Alaska: Kenai Peninsula

The flight from Seattle to Anchorage was maybe the most spectacularly scenic I have been on. I saw endless mountains, glaciers, ice fields. I saw extensive forests, little bays, wide rivers. I saw fog blanketing coastlines and rolling up the mouth of rivers. I saw things I recognized - like the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula. But most of the time, I had no idea where I was. That was all right; it was enough for me to know that beauty of this scope exists.



View of glaciers and mountains from plane.

After flying over the Chugach Mountains and then miles and miles of patterned mudflats that are part of the Cook Inlet, I landed in Anchorage and met up with James at the airport.

The next day, we started east on the Seward Highway towards the Kenai Peninsula. It was the fourth of July (!) and we wanted to check out the festivities in Girdwood, a resort town about thirty miles outside of Anchorage.

Apparently half of Anchorage had the same idea, so after a while on the congested local road that would lead to a jammed parking lot, we got out of there...Instead, we chose to spend a lovely afternoon hiking and lounging on a big boulder overlooking Bryons Glacier (right) and surroundings (mountains, glaciers, streams, waterfalls, lake, humans, canines).


We camped for a couple of nights at a Forest Service (FS) campground by Kenai Lake, about 15 miles north of Seward. Seward (Su-ward, or Sea-ward, in Janny lingo) was a fishing village with a cannery that now serves as a tourist base for adventures on sea and land because of its proximity to Kenai Fjords. It is beautiful there, rimmed by snowy peaks and Resurrection Bay. I'd like to kayak there some day.

Two memories of Seward will stick with me - the Moose Tracks I ate at the local creamery, and a drunken ramble by a local guy at the waterfront. The "conversation" started well enough - he offered us a beer, which we kindly declined, but then the tirade started. I think he was upset about these first and second generation "Alaskans" coming in and taking all the good paying jobs - like being a prison guard. I guess life has not been kind to him, and as we excused ourselves, I felt like giving him a much needed hug...but I did not act on that impulse. By the end of that, I could have used a hug myself!



Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park (NP)


Kenai Fjords NP encompasses much of the southeastern portion of the Kenai Peninsula, but only one area- Exit Glacier - is accessible by car. As national parks go, the infrastructure is extremely limited. Most people explore the spectacular coastline of the park by motorized boat or kayak. A few people backpack - it's all cross-country. There are no trails beyond the lovely hike up to the edge of the Harding Ice Field, which we did. The Harding Ice Field is a fifty square-mile chunk of ice at the heart of the park. A few crazies traverse it for fun. I understand the impulse to do something just because it's there, but hiking miles and miles on blinding ice and snow is not high on my list.

Looking out across the ice field, not being able to see the other side, I felt as if I was at the edge of the world.


Crevasses of Exit Glacier



The Harding Ice Field.


One of the "nunnataks" or "lonely ones"- isolated peaks breaking up the homogeneity of the ice field.















James, Exit Glacier, Resurrection River and its headwaters.



One night we camped at an Alaska State Park by the Kenai River near Soldotna. We took an evening walk by the river - a cold, clear, wild, beautiful specimen. The fish were jumping and the mosquito were biting: a classic Alaskan night!

Another night we camped at Anchor Point northwest of Homer and spent another laid-back evening strolling along the beach and watching the light change as the sun went down. There was a juvenile bald eagle taking food from some sea gulls. A couple of adult eagles were flying about. Clam diggers were probing the sands. It was cold and breezy and absolutely breath-taking.

Sunset at Anchor Point, ~11:30pm


Homer, Jewel's hometown, is a cute place - minus the RV parks desecrating Homer Spit. I had a delightful milkshake with fish and chips at the Spit. Mt. Redoubt and the peaks across the Cook Inlet, as well as those across Kachemak Bay, were totally or partially obscured by the smoky regional haze from several large wildlifes in the Kenai Peninsula and other parts of Alaska. The next day, we found it unpleasant to hike when it was so smoky.

The last hike we did on the Kenai Peninsula was along the Cook Inlet from the little town of Hope to a rock outcrop called Seagull Rock. The hike took us through beautiful paper birch forests alternating with conifer forests, sparkling little streams, and clearings of shrubs and wildflowers. Very nice.