July 1, 2013 Kenai Peninsula to Homer

Monday, July 1

We headed down the Kenai today, first stop in the town of Kenai.  Their visitor’s and cultural center had nice displays of First Nations inhabitants.  Also watched a film on Alaska and actually recognized some of the places we’ve been!

Types of Salmon

The Sterling Highway winds its way down the Peninsula to Homer and has a few interesting side roads.  We stopped at Kenai docks – lots of fishing boats – and Kenai Landing which is a 1920’s salmon processing place that they are renovating with restaurant, rv park, etc.  but it wasn’t ready. 

Ninilchik is a small town that had a neat harbor. Fishing, particularly for halibut, is very big and some of the fish caught run into hundreds of pounds.  Saw a few bald eagles in the area and walked on the beach a bit.  Cool rocks.  There is another Russian Orthodox church (Transfiguration of our Lord) on a hill overlooking the port.  Most of the current town of Ninilchik is a few miles away. Here and south to Clam Gulch area is also popular for clamming. 

Rainy on and off and heavy clouds.  The views across Cook Inlet to Mt Redoubt and several other active volcanoes, etc. was pretty much a fog bank.  Sometimes the fog itself was pretty cool, though, like this approach to Homer.

view of Homer spit

 Homer had the Islands and  Oceans Visitors Center which sponsors a lot of research and had interesting displays.  We took a walk along Beluga Slough to the rocky beach.

 Next we went through Homer and out onto the spit.  Homer Spit is composed of a rocky moraine left by a glacier and is about 5 miles long.  There are lots of fishing operators, fish processing places , campgrounds, restaurants and shops.  We ran into Marty and Gayle at Captain Pattie’s Seafood restaurant where we enjoyed some fresh salmon and halibut, as well as yummy clam chowder.

Had dinner at Captain Pattie's

Marina on the Spit

There were a lot of people camping on the spit, so we opted to climb the East End Highway to Skyline Drive which overlooks the Spit. 

After taking in the view we found a place to boondock at Carl Gwin Nature Center and we were the only folks there!  Nice and quiet.  The rain has stopped but temperatures in the 40’s.