2005/07 Alaska and Back Again - Homer |
|||||
Our target for the day was Homer, the “end of the road” for southwestern Alaska, but we saw a sign in Soldotna which said that Captain Cook state park was only 3.7 miles away, so we headed there for lunch. We later decided that the sign had said 37 miles and the decimal point was probably a bullet hole.
 |
Kenai Peninsula (Captain Cook, Homer) |
|---|
We saw a moose and calf on the way into the park as compensation for a slow drive through Soldotna’s urban sprawl of refineries and fertilizer factories. The road ended at the top of the cliffs overlooking Cook Strait and the distant mountains of the Katmai Peninsula. The Katmai is famous for its giant brown bears and its scenery but it’s only accessible by plane and lots of dollars.
John and Edna were now at the other end of the Pacific Ocean from Australia, about 8000 miles 
from home. From the cliff top, we saw what looked like a pod of whales passing by. My guess is that they were pilot whales, but none of the photos showed more than a piece of black body or a fluke. We explored the park and the beach for a while and then headed off to Homer, along the Kalifornsky Beach road. This is flat, open country, a contrast to what we’d driven through to get here. The rain had started again, but not enough to hide the scenery. The view from the hilltop approaching Homer is really spectacular, with great mountains and glaciers ringing the bay.
The main town of Homer is on the mainland, but the real attraction is Homer Spit, a long stretch of shingle that 
pokes out into Kachemak Bay. The spit is home to hundreds of trailers and motorhomes, and a long stretch of shops, restaurants, and souvenir stores, ending at the ferry terminal.
The fish and chip restaurant was too tempting to turn down, and a lot of halibut was consumed. The store next door sold souvenirs that cost in the thousands, wonderful carvings made from baleen and fossil ivory, a good place to window-shop. The rain caught up with us again, and we had drizzle all the way back to Sterling.
Next