Alaska IV: Driving the Sterling Highway

Alaska has so few highways that its major ones have their own names.  On July 2, 2022, we drove the Sterling Highway north on the Kenai Peninsula from Homer to Seward.  On July 3, 2022, we drove the Seward Highway from Seward to Anchorage.  All the highways that we drove were spectacularly beautiful.
 

Our first stop was the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Chapel, near Ninichick, on the Kenai Peninsula.  It was built in 1901. The Russians began settling Alaska in the 1840s.  Our guidebook didn’t mention the Church, and we found it serendipitously, by following a random road sign. 

The church was isolated, perched on a bluff overlooking the Cook Inlet, and the only other people were a couple of tourists who had a better guidebook than we did!  The church was surrounded by a cemetery with white crosses.  We took lots of pictures.

We walked to the edge of the bluff and looked out at the Cook Inlet, with mountains beyond.

Our next stop was a smoked salmon factory.  Again, we followed a road sign.  We were just about ready to give up when we saw two low buildings across the street from a long line of mail boxes.  We assumed that the postman didn’t want to visit houses individually during the cold Alaskan winters.  

We went inside the shop and bought bottles of blueberry and raspberry/rhubarb syrup from the young clerk, who seemed surprised to see us.  I promised to bring home smoked salmon to my assistant, Cate Benton, but the only smoked salmon this “factory” sold needed to be refrigerated.  As with the Russian Orthodox church, the remoteness of the factory was very appealing.

There was a wide array of frozen fish and meat, including scallops and reindeer sausage.

We remembered from our years in Fairbanks that most Alaskan homes have their own greenhouses, since the growing season is so short.

We drove north, past beautiful lakes and rivers.

We entered the Chugach National Forest and soon passed the Kenai River, renowned as a salmon fishing spot.

We later learned that the Kevin and Arlen Jones family, from our ward, were salmon fishing on the Kenai River at almost the same time we were there.

We stopped at a general store in Cooper Landing.  That town is the outfitters hub for fishing in the Kenai River, where the salmon flow.  We saw handouts for guides for salmon fishing and for halibut and bottom fishing in the nearby Cook Inlet.  There were also brochures for flight tours to Kodiak Island, where bears stand by rushing streams and grab salmon in their mouths as the salmon leap into the air, heading upriver over the rocks.  I couldn’t convince David, when we were in Homer, to pay the $900 each for a flight-tour to Kodiak Island.  Maybe next time.

This was as close as I got to a bear sighting!

By early afternoon, we arrived at Spruce Lodge, our motel in Seward.  Seward is breathtakingly beautiful, with its deep bay surrounded by huge, snow-topped mountains.  Spruce Lodge, at $345 per night, was our most expensive hotel of the trip.  When I tried to reserve a room in Seward two weeks ago, there was virtually nothing available.  Spruce Lodge was, actually, charming.  The rustic, wooden motel was hidden in the woods, several miles from Seward, with benches by the side of the units, which faced huge mountains, with no sign of life around.  

We wandered into town and visited the Seward Aquarium.  It had excellent displays about the fish and marine life of Alaska.  I am a lover of both aquariums and zoos, as well as museums.  I look to “study up” on the culture and history of the places I visit.  I remember my mother, unable to understand how Nancy Cal’s first husband, Boyd, could spent all day in Delphi, Greece, reading about each site, all over the mountain, in his guidebook.  That would be me!

During the early evening, filled with light, we drove to the end of each of the two roads flanking the sides of Seward Bay.  In Alaska, many roads come to dead ends.  The sea is the major passageway.

We committed to eating fish for dinner every night while we were in Alaska.  Some of the best places to get fish were the casual sports bars and cafes.

This evening's salmon in curry sauce was exceptional!

Alaska III--Homer and Seldovia

I always thought of Homer, Alaska, as "beyond the beyond."  It is at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula, and is the launch site for visiting the bears at Kodiak Island or going deep sea fishing for halibut.  It is also the site of the ferry to picturesque Seldovia, which we took on July 1, 2022
 

As we drove the highway to Homer, we passed signs warning us to look out for moose.

Seldovia was, at one time, an important port connecting the Kenai Peninsula to the Port William Sound, with its minerals and oil.  Then, in 1964, it was hit by the 9.2 earthquake that rocked Anchorage and other cities in Alaska.  The port was ruined and Seldovia never recovered.  Homer is now the port that connects the Kenai Peninsula to Port William Sound and, up the Cook Inlet, to Anchorage.  Seldovia has virtually no road access out through the Kenai Peninsula.  It is an isolated town with just 200 year- round residents, a quarter of them Native.  It is also a quaint, picturesque place, with cafes overlooking the water, shops with homemade gifts, and gardens overflowing with huge flowers that grow all night in the light of an Alaskan summer.   

Our ferry docked at 11:30 a.m. and left again at 3:30 p.m..  That was more than enough time to explore Seldovia.  We ate a seafood lunch on the deck of a café overlooking Seldovia’s beautiful bay, and we examined the exhibits at its tiny museum.  The museum focused on the life and crafts of the Aleut tribes on the Kenai Peninsula.  

The displays showed local residents tanning fish skins and beading their moccasins and clothes.

I love small town museums, with their eclectic exhibits showing the local history and culture.  One exhibit combined icons, from the days of Russian settlement, with walrus bone sculptures and a head band printed with bright, modern versions of Aleut art.

We were told that the boardwalk was one of the few structures that survived the 1964 earthquake.  We followed it past bright, painted houses, some of them on stilts to survive floods.

The river looked peaceful enough, on this summer day, but apparently it could become a raging torrent.

Seldovia's glory days as a port are over, and now it caters to tourists.  There was a charming shopping center with garden and gift shops.

As we wandered back to town, we passed a typical Alaskan garden, with a shed, greenhouse, and plants growing huge in the 24 hour sunlight.

We stopped to chat with a man, originally from Conecticutt, who had built his own home.  We found, when we lived in Fairbanks after we were first married, that Alaska draws people who want to live survivalist lifestyles on the fringes of civilization.

We ate a seafood lunch on the deck of a café overlooking Seldovia’s beautiful bay.

The raven is a prominent character in Alaskan Native folklore.  A raven joined us for lunch.

David likes to entice me to have my picture taken on statues of animals, which always makes me look ridiculous.  I took the bait.

We hiked uphill to the St. Nicholas Church, one of the surviving evidences of former Russian occupation.  

And, of course, we took note of this vintage Deere tractor.

After returning to Homer, we wandered along the Homer Spit, a string of restaurants and shops along a sand bar outside of town.

The bear is a symbol of Alaska, and the state has many bear statues.

I paused to watch deep sea fishing crews clean and hang the day's catch.