Homer Alaska, A Town Visit

No salmon yet
Moose just off the road in Homer
 The next destination on our Alaska exploration was on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula at the little fishing town of Homer. A couple of my friends spent summers up here working on salmon fishing boats and had great stories and recommendations on where to go.

Hiking Coopers Landing
Our Homer Home
 We stopped in Coopers Landing for a fun hike to a cascading waterfall on the Indian River, but were a little too early in the season for bear sightings. We continued on to the southwest tip of the peninsula to our air b&b place on the outskirts of Homer. I immediately fell in love with the cabin when I saw I had to walk through a greenhouse filled with colorful flowers to get to the front door. The cabin itself was painted in bright colors but what really amazed me was the inside. A huge comfortable bed, a kitchen minus the oven, a makeshift sink with a 5 gallon jug of water, and a little table and desk all made for quite the little romantic getaway. The fact that there were homemade blueberry muffins on the table was just icing on the cake.

Our romantic cabin in a greenhouse
  
Hungry Moose
Heidi studying the moose
    We spent 3 days exploring the areas around Homer. What we found was the hiking was few and far between, which surprised me. The kayaking would have been amazing on the other side of the bay but we were fine with not paying the $80 water taxi fare to cross a mile and a half of water. We found a wonderful bagel bakery near our cabin as well as some fun live music at the local steakhouse. And there was a nice marsh in the middle of town with an informative wildlife visitors center stationed nearby. Multiple times on the drive home we pulled over because moose were chowing down just off the side of the road. This was definitely moose central as we saw multiple mother and calf pairs, and one with twins, plus a few single moose sightings. The little wetland area in front of the visitor center provided our closest moose encounter only 10ft away. Luckily there was a little natural barrier in between us and the moose so I felt much safer. As we walked deeper into the wetlands I was shocked to see and hear sandhill cranes. It took me right back to my days growing up with them on St Catherine’s Island…in a distant time and place.

As close to a moose as I'll ever get in the wild
  
Sandhill Crane in Alaska Scene
    On the way out of town we stopped at a beach to look for hiking opportunities and found a beach overlook that led down to a makeshift boat launch. There was no ramp, instead a tractor would push a boat in the gentle surf until it motored off. Huge volcanic cones could be seen off in the distance from this western vantage point. The wildflowers covered the strip of land between sand dune and forest. We even found a couple of sweet smelling chocolate lilies in the mix. We decided to hike down the shoreline to look for seabirds, which there were many, and were treated to one of the best eagle encounters I’ve ever had. But that will have to wait for the next blog installment. 







 
Walking the Homer Spit
Looking down over the Homer spit


Chocolate Lily

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Secret Maui Waterfall

Search for Chameleons, Maui

Vermont Summer and Stave Island