Continuing South to the Kenai Peninsula

After our three days in Susitna Landing, the plan was to head south to just north of Anchorage, Alaska. Our route took us through Wasilla, Alaska (hometown of former Alaska Governor and Senator John McCain's Vice Presidential running mate Sarah Palin). We stopped for groceries at the local Walmart before continuing on to Eagle River Campground, a Chugach State Park. for one night on Thursday. This campground is outside Anchorage about 12 miles up the Glenn Highway in Eagle River, Alaska. We were able to re-fuel there before continuing south the next day to Anchorage to get fresh water and dump our black and gray water storage tanks.

The destination for Friday, July 12 was the small waterfront hamlet of Hope, Alaska. To get there we would continue traveling south out of Anchorage 102 miles on the Seward Highway along the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. It took about two hours to reach the Porcupine Campground

at mile 18 up the Hope Highway.

According to the information we had, "Visitors and Alaskans alike flock to the Kenai Peninsula to enjoy the great outdoors, but most drive right past the Hope Highway turnoff at Mile 56.3 of the Seward Highway without knowing what they're missing. This 17-mile detour lets you explore the history of one of Alaska’s first gold-rush towns."

Currently home to fewer than 200 residents, the village once housed 3,000—all drawn by gold fever. In 1889, a few years before the Klondike gold rush began to lure people north, a miner discovered nuggets in nearby Resurrection Creek. Soon prospectors found gold in many area streams—including Bear, Sixmile, Canyon and Mills—triggering the 1890s Turnagain Arm gold rush. According to local lore, this growing community of tents and cabins chose to name their town after the youngest rusher to step off the next boat—17-year-old Percy Hope. Whether or not the story is true, the name certainly evokes the optimism of every prospector who arrived in Hope in search of a fortune.

Hope, however turned out to be a bit of a let down. Most of the buildings and museums were closed. The local saloon was advertising an Irish band that night, but the cover charge was $30 each so we bought a few drinks and returned to our campground. The site was tight but the price was right at a mere $11.50 a night with the National Park Pass 50% discount.

Saturday morning found us on the road again (another three hours and 153 more miles) enroute to Anchor Point just a few miles north of Homer, Alaska. This would be the home base for the next three days instead of trying to find a campground site on the Homer Spit. Weekends are notoriously busy in most campgrounds everywhere, so we opted for the Slide Hole Campground off the Sterling Highway.

This campground is one of several in the Anchor River State Recreation Area. The campground closest to the water is Halibut Campground, our original planned location, but it was full on Saturday late morning when we arrived, so we chose this nearby campground which was a nice second alternative. It is still close enough to the beach that a walk is easy. It is a fairly busy campground with lots of coming-and-going and non-campers driving through, but it calms down at night and is fairly quiet. It is a wooded area with good separation between sites. There is a fresh water fill, but no dump station. The toilets are vault toilets. There are long generator hours from 6 in the morning until 11 at night.  Our Verizon internet server worked well here. The main activity here is fishing. It was a pleasant campground in wooded surroundings. We would stay here again because the drive into Homer was easy and the sites were less crowded than in town or on the spit.

After setting up our individual campsites we all ventured into the town of Homer and the Homer Spit to get our bearings. Properly dressed with raingear we walked around and eventually ended up at the Harbor Grill restaurant for a late lunch, early dinner. I had to have the Halibut & Chips and Karen had the Halibut Tacos. Homer is known as the Halibut Capital of the World, so it was only appropriate we try them out! Both entries were good but not "over the top" out of this world outstanding.

Sunday, July 14 Karen and I, along with Jeff and Dana Guidi, took a ferry boat at 11:00 AM just 15 miles across Kachemak Bay from Homer to Seldovia, a small coastal community with authentic Alaska appeal. Locals call their town the “City of Secluded Charm,” and it’s hard to argue with them. Set among a maze of peninsulas, straits, and lakes, the isolated community of 300 residents has managed to retain much of its character. It was easy to walk the entire town and was an enjoyable escape for the day.

The Seldovia area is the traditional homeland of the Sugpiaq people who have lived in the area for thousands of years. When Russian traders arrived in the area seeking sea otter pelts and timber to repair ships, Seldovia became an important shipping and supply center for the region. Salmon and herring runs supported several canneries by the 1920s. After the Sterling Highway was completed to Homer in the 1950s, Seldovia’s population and importance as a supply center began to dwindle, but it was the 1964 Good Friday earthquake that caused the most rapid change in the community. The earthquake caused the land beneath Seldovia to settle four feet, forcing residents to rebuild much of their community on higher ground.

During our four hour visit we walked the town built on wooden pilings supporting many of the unique waterfront homes. We observed a large community of Bald Eagles flying above the entire area. In the harbor, a solitary Sea Otter floated on his back, napping as boat traffic came and went, in and out of the small local harbor. We even found some interesting wooden sculptures for Karen to enjoy!

Before heading back to the harbor we grabbed a snack at a local eatery before boarding the ferry boat at 4 PM for the return trip back to the Homer Spit.

Our last day in Homer was a mixed bag of meeting our friends, Jay and Laurie Johnson for coffee and a snack, doing our laundry, getting our Honda portable generator repaired and visiting the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center.