As on our first day, on leaving Anchorage AK-1 runs for some distance along the edge of Turnagain Arm off of Cook Inlet. Along this section, we hit a little turnout with an observation platform where there was a young moose. The animal was apparently either drinking from small puddles or eating the dirt in the marshy area - if the latter, presumably for minerals. He would occasionally start running around and finally ran into the woods on one side of the marshy area. He came back out shortly and began to graze. He was very cooperative and posed for us for some time.

On our previous pass along this route, we mentioned seeing Dall Sheep on the mountain side but I didn't photograph them. At the same place, we again saw some of them today and, having more time, I decided to get a shot of their environment. This almost sheer cliff started its rise at the edge of the road. While these are resting, it is impressive to watch these sheep dashing and leaping around on these cliff faces at full speed.

We pulled off on a turnout where you were supposed to see Baluga Whales but none were visible. As you can see from the map above, where AK-1 makes it's switchback at the end of Turnagain Arm, the Portage Glacier Road to Whittier branches off to the east. We had read about Whittier in our tour books and decided we'd take a look at it. We headed out Portage Glacier Road and quickly ran into several glaciers, the most visible being the Explorer Glacier and Portage Glacier. The weather was miserable, heavy dark overcast, constant rain, cold and dark so I only stopped to try to photograph one of these. I am not sure which one I did on the way in but I think it was the Explorer Glacier. When we got to the other one, it was raining so hard that I didn't want to take my cameras out in the weather.

After brief stops at the two glaciers, we continued on our way. We soon hit a point where they warned us that we wouold have to have a ticket to continue. This came as a bit of a surprise because the map showed a road all the way to Whittier and this sounded like a ferry ride was coming. We figured that it must be a ferry to somewhere else on the Marine Highway (the extensive ferry routes through out coastal Alaska). Shortly, we came upon a kiosk and gate so we inquired what the ticket was required for. The lady in the booth told us that it was for the trip through the tunnel to Whittier. We bought our ticket and got into line. The tunnel, it turns out, is one lane and was originally built as a railroad tunnel. They paved the space between and alongside the tracks and make an auto passage for it as well. After a wait of about 20 minutes, we got the green light and proceeded into the tunnel. WOW! It went on and on and on. We found out later that it is four miles long, extremely narrow and definitely not the place for a claustrophobe. After about twenty or thirty minutes at 25 MPH, we emerged in Whittier. Whittier is interesting. It is built on a very small shelf of land between a mountain cliff and a small bay off of Prince William Sound. I would guess the entire area is probably less than about twenty acres. We drove up a road that we thought would take us to Whittier Glacier but it was closed off for construction so we turned around and headed back. Before we did though, I took this picture of Whittier, although the small tree obscures most of the town proper and there is a bit more of it off the frame to the right. It does give a sense of the size of the area and the town though.

We had walked around the waterfront where most of the businesses were, had lunch at a great little restaurant named Varley's and checked out one of the gift shops. The lady who ran the shop was interesting. She lives somewhere in Whittier area, on the other side of the tunnel, and raises caribou in her back yard. There are virtually no houses in Whittier and everyone lives in a big condominium on the edge of the business area. It also houses the grocery store and a medical clinic. After getting some espresso at a coffee shop and restaurant on the waterfront, we rejoined the queue to take our ride through the tunnel and onward to Soldotna. However, since the rain had become only a steady drizzle, we stopped at the other glacier (the one I didn't photograph on the way in) on the way out and I got a couple of shots. I believe these are shots of the Portage Glacier and the smaller Byron Glacier viewable from the same area. There were icebergs in Portage Lake and I got a few shots of these as well.

We headed west on AK-1 through the Chugach National Forest and Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Along the way, we saw several moose but only one that stood still long enough for us to find a place to stop and go back for photos. As I walked up to a point directly across the Kenai river from she was standing, another observer said she had a calf with her. I hung around for maybe ten or fifteen minutes but I never saw a calf. She did remain in place for the entire time without moving though.

We got to Soldotna around 6:00 PM, checked into the King Salmon Best Western Hotel, which was decorated with native Alaskan style artwork, and went out to look up some food. After dinner at Froso's, a local restaurant, we went back to the hotel and hit the sack.

June 2, Day 26: Next morning we had breakfast at the King Salmon restaurant adjacent to the hotel and checked out Soldotna. We found the Soldotna Visitors' Center where we were told that the most likely place to see a salmon run and fishing would be on the Kasilof River about 25 miles south on AK-1 but it would be unlikely as the salmon were still out in the inlet and hadn't come into the rivers yet. Nevertheless, we headed south and turned off into an Alaska Recreation Area on the Kasilof River. We went down to the river's edge but saw nothing except a cleaning station and some salmon skeletons in the water. While we were wondering where these came from, a couple of trucks and SUVs pulled up and a group of men jumped out with several large salmon. They proceeded to photograph each other with the fish (while Dot photographed them), then cleaned and filleted them at a cleaning facility next to the waterfront.

After observing them for a while and walking along the river to see if there were any swimming salmon there, we gave up and headed out again. We drove the North Cohoe Loop Rd. along the coast, and eventually found ourselves on Kalifornski Beach Rd. again (see Homer, Day 2). We followed it to a turn off that lead to the outlet of the Kasilof River but saw no evidence of any salmon fishing. Went back to Kalifornski Beach Rd. and followed it to the turnoff for the Kenai Flats. We saw nothing of interest on the flats so proceeded on to Kenai City and roamed around there for a while, eventually finding ourselves at the Visitors' Center. On their advice, we stopped at the Scout Park which overlooked the mouth of the Kenai River where it is rumored that one can see Baluga Whales. Of course, we saw none. We then visited the local Russian Orthodox Church and had a long discussion about the history and religious tenets of the church with the priest. Dot took these photos of the church and one of the associated buildings.

We drove over to the beach and walked around for a while as Dot collected some interesting rocks. We finally departed Kenai City and decided to drive out North Kenai Road to the Capt. Cook State Recreation Area at its end. We spotted a moose with a calf across a lake and turned around but the calf had hidden in the tall grass by the time we got back. At the end of the drive, there were a lot of trailers for ATVs so we figured the recreation area was used mostly for riding ATVs and dirt bikes. We turned around and headed back to Kenai City and then Soldotna via the Kenai Spur highway. After dinner at Forso's again, we went out shopping, then back to the hotel for the night.

June 3, Day 27: Next morning, since we didn't have anything special planned, we didn't get up early but had breakfast at the King Salmon restaurant again. During breakfast, we decided we'd go south on AK-1 and revisit the areas where we had seen the eagles on our stay at Homer. In particular, I wanted to get some more shots of the Eagle's nest with young which should have hatched by now. So we headed south on AK-1 toward Homer. We first stopped at Ninilchik where we had seen the eagles in the creek on two different occasions earlier. We found no eagles but we did find people fishing in a manmade "lagoon" or widening of the Ninilchik River just before it emptied into Cook Inlet. Dot got some pictures of them as well as the other fisher people at the site.

We wandered down and watched for a while, then drove out to the end of the street where it dead ended at the rive mouth and parked. There were a lot of fisher people sitting on the rocks along the short stretch (maybe 200 feet) of the river between where it took a 90º turn the lagoon to run into the inlet. We watched for a while, then asked some other people who were coming and going what was going on. Someone said that the tide was turning and in a little while, it would start running in and the salmon would be pushed into the river. The fisher people were waiting for the tide to start running. WOW. That's exactly what Dot had wanted to see so we settled down and watched the river and the fisher people. We had lunch at a small snack bar beachfront on the water's edge - really great seafood chowder - to kill a little time, then went back to the riverside. In about an hour or two, the tide did start running and the fisher people moved down to the water's edge and started fishing but we saw no salmon nor anyone catching one. We did see one jumping in the lagoon and someone said that a fisher person who was fishing in the lagoon had caught a salmon earlier but we didn't see any salmon, free or caught. Dot did get some photos of the fisher people lined up along the bank but no shots of salmon getting caught.

We left Ninilchik and headed south in search of eagles. We stopped at each of the other places we had visited previously but couldn't find the eagle's nest. Finally, we turned around and headed back to Soldotna. Found out later that the recreation area wasn't any of the ones I thought it was but was much further south - almost to Homer. On the way back to Soldotna, we spotted a couple of moose in a marsh area beside the road and stopped to get some shots. While there, I noticed some lupins in the parking area and took a few shots of them too.

We wended our way back to Soldotna by way of Kasiloff where we had dinner at Randy's. Then on to the hotel and bed. Tomorrow we head for Anchorage again to fly back to Orlando.