Seward

We took the Sterling Highway today, through the Kenai River Canyon, stopping at the junction of the Kenai and Russian Rivers to check on the availability of the ferry used to cross the Kenai.  The ferry is closed for the season so, if we are going to attempt to fish the Russian, we will have to walk about one mile from a parking lot located upstream, where the Sterling crosses over the river. There appears to be some activity on the river, the silvers may be starting their second run.  We did not bring our fishing equipment so we continued on, destination: Seward.

Passing through the town of Moose Pass, we noticed this water wheel powered grinding stone on the side of the highway.  A sign next to it said “If you have an axe to grind, use this wheel”.  Since we did not have an axe, we just played a little . . although enough to throw the belt.

Jason was afraid the police were going to put us in jail!

Michael and I were successful in getting it running again before we left.  

We had to stop at a construction zone on the Herman Leirer road to Exit Glacier.  I found this little Christmas tree and thought it was perfect for Ashley.  We put a small ribbon on it to hold it for the short time to Christmas…

We got our fist view of the glacier about eight miles down the Herman Leirer Road, (locally known as the Exit View Glacier Road), from across the Exit river.  The ice fields behind the glacier (out of view) are more than 57 miles long and have numerous glaciers extending from it, including the glaciers in the Kenai Fjords National Park.

A view, across the river facing south, the mountains are snow-capped and mostly covered in clouds. The road was under construction (a lot of roads in Alaska are under construction during the short summer from damage the previous winter) and we travelled on gravel for some distance.  We also watched a rental motor home barrel through a series of severe frost heaves and bounce wildly. It was quite a sight!  They pulled over at the first wide spot (apparently to pick up the mess inside).

After reaching the Exit Glacier Visitor Center, we decided to make the hike up to the face of the glacier, a distance of less than two miles, uphill . . with Jason checking for trolls under the footbridges.

A view of some of the surrounding mountains…

Cathy and I at the first viewpoint, well below the glacier…

Jason proved to be quite a hiker and made it to the face of the Glacier…

The ice had a good blue color as we got pretty close to the face.  We were warned about trying to get to the actual glacier as it calves and we saw a lot of broken ice below in the canyon.

After returning from the glacier walk, we went on into Seward.  The Alaska Railroad has a terminal and there are cruise ship terminals nearby.  Luckily for us, the train did not depart until 1800 and the cruise ships were not in port.  We had the town pretty much to ourselves. We went to several “made in Alaska” stores, a fishing store and had lunch at a restaurant, with only two other persons in the establishment . . .a lot different from when the ships are in.

After lunch, we went to the Alaska SeaLife Center, run by the University of Alaska.  It is a cold water marine research facility, with an aquarium and a marine wildlife rescue and rehabilitation facility.  It is very similar in configuration to the Georgia Aquarium except they also have two 260′ research vessels/icebreakers at their disposal.  Neither was in port at the time, but I was told they can break trough 18′ of ice.

After the aquarium, we went to Lowell Point, along a narrow dirt road hugging a cliff on the edge of Resurrection Bay.  We had a small storm come through and saw this rainbow across the bay.

On the way back to Soldotna, we spotted a salmon viewing area right after the turn to the Sterling Highway.  There were a LOT of large salmon lined up to enter the spawning lake and a “fisherman”, who arrived just before us starting to fish.  As soon as we got near him, he left the stream.  Tomorrow we may try our luck on the lower Kenai before we head back to the upper river.