Seward to Soldotna

Seward to Soldotna

June 20 - 28, 2019

On Thursday, June 20, we drove from Seward to Homer.

We stayed at the Ocean View RV Park.  It had a nice view of the ocean, but otherwise was pretty much overpriced.

On Saturday we boarded The Sundy to go halibut fishing (our makeup trip).  We both caught our large and small halibut.

We had them processed, frozen, kept 10 packages, and shipped the rest home.  I know we're going to enjoy them for months to come.

On Monday, June 24 we drove to Soldotna and are staying at Centennial Campground, a city owned campground.  It's dry camping ($21 per night) but now that the first run of red salmon has gone through and the second run doesn't come until the middle of July it's quiet here.  When the salmon are running through here I understand that it's a zoo.

This is the walkway from near our site to the Kenai River.

On Tuesday we went to the Soldotna Homestead Museum.  Carol, the docent, led our 2 hour tour and was very knowledgeable.  She grew up here so to hear her first hand stories was very interesting.

She said oil was found in the northern part of the Kenai Peninsula in 1957.  As soon as Congress found out about this they started pushing for statehood (they didn't want Russia to get it).  President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law on July 4, 1958, and Alaska was admitted into the Union on January 3, 1959.  In 1968 oil reserves were found in Prudhoe Bay, and then the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was built.

In 1947, after World War II, the United States government withdrew a number of townships along Cook Inlet and the lower Kenai River from the Kenai National Moose Range, opening up the area to settlement under the Homestead Act. Veterans of the United States armed services were given a 90-day preference over non-veterans in selecting 160 acres of land and filing for property. Also in that year, the Sterling Highway right-of-way was cleared of trees from Cooper Landing to Kenai. The location of present-day Soldotna was selected as the site for the highway's bridge crossing the Kenai River.  Until the bridge was built the majority of the population was north of the river.

The construction of the Sterling Highway provided a link from the Soldotna area to the outside world. Until that time Soldotna was isolated and the only was in or out was by air.  Many men claimed their homestead and went back to the lower 48 to find wives.  When some of the wives came and saw the cabins and that life was like it had been 100 years ago with no electricity or plumbing they didn't stay.  After the road more homesteads were taken and visitors came to fish in the area.

Here are three of the cabins and a food cache (the food cache was double the height shown here to keep animals out and was used as a pantry and in the winter a freezer).

In the former community hall they had a display of Alaskan artifacts and an animal diorama.  This was a 'small' brown (grizzly) bear.

If you're in the area I would highly recommend going to the museum.

Bill and Lisa have a Green Mountain smoker grill.  They fixed some halibut and steaks on it for us, and they were delicious.  We were hooked and decided we needed one.  We looked all over and finally found a Traeger Tailgater at Home Depot (it looks big but the legs fold up).

  It was 9:00 at 'night' as we got in the truck to go get it.  We had to use the sun visors because the sun was in our faces.  John spent until 1:00 putting it together.  The next night we had our freshly caught halibut and it was delicious!  Last night we tried chicken and it too was delicious.  I have a feeling we are going to be using it a lot.

Late Wednesday afternoon a moose visited our campsite.  We were pretty excited about this as we hadn't seen any wildlife up close (we stayed a safe distance away).  She came back a couple of hours later, and then we saw her the next day with her two babies.

When you are in Soldotna you must go to The Moose is Loose Bakery.  We stopped and got a couple of apple fritters and a loaf of cinnamon apple bread.  The fritters were so good, and we're still eating the bread.  Mmmmm...

Tomorrow we move on to Cooper Landing.  There is the Swan Lake fire north of the Sterling Highway between Sterling and Cooper River.  They have it under control but even here in Soldotna it is hazy and we can smell the smoke.  They have at times shut down the highway and other times have pilot cars to lead people through the area.  We don't expect any problems.

Roving on...

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.  Psalm 19:1

Kings River Crossing to Seward

Kings River Crossing to Seward

June 12 - 19, 2019

On Wednesday, June 12 we moved from Valdez to Kings River Crossing between Chickaloon and Palmer.  Kings River Crossing is a boondocking location where the Kings River and the Matanuska River meet.  The river was moving too fast to have any luck fishing.

The next day we moved on to Eagle River Campground in the Chugach State Park.  Fortunately we got there early Thursday morning because by late afternoon all the sites were taken.  It's a popular park very near Anchorage.

We saw some evidence of moose but didn't see any wildlife.  John and I went fishing at Matanuska Lake. John caught several rainbow trout and kept four nice sized ones for our dinner that night.

Saturday we drove to Seward.  To get to Seward you have to go on the Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage.  When the tide is out there are mudflats people might be tempted to walk on, but they say not to because the mud is like quicksand and the tide might come in before they could get rescued.

It was a pretty drive but overcast.

We stayed at the Seward KOA, which had just opened two weeks before.  It's a nice 'parking lot' campground with full hookups.  The sites are very wide and it was good not to be packed in like sardines.  It has a nice view too.

We went for a hike to Exit Glacier (I didn't make it all the way to the glacier).  There were signs along the trail showing where the edge of the glacier was in different years.  It has receded quite a bit in over a hundred years, but these things go in cycles.

On Monday we moved to the Resurrection South Campground on the waterfront.  It's dry camping and parking lot style but the view is beautiful.  It's fun to watch the cruise ships, fishing boats and wildlife cruises go in and out of the harbor.  We also saw some sea lions, sea otters, and an eagle.

We're parked next to Greg and Kate (former Montana owners we met at a rally).  They are spending the summer here in their motorhome.  Kate and I walked into town and had some retail therapy.  It was a lot of fun and I got some more fabric!

We also went to the Alaska SeaLife Center.  It was partially funded by monies from Exxon after the Valdez oil spill in 1989.  They study and care for all kinds of sea life.  These are two sea lions.  The one in the foreground is huge, and they said they can weigh 2,000 pounds or more.

I thought this display was interesting on how long marine mammals can hold their breath.

They had small salmon, crabs, halibut, rockfish, and jellyfish, along with a lot of other sea life I didn't get pictures of.

Here's a view of Resurrection Bay from the SeaLife Center.

On Tuesday, June 18 we signed up for a halibut and rockfish fishing trip on the Arctic Endeavor.  Although it was overcast it was a pretty ride out to the open sea.

John and I both caught four rockfish each, and about the time we started fishing for halibut one of the passengers had a medical emergency and we had to head back.  It was a 2-1/2 hour ride out so the captain called the Coast Guard and they came and took him to the hospital in the helicopter.

Fortunately we heard he is going to be OK.

On Wednesday, June 19 we went to the Bear Creek Weir to watch the salmon.  They are coming back to where they were hatched to spawn and die.  At the fishery they net the ones that make it and send them to a local processing plant.

Tomorrow we head to Homer for a few days.

Roving on...

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.  Psalm 19:1

Dawson City, Yukon to Valdez, Alaska

Dawson City, Yukon to Valdez, Alaska

June 1 - 11, 2019

On Sunday, June 1 we left Dawson City and crossed the Yukon River on the ferry.  It was a strange feeling crossing the river in the rig.

We took the Top of the World Highway, which some people say is a bad road, but since it had rained for a couple of days beforehand it wasn't dusty and although it is a gravel road we found it in good shape.  The scenery was gorgeous.

We crossed the Alaskan border in about 2 minutes with no problems.  The border agent was really nice.

This is a panorama shot I took at a lookout right after the border crossing (you have to click on it to see the snow capped mountains in the distance).  It looked like there was a Welcome to Alaska sign but it was missing so no picture.

We set up camp at Walker Fork BLM Campground east of Chicken.

Then we drove into Chicken because when you go to Alaska you have to go to Chicken.

And when you go to Chicken you have to have a piece of pie, so we did.

On Monday, June 3 we drove to Tok, Alaska.

After we went through Chicken the highway changed to the Taylor Highway, which was a much worse road, but again the scenery was beautiful.

We stayed at Tok RV Village, and had some delicious pizza at Fast Eddie's Restaurant.

I was going to do this blog from there but the internet was so bad I couldn't do it.  There really wasn't much to do in Tok but we got some shopping and cleaning done.  We also got our Alaska fishing licenses, except for the King Salmon stamp which we'll get before we go salmon fishing.

On Thursday, June 6 we headed down the Tok Cutoff towards Glennallen, which has a reputation as being a bad road and is for a few sections.  Of course there's always road construction in the summer in Alaska.  We just went slow and only a few things were rearranged inside the 5th wheel.  The beautiful scenery made it all worthwhile.

We spent the night at Dry Creek Campground just north of Glennallen, but both of us forgot to take any pictures.  Oops.

On Friday, June 7 we continued on the Richardson Highway to Valdez.  Sections of this road weren't very good either, but again we just went slow.  And here the scenery was just amazing.  I took so many pictures of mountains and these are only just a few.  You really have to click on the pictures to even get a small idea of what it looks like.

Just when we thought we had seen the prettiest mountains we got to Thompson Pass and all I could say was "wow!"  The pictures by no means do the views justice.  God's creation is beautiful beyond words.

Then we started down the mountain through Keystone Canyon, passed by Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetail Falls...

...to Valdez.

We are staying at Eagle's Rest RV Park.  The sites are pretty close together but fortunately there aren't a whole lot of people here.

That afternoon we drove to Allison's Point, where the oil pipeline ends its trip from Prudhoe Bay.  We also went to the salmon fish hatchery but this isn't the right time of the year for the salmon to be there so all the tanks were empty.

We also saw a cruise ship go out of the harbor.

We have been watching Pau Hana Travels on YouTube for a couple of years, following their trip to Alaska in 2017.  We found out they were staying in another park here so went over to say hello.  I'm sure they have people stopping by all the time but they were really nice.

On Saturday we drove up to Blueberry Lake and tried our hand at fishing.  We could see many fish jumping but none were biting.  However, the lake was really pretty.

On Sunday we went on the Stan Stephens Glacier & Wildlife Cruise on Prince William Sound.  Here's the boat we went out on.  (We didn't get a picture of the boat so I got this one from their website.)

In addition to the beautiful scenery and wildlife they served lunch and afternoon soup, along with coffee, tea and water.

I started to take pictures but John could take better ones with his camera, so all the following are his.

Bill & Lisa

We left the harbor and got a better look at the pipeline terminal.

The scenery on the way out of the harbor was beautiful.

We saw an eagle...

...and some sea otters.

There were some Steller sea lions just minding their own business...

 
...when along comes a big sea lion that has them all looking to see what's going on.

The big one climbs on and a smaller one had to get off.  The one didn't much like it when the big one sprawled all over it.

We cruised by the entrance to Columbia Glacier.  It is receding and has lots of icebergs in the bay.

Here is one that must have been very large as it made it out of the bay and is still big.  I love the blue color.

We finally got to Meares Glacier.  Here is our first look.

You really can't tell the size of these glaciers from the pictures.  This glacier is almost a mile wide.

Most glaciers are receding, but Meares Glacier is actually advancing.  However, as it moves forward it still calves.  When it does it makes a cracking sound and then sounds like thunder.  It's quite amazing to see.

John got some good videos so be sure to take a look at the Facebook page.

There were some harbor seals in the bay.

One of the crew netted some glacier ice.

On the way back to Valdez we saw some more Steller sea lions.  We decided they don't know about personal space.

I thought the caves along the shoreline were interesting.

We're leaving Valdez tomorrow headed for Seward, with a few stops along the way.  We'll be...

Roving on...

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.  Psalm 19:1