Trip log: RV Trip to Alaska 2014 |
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6/9/2014 Day 33 Eagle River to Funny River, Soldotna; 145 mi The Eagle River campground had a dump station ($5 fee) but no water that we could use to fill the tank, so we dumped and went on to Girdwood to fill with gas and water at the Tesoro. Could have dumped there as well, for free. Getting through Anchorage at 8 AM on Monday morning is no picnic, but it went without a hitch.
The Glenn Highway west from Eagle River right-angles into the Seward Highway south, still AK #1, and continues along Turnagain Arm to Portage. It is an absolutely stunning drive! There are turnouts every few miles and we stopped at most of them. This is a great place to watch for tidal bores coming up Turnagain Arm, but we weren’t there at the right time of day or tide; the bore would not have been much anyway. |
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6/11/2014 Day 35 Homer, Alaska: Flightseeing trip to Katmai National Park and Preserve We didn’t know until late last night whether we’d be able to go today, since we were the only two officially signed up and it takes four minimum to make the trip. However, the Tuesday flight was a bust, having been cloudy, rainy and no bears close enough to photograph, so Bald Mountain Air offered them another trip on Wednesday gratis. Suddenly there were those seven people plus us making nine, which is just right. These folks had already been out, though not to the same place we went today. We all donned hip waders before boarding the airplane, a really stylish effect, necessary for water landings in seaplanes where there is no dock.
Boy, did we see bears! The airplane that we flew on is a DeHavilland Otter, capable of carrying 10-12 passengers, designed and built in the 1960s, and this one was retrofitted with a 1000 horsepower turboprop engine and pontoons. These and their little brothers, the DeHavilland Beaver, a 6-passenger version, are the workhorses of Alaska. The bush pilots love them. Even though many are 60 years old, they are as reliable as any airplane in existence.
Our Pilot for Bald Mountain Air Service, Tony, flew us to Hallo Bay on the east side of Katmai, 120 air miles or about a 1-1/2 hour flight southwest from Homer. We landed on a little estuary off Shelikof Strait that was little wider than twice the wingspan of the airplane and probably a half mile long. We saw many bears on the way, and also glaciers and volcanoes.
It was a beautiful slightly overcast day, but we could see the tops of the mountains. We landed, daisy-chained the baggage ashore, pulled in the airplane and tied it off, then left James, the co-pilot, tending the plane while we all traipsed off into the swamp, still in hip waders, looking for bears. This is a large flat, open grassy dry marsh interspersed with ponds here and there. It’s covered with lush grass that the bears love. Within 15 minutes we saw two grizzlies lying down on the bank of a small pond, probably a mother and her grown cub, Tony surmised. We ate lunch there while we watched the two somnolent bears about 100 yards away, then walked further north toward two or three other bears we could see in the distance. These are all grizzlies, by the way. We probably walked about 2 miles and suddenly there were nine bears in all directions from us, most about 300 yards away but some much closer. On two different occasions a bear walked within about 15-20 feet of our group, all of us frantically snapping pictures. We bunched up together and the bear just ignored us, although he gave us a look. We watched four different matings, two with the same female. I took 200 pictures and several movies. Just before we started back we saw a fox hunting on the opposite side of the little stream.
Having landed at 11:30, we tramped around and watched bears until about 3:30 and then started back to the airplane. After loading up, Tony had to extract the four big German guys from the plane to both lighten the load and help push it off the sand bar. Finally we were freed, took off and made a bee-line direct for Homer, arriving about 4:30. A more direct flight home plus a tailwind made the trip back quicker.
The map on the right shows the geography and flight path, about 140 miles, from Homer to Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park. |
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6/10/2014 Day 34 Soldotna to Homer, AK; 80 mi After checking with the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Soldotna we got advice about caribou viewing sites and drove out Beach Road to the town of Kenai where we found a group of about 8. There were about 4 cows and 4 fairly young bulls with small antlers on the east side of the road. We also saw one juvenile eagle on the edge of the river. This is a very busy road and it was difficult to watch and take pictures.
The road down to Homer is pretty good; a little twisty, with a little road construction. Very beautiful sights of Cook Inlet and the mountains surrounding it. Guess we have to turn around now; we’ve made it to “The End of the Road.” |
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Slide show and story of katmai bear viewing
Note: This is the same slide show listed on the home page of this website. If you have previously seen it, you may want to skip it here. |
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6/8/2014 Day 32 Exploring Anchorage We found a great buffet breakfast at the Bear Grill in Eagle River, then went into Anchorage to Costco, BB&B and tried to find the Anchorage Small Boat Harbor, mentioned |
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Mountain goats on the Seward Highway south of Anchorage |
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Juvenile eagle near Soldotna, Alaska |
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Caribou near town of Kenai north of Soldotna |
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Bald Mountain Air seaplane dock in Homer |
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We saw Dall sheep up on the mountainside across from one of the turnouts, and when the road turns directly south just after Portage at the foot of Turnagain Arm, you can see Spencer Glacier straight ahead of you about 8 miles distant. This is also where the road takes off east to Whittier. This entire area is heavily glaciated. At this point we are on the Kenai Peninsula.
At Tern Lake Junction, 90 miles south of Anchorage, the Seward Highway changes number to AK #9 on to Seward; the road west to Soldotna and south to Homer becomes the Sterling Highway, but its number remains AK #1 all the way to Homer. We are seeing many potential Jeep trips in this area to do on the way back up.
We bedded down in Klondike RV Park on Funny River Road in Soldotna for $38 with full hookups. Donna has a full laundry basket and has found an acceptably clean laundry at this park, unlike many others, with which to catch up. Just a few miles east of here is the site of the Funny River Fire which burned about 200 thousand acres this past month, blanketing much of the state with smoke. It is now fully contained and no longer putting out smoke. |
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prominently in Milepost, and where we think Four Seasons may reside. The problem with that idea was there is no Anchorage Small Boat Harbor. Or any other small boat harbor in Anchorage. It turns out, we learned much later, Whittier is where the Anchorage folks keep their boats.
After a circuitous tour around the city we ended up At Earthquake Park where we got a view of Knik Arm, learned a bit about the earthquake of April, 1964, then came back to Eagle River and went out to the Eagle River Nature Center for a walk. After paying our next night’s moorage at the campground we found the Fred Meyer store in Eagle River and stocked up on groceries. Wine is quite reasonable here. So it was mostly a chore day.
The microwave/convection oven is still broken. We had thought we would try to get it replaced under warranty while in or around the Anchorage area, but we have no appetite for doing that. Anchorage is not a place you want to spend much time. So we will live without it a while longer, probably until we get home. |
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We are camped in Mariner Park on Homer Spit, the first of several campgrounds on the 4.5 mile long spit. It is only $15 per night, no hookups but a stunning position directly facing the beach. We signed up for the bear watching flight tomorrow (Wednesday) with a standby for sure on Saturday if we can’t go tomorrow. The “if” is because right now we’re the only ones signed up and it takes four minimum. Today is rainy and overcast. Tomorrow promises to be a clear, warm day.
6 PM: Just received word that we’re on for the flight tomorrow.
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Cow moose and mooselet at the Pratt Museum parking lot in Homer. |