2009 Tour Of Alaska - Homer

August 27. We had breakfast at the King Salmon associated with our Soldotna hotel (King Salmon Best Western). We stopped by the Safeway again, then retraced our path of yesterday but continuing on to Homer. Dot had indicted that she wanted to see (1) people fishing for and catching salmon, (2) Salmon swimming in large numbers in the streams and (3) salmon jumping cascades and rapids, on this trip. She had hoped to see this on the earlier trip but it was too early and the salmon weren't coming in yet. We stopped by Ninilchik again but, again, no salmon and no eagles. The only wildlife we saw was a few shore birds working the mud on the creek bottom.

Greater YellowlegsSemipalmated Plover
      
      

We again checked out the Ninilchik Creek Recreation Area east of the highway to see if anyone was fishing there. Several people were fishing and more arrived while we were watching. One of the men had caught a large salmon earlier and it was lying in the shallow water at the creek edge. He kept having to shoo the sea gulls away from his fish. While Dot was watching, a young man caught a large salmon. Dot got to mark off one objective for this trip - grin. Unfortunately, I was downstream quite a way and didn't get any photos.

All along the highways as we drove around on the Kenai Peninsula, we saw huge numbers of brilliant red berry bushes and tall, dead stalks with mushroom shaped seed heads atop them. In places, the red berries were really spectacular. After riding for many miles commenting on how nice the berries were and how interesting the seed heads, I finally stopped to photograph some of each. They were more impressive in nature than in these photos however.
      

We drove leisurely on down to Homer, checking out all the recreation areas along the way but seeing nothing of interest. We stopped at an overlook just outside of Homer and enjoyed the scenery, finally noticing some black dots on the water below (waaay below). With binoculars, we were able to identify them as a romp of sea otters. These were a welcome change from our generally wildlife free experience thus far.

The Kenai Peninsula has a split at its tip, produced by Kachemak Bay. Homer is at the tip of the north-western "peninsula-ette". There is a long narrow strip of land projecting into Katchemak Bay from Homer, called "the spit", shown below.

The spit contains an lot of fishing guide and tour agency businesses, restaurants, some condos and cabins, some light industry, a large wharf area, a separate ferry dock and, at the very tip, the hotel where we were staying, The Land's Inn Resort. We got to Homer around lunch time and had lunch at one of the spit restaurants, the Fresh Catch. We checked into The Land's End, then wandered around the spit and back up to Homer, seeing nothing of especial interest. The eagles that were common here on our spring trip two years ago were nowhere to be found. We checked out a man-made fishing lagoon where salmon can be caught and, in spite of several fishermen along the banks, no salmon were seen or caught while we were watching. After looking at all the places where we had found wildlife on our previous trip with no positive results, we headed back to Homer, had dinner and turned in.

Friday, August 28th, we decided to drive some of the roads that run parallel to Kachemak Bay but along a mountain ridge that follows the northern side of the Bay. On the way, we stopped by the man-made lagoon again and spotted this eagle perched on the rocks at the lagoon inlet.

The scenery across the bay is spectacular, with several glaciers easily seen.

      
      

We drove several roads on our tour, Kachemak Drive, East End Road and Skyline Drive. We eventually decided to tackle a long drive, North Fork Road, that circles inland from Cook Inlet off of Alaska 1, then rejoins the highway some 10 miles further along. We took it but, after an hour or so, we began to wonder if maybe we had left North Fork Rd. We hung in there, following the largest of the options, with no signing to assure us that we were on the right road and wondering where we would end up. Eventually, we emerged exactly where we were supposed to - on Alaska 1 north of Homer. It was a fun drive even though we saw no wildlife. We sure did get a lot of strange looks from the locals though (grin). We wended our way back to Homer, had dinner and, after downloading images and watching TV for a while, hit the sack.

Saturday, August 29th, we had breakfast at the Cosmic Cafe. After breakfast, we walked around on the beach below the hotel. Across the bay, the shore and a number of small islands just offshore were cloaked in fog and mist. It was clear and sunny on our side of the bay. I presume the fog and mist across the bay is due to the low temperatures as a result of the glaciers that run almost down to the water. At any rate, the views across the bay were really nice.

      
      

This is a panorama showing the beach fronting the hotel and a portion of Kachemak Bay. The beach, by the way, is composed of rocks, not sand.

Another panorama taken from the other side of the spit, near the man made lagoon, toward the tip and wharf area.

There was a lot of sea life that had washed up on the beach. Starfish and sea weed (kelp?) parts were common but the most fun was a piece of driftwood that appeared to be an old tree stump upside down with the remains of the roots protruding upward. I particularly liked the last shot in the grouping below.

      
      

There were several pairs of loons swimming around, fishing and playing, off the beach. Loons are a new species for me - photographically speaking. I enjoyed following them up and down the beach, trying to get some good shots. They mostly stayed off shore quite a distance but one pair came in fairly closely for a short time.

      
      

After spending the morning wandering around on the beach, we went back into Homer for lunch and to check out the Visitors' Center. While there, we were informed that there was an "open house" on two of the NOAA mapping vessels down at the wharf. These ships are involved in mapping the bottom of Kachemak Bay and Cook Inlet as an aid to navigation. We hurried down to the wharf and joined one of the last groups to tour the Ranier, one of the ships. The tour and lecture were interesting. Here's a picture of Dot in the wheel house.

Following the tour, we went back into Homer and had dinner at the Cosmic Cafe. Then back to the room and, after tending to my photo downloads, hit the sack. Tomorrow we leave Homer for Cooper Landing on the Russian and Kenai rivers.