Pickle Power: Alaska

Cook Inlet Overlook

July 8, 2018

Himalayan poppy planted at overlook

Our first glimpse of Homer was from above. At the top of a high tree-covered hill, before the Sterling Highway descends down to the water’s edge and Homer, we pulled off at a great overlook and took in the beauty of Cook Inlet to the west, Kachemak Bay and the Chugach Mountains to the east, and down below, Homer, with its “spit,” a 4 and ½ mile long narrow piece of land that extends into the bay. The Homer Spit is lined with restaurants and gift shops, a campground and fishing spots. It ends at the marina. Known for years as the “Halibut Capital of the World,” Homer is also nicknamed “the end of the road.” That it is!

Descending into the town, we drove through the 3 or 4 streets of business district, sat for a while by the beach, and then drove the Spit, where all the action is. Lots of traffic moves along the two-lane street, and lots of tourists mosey from shop to shop. At the very end of the spit, we found a place to park so we could walk to the rocky beach by the marina and just sit for a while to watch the fishing boats coming and going, the gulls flying around squawking, and the anglers casting their lines into the water. The mountains surrounding, enclosing the aqua blue water of Kachemak Bay are up close and gorgeous.

Finding available parking for an RV on the Spit was problematic. Finally locating a place determined where we would eat lunch, and that was at a little order-at-the-window, sit -on -the- deck spot. My halibut tacos and Michael’s clam chowder suited us just fine and our ringside view of Cook Inlet on a sunny afternoon was priceless!

We drove the 19 miles of East End Road, running, you guessed it, east of Homer through neighborhoods, farms, meadow and forests. The views of mountain glaciers across Kachemak Bay were stunning.

On our way back to our Ninilchik campsite later that afternoon, we turned off the Sterling Highway at Anchor River and drove about 10 miles to Nikolaevsk, a village of 287 with an old Russian Orthodox Church – and a new one being built. The new onion (dome) was sitting on the ground next to a mostly finished new structure. Nikolaevsk is a community of Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Believers and some non-Russians. From what I read, they have large families, big gardens, and speak Russian. We saw only one person on our drive-thru, a bearded man in a road maintenance truck.

The next day we drove back into Homer to visit the Alaska Islands and Oceans Visitors Center. It’s new, a semi-circular dark- colored block structure that fits naturally in its setting above the Beluga Slough. Such interesting displays inside highlight the changes to the Alaskan Islands from native times to fur trading/Russian times to fox farming/bird depletion times to WWII Japanese invasion/US devastation times and then the nuclear bomb tests in the 70s.

After getting our raincoats and stocking caps and Nina out of the Siesta, we walked the developed trail behind the Visitors Center that skirts the Beluga Slough. To our left, two sand hill cranes walked, and to our right walked two more cranes with their 2 fluffy offspring. Not far from them, a larger-than-average (really, it looked HUGE!) bald eagle sat gazing at the water. A woman stopped to point out an active eagle’s nest in a spruce tree across the way on the other side of the slough. We could see the nest and an adult eagle, but couldn’t see the babies, even with our binoculars.

Homer has a Safeway! And that’s where we stopped to buy groceries before leaving the town “where the land ends and the sea begins.”