After three days in Anchorage, it was time to head south to the Kenai Peninsula. Our destination took us back along the Turnagain Arm (this time by car rather than Alaska Rail) and through the only city in Alaska whose population increases in winter. Girdwood is home to the Aleyska Ski resort, which explains this unique aspect of the town. As such, it was pretty quiet, but a quaint stop, nonetheless.
We also explored a bit of Alaska backcountry with a visit to the Crow Pass trailhead, which looks like it would be a challenging but amazing hike. We’ll have to save that one for the next visit, as we were headed for Homer, another three hours south. After passing Portage, we were officially on the Kenai Peninsula. The drive from Portage to Cooper Landing is one of the prettiest I’ve ever enjoyed, with lush green valleys, alpine lakes, snow-capped mountains and the occasional glacier in the distance. Simply stunning.
There’s no shortage of craft brewers in Alaska and as luck would have it, our first available stop along this sparse road was at Cooper Landing Brewing Company, where we enjoyed lunch and a frosty cold one, before continuing on along the Sterling Highway to Soldatna.
The mountains faded behind us into rolling hills and we turned south at Soldatna for Homer. This pretty stretch of highway in many ways reminds me of Minnesota’s north shore along Lake Superior, which one major exception. Across the sixty mile wide Cook Inlet lie the towering mountains of the Chigmit range, including Mt. Redoubt and Mt. Illiamna, both active volcanos.
We arrived in Homer after a couple of stops to stretch our legs and take some pictures and learned that our bear excursion for the following day had been canceled due to rough seas. The first order of business was to head to the Homer Spit, an exceptionally narrow spit of land extending three miles south from Homer into Kachemak Bay. The Spit is littered with boats, camper vans, restaurants and tourist shops. We were happy to find ourselves at the Destination Alaska shop and were able to secure a flight for the following day to Lake Clark National Park, which I’ll take any day over a two-hour boat ride on rough seas.
Celebrating our good fortune, we found ourselves at the bar at the aptly named Lands’ End Resort, where we enjoyed a fine Old Fashion and chatted up the bartender who was traveling the world and found himself in Homer, Alaska for the summer. Dinner followed at The Kannery, an upscale restaurant back on “the mainland” and sleep soon followed for our big day in Lake Clark National Park.
