Coastal Alaska: Seward, Homer and Whittier

Coastal Alaska

Our great experience in Valdez leaves us wanting more coastal adventure so we continue to the towns of Seward, Homer and Whittier. They are all located on the Kenai Peninsula southwest of Anchorage.

As we drove toward the coast we stopped along the way to marvel at the spectacular mountain scenery. It really is beauty overload.

Seward: 

Seward serves as the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park which is a hub for glaciers and marine wildlife.  The town itself has a lot to offer including Alaska SeaLife Center, Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center, hikes to glaciers, town murals, etc.

Over half of Kenai Fjords NP is capped with glacial ice, known as the Harding Icefield, which branches into 40 glaciers +/-. We were once again lucky enough to score boat tour tickets to visit just a small part of the Kenai Fjords. During the trip we enjoyed wildlife watching, sea lion colonies, Orca and Humpback whales and countless seabirds including the adorable puffins.

Orca Whales

A couple of the glaciers coming down from the Harding ice cap

More glacier sightings

Our boat got close to the face of Holgate Glacier to watch the ice calf

A window with an ocean view. 

The massive rock formations also housed sea lions for the day-look closely.

Puffins and Seagulls or could be Kittiwakes if they have black legs

While exploring more around Seward we hiked the Exit Glacier trail in the Kenai Fjords National Park. The receding of the glacier is evident by some trail signs indicating where the glacier once sat. Researchers say that the glacier has been receding over 160 feet every year over the last two decades. When you see and read about the glaciers you realize that these beautiful arts of nature will not be here forever. 

Exit Glacier

Homer:  

We traveled the Sterling Highway down the Kenai Peninsula to the south end to find Homer surrounded by the ocean and snow topped mountains. The views of Kachemak Bay are pretty great. Our goal was to camp on the 'Homer Spit', which is a 4.5 mile long gravel bar jutting into Kachemak Bay at the tip of the peninsula.  According to Wikipedia it is called the Spit because of its literal geological definition: a coastal landform created by wave action and longshore drift depositing sand and gravel in the water, originally left behind as a glacial moraine.  The Spit is loaded with shops, restaurants, hotels and RV campgrounds.  It doesn't seem that this little ribbon of a Spit would be big enough to accommodate all that is going on with ocean water just a few hundred feet apart.  We scored an RV site on the water front and even though it is cloudy we enjoy the smells and sights of the coast.  

View across Kachemak Bay

Our water front RV site

Viewing Homer and Homer Spit from Skyline Drive  

Grewingk Glacier viewed from Skyline Drive in Homer across Kackemak Bay

Anchor Point:

Anchor Point is about 20 miles northwest of Homer and is a scenic coastal community on the Kenai Peninsula.  We make the stop to take in some of the quieter beauty of the Cook Inlet, watch eagles and visit the area that is known to be the most westerly point on the North American highway system accessible by a continuous road. 

Numerous eagles were flying around in the area

Whittier:

We did not have Whittier on our list to visit but hearing about the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, town history and scenery we decided to make a day of it. We were excited to experience driving the longest vehicle-railroad shared tunnel in North America. The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel is 2.5 miles long one-lane tunnel must be shared by cars and trains traveling in both directions. The unique tunnel design enables a single lane of traffic to travel directly over the railroad track.  This build saved tens of millions of dollars over the cost of constructing another tunnel or wider one.  

As we arrive at the entrance we took our place in line and waited for the train to transverse the tunnel and then it's our turn.  But our wait is not wasted as we viewed the surrounding scenery of... you got it, more snow capped mountains. Beautiful!

Our view as we wait to enter the tunnel

Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel entrance

Tunnel interior

The town of Whittier (Gateway to Prince William Sound) is small compared to the other port towns that we have visited.  It had an extensive military presence until 1960, which you still see the evidence of some of the buildings.  The two main structures in town was the 275,000 square foot Buckner Building completed in 1953 and the Begich Tower completed in 1957  by the United States Corp. of Engineers as part of a strategy to establish a military presence in Alaska, which housed troops, officers quarters, mess hall, theater and shooting range so troops didn't have to leave the buildings in the cold weather.  It was dubbed the 'City Under One Roof'. At the end of the Cold War, the base was scaled back in troop size and then  abandoned in the mid 60's, and both still stand today.  The abandoned Buckner building stands as an eerie monument to the past. The Begich continues on today as a 14 story building that houses over 90 % of all the Whittier residents and includes the post office, grocery store, church, medical center, police station and other municipal services called 'One Roof Life'.   

Purchased a snack from the Frisky Mermaid Cafe in Whittier. 
Yummy cinnamon roll with a great harbor view

Buckner Building as it stands today.

Whittier view

Begich building 

After 38 days on the road, 18 days in Alaska and 1,350 Alaskan miles we are really enjoying the mountainous glacier scenery around the coastal towns but we need to keep going because there is lot of Alaska to explore. Join us next time as we head North and inland for more Alaska adventure. Hint: a big mountain in Alaska slightly reveals itself to us.

Happy Travels