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| No salmon yet |
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| 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.
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| Hiking Coopers Landing |
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| 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.
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| Our romantic cabin in a greenhouse |
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| Hungry Moose |
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| 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.
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| As close to a moose as I'll ever get in the wild |
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| 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.
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| Walking the Homer Spit |
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| Looking down over the Homer spit |
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| Chocolate Lily |
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. 
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