Alaska 2025 – 21

We booked our water taxi for the trip across Kachemak Bay to the Grewingk Glacier for the next morning so we spent the day in Homer. After spending some time on the spit booking our taxi, we went to the Pratt Museum, located downtown. The museum is mostly about the history of the local area and was fascinating to say the least. It included exhibits ranging from sea life to Native Alaskans to the growth of the fishing industry.

This cutaway of a Beluga whale shows the relationship between the bone structure and the animal size. There was a lot of room for “insulation” here. These whales are often seen at points along the Sterling Highway and are easily recognizable for their pure white coloring. They follow the incoming tides, feeding on the salmon as they are heading towards the rivers and streams.

Outside, we took a stroll through the gardens, set up to show the different plant life found locally, by type. In this photo the plants associated with local bogs are shown. There were also areas for beaches, wooded areas and grasslands.

The Harrington Cabin was built in 1935-1936 by contractors Charlie Erickson and Stanton Shafer for Miss Crittenden Harrington. She lived in this home for many years. At least thirty people lived in this cabin between 1936 and 1967. Between 1967 and 1992, it housed several commercial businesses. This cabin was donated to the Pratt Museum in 1993. It really did it’s job!

Of course, I found the library to the cabin!

The next morning we began our trek to Grewingk Gacier by taking a water taxi across the bay. This boat was similar to a troop carrier with a drop lid in front, designed for beach landings. Cathy is enjoying the ride as we are leaving the sheltered area. We saw a sea otter on the trip over to the trailhead.

Approaching the trailhead, the view was more outstanding. It was total isolation for us!

Due to a very low tide, the boat was unable to use the standard landing area and we wound up getting let off about a mile down the peninsula. It was a very long mile due to the rocky footing.

We spotted this pretty neat swirling in the cliffs on the way up the beach. I had to keep walking up and scanning the forest as the trailhead is not well marked, especially if you are let off over a mile away by the taxi!

This is Cathy, in the grass near the trailhead sign. As you can see, it could be easily missed.

Cathy is completing the register and taking one last look at the maps on the board. We passed the ever-present bear sighting signage as we started down the trail.

We took the Glacier Lake Trail which had a gradual uphill elevation change. The mileage on the signage was fairly accurate except for the additional mile at the beginning and a half mile added on at the end. It was good to see the signage as it ensured us that we were on the right trail.

On the return to the taxi pick up area we would be leaving the Glacier Lake Trail and going over the mountain pass on the Saddle Trail.

Cathy on trail taking a munchie break or trolling for bears.

We reached Glacier Lake and found the toddler who lost a hat near the trailhead. We had picked it up and carried it with us in case we saw them. The glacier was huge and there were large icebergs floating about in the lake. The ice, in some cases was on shore.

There were several spur trails in the area so we had to make sure we took the right one. This would not be a good place to overnight, as the nearest ranger station and help were almost six miles away!

The Saddle Trail took us to Halibut Cove but was steep uphill, over the pass then very steep switchbacks going down to the rock (no beach here). Our taxi was there but was ready to return without us, we were seven minutes late! It took an additional 37 minutes to traverse the one mile rocky beach in the morning so overall, we were pretty close to our schedule. I took a couple of photos of Halibut Cove through the trees. As you can see, there is no one living here.

It felt great to be back in Homer but we still had to walk almost a mile to our truck. Overall, it was a good hike with outstanding close up views of the Grewingk Glacier.