Seward, AK to Homer, AK 7/19/14

Day 78 of our summer trip. Seward Highway to Sterling Highway

We left our great campsite in Seward and headed to the Kenai Peninsula and Homer, Alaska.  We have been having good luck finding campgrounds by taking the information that we had seen in the Traveler’s guide to Alaskan Camping by Mike and Terri Church as well as various friends from our camping club and other research, so we are aiming to spend time at a camp on the Homer Spit.  The drive , today, was similar to other days.  The roads are lined with tall trees that obscure much of what is behind them.  Sometimes you get a glimpse of a great view, but by the time the camera is ready to take the picture, the trees have hidden it.  Occasionally, if you look straight to the side, you can see buildings or businesses, etc.  When we got closer to the coastal area of the Kenai Peninsula, there was a view point where we could see across the Cook Inlet to some of the inactive volcanoes.  The way that the clouds have gathered over the one at the right make it look like it is an active volcano.  Update 7/23/14  We just found out that some of the volcanos that we have been looking at are active.  This one on the right erupted in 2009 and that is really smoke and steam coming out of it.


Here is a wide angle of the whole mountain chain that can be seen from that view point.


A little further on, we saw this very large glacier.  It is probably part of the Harding Icefield in the Kenai Fjords National Park that is mostly on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula from Homer.  Then I saw some more glaciers, also probably part of the Harding Icefield, across the Kachemak Bay from the camp where we are staying.


We are staying at the Mariner Park on the Homer Spit.  It is not far from the town, which can be seen in the background.  The tide is out in this picture, so all that there is are the mud flats.  In this area, they are flat, unlike the ones that we saw at Turnagain Arm near Girdwood.  This is a no frills camp owned by the city, but the view is priceless.  The picture on the right was taken from a view point on Skyline Dr. in Homer.


We have an ocean view out our back window. Our campsite from the Cook Inlet side.  The second picture is looking out of the trailer window at the rest of our site.  The wind is blowing quite hard because a storm is going through.  It makes for nice waves.



Looking up and down the beach, first to the left then to the right.


The storm has arrived and it is raining.  The wind is so strong that it is rocking the trailer. The waves are much higher now.
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The rain is gone away, but the wind is stronger than before.  Earl just looked out the window and saw a rainbow.  So, I ran out to see if I could get it to show up in a photo.  Here is one close up and one back farther.  It isn't a bright rainbow nor a very big one, but it can be seen just above the edge of the mountain about a third of the way from the right side.  I wasn’t the only one taking pictures.  Notice that it is 10:36 PM and still quite light outside.


We haven’t had a sunset for quite awhile, so I went out to capture the event.  Even though the weather forecasters say that there is around 18 hours between sunrise and sunset, the sky doesn’t seem to get dark.  There always seems to be a glow in the sky like a twilight.  Maybe now that we are a little farther south than we have been, it will be different.  Here are a few sunset photos taken between about 10:37 and 10:55 PM.  I like how the light blue shows through in a couple spots in the last picture.  That one is closest to where the sun is setting.




Boy! it was cold outside while I was taking those pictures.  The wind chill must have been in the 40s.
Well, I think I’ll curl up in bed and get rocked to sleep by the wind.