The Amazingly Beautiful Seward Highway
July 27, 2011
At last, smack in the middle of our vacation, the occasion we came all the way to Alaska to celebrate: our anniversary! We have now really been married twenty years!
The Seward Highway runs from Anchorage to Seward, first along the beautiful Turnagain Arm and then through the scenic Kenai Peninsula. It may be one of the most scenic highways in the US. We did it in parts, first the northern part, then turning west at Cooper Landing to go out to Homer, then back along the same route to Cooper Landing where we then turned south to get to Seward. We spent our actual anniversary driving out to Homer along this beautiful route.
As usual, we got going too late (11:00), and spent far too long seeing things near the beginning of the route, and had to rush through the end. There was so, so much to see, and we wanted to see everything!
Captain Cook and his crew explored the Inlet that now bears Cook's name, to the north and west of the Kenai Peninsula. They came into the Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage. They were looking for a passage to Asia, but only found Anchorage. Since they had to turn around again, they named it the Turnagain Arm.
Eric took this picture of the Turnagain Arm. See the tracks for the scenic Alaska Railway.
As we pulled into a scenic overlook, Eric spotted the train approaching in the distance and shouted, "Train!" "Train!" I shouted in response, leaping out of the car with the camera.
Eric captured this fine piece of basalt.
Someone pointed out to me these Dall Sheep on the hillside.
The tide was low, so we got a good view of these mudflats. We did not get to see the infamous tidal bore, one of the fastest tides in the world, because our timing was off.
Eric took a great picture of the railroad tracks.
Near the tip of the Turnagain Arm, we got fantastic views of the Chugach Mountains. Photo by Eric.
I took more pictures of the Chugach Mountains.
Lovely, aren't they?
A small, unidentified glacier. Photo by Eric.
I took this picture of the glacier with the surrounding mountains.
Eric took this picture of the Portage Glacier, which has receded so much that you can't see it anymore from the closer overlook point.
A beautiful volcano along the road not too far after the end of the Turnagain Arm.
A couple of weeks before we left on our trip, one of my friends recommended the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The Center takes in injured and orphaned animals who can't take care of themselves in the wild. Yes, it's an artificial environment, but it's also a place where you can see a lot of animals at much closer range than you can from a bus in Denali. We emphatically did not do a good job of making enough time to see the Center, but we really wanted to see the animals. We had to rush through, driving rather than walking, but at least we got some good looks at some of the animals.
A porcupine.
Some moose that we could see well!
Elk. Photo by Eric
A Musk Ox, like the ones we missed at the farm out on the Glenn Highway. Photo by Eric.
A Black Bear swimming.
These Wood Bison nearly went extinct, but the Center has been breeding a herd. These animals will be reintroduced into the wild in 2013.
A caribou. Photo by Eric.
A majestic Bald Eagle. My, what an enormous bird. This one survived being hit by a bullet.
Eric photographed a Great Horned Owl.
Two baby moose came to the Center after they lost their mother. They are only about two months old, but look how big they are!
Eric got a picture of the baby moose being bottle fed. I wasn't fast enough--they went through those big bottles in about ten seconds.
After leaving the Center, we weren't able to resist one more stop--the westernmost point that you can drive to from the Lower 48.
We walked out on the beach to check out the frigid waters of the Cook Inlet. Photo by Eric.
The spot attracted me because from there you could see the volcanoes on the other side of the Inlet, in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. I'm not sure exactly which volcano this is.
I believe this is the tip not of Kodiak Island proper, but of Shuyak Isand just north of it. Shuyak Island is an Alaska State Park.
Since there is no boat launch, they use tractors to retrieve fishing boats from the Inlet. Someone had hung a fresh halibut on a rack.
I found a plastic toy wheel on the beach and removed it.
At an overlook, we got our first look at the Kachemak Bay, which we would cross the next day.
I had wanted to stay somewhere particularly special for the night of our actual anniversary, and I picked the Land's End Resort at the very tip of the 6-km (4-mi) Homer Spit, jutting out into that beautiful Kachemak Bay.
It would have been nice if we had gotten there soon enough to spend more time in our room.
Eric took a picture looking out over our little balcony.
The view looking further out toward the Cook Inlet.
We had planned on a nice, dressed-up anniversary dinner in a restaurant, but ran out of time. We picked up some tempura halibut (halibut is the area's specialty) at the hotel restaurant and brought it back to our room. And we still didn't get enough sleep, but it's a beautiful place and there's a lot to see.
On to the charming seaside town of Homer and a wildlife tour on the Kachemak Bay.