant where they really serve meals with big portions, good food and at a very good price. I'll be back tomorrow night with my Seward diary.