Alaska/Canada 2017-12 Kenai Peninsula 3 - Seward

Exit Glacier near Seward, Alaska

    Week 1 on the Kenai Peninsula we camped at Hope, Discovery Camp, and Homer, and visited friends from the ferry in Ninilchik. Now we were headed back north and across the peninsula then south to Seward. 

Our 10 days on the Kenai Peninsula.

    We drove for miles along the romping, wide, glacier-blue Kenai River, famous for its salmon fishing.

Kenai River, famous for salmon fishing

Next were miles of Kenai Lake. It's the headwaters of the Kenai River and extends 22 miles in a sort of Z shape. 

Kenai Lake.

Kenai Lake. 

    Arriving in Seward is another breattaking experience. It sits on Resurrection Bay and is actually a fjor. The mountains across the bay are decorated with glaciers and constantly in and out of the clouds. 

    We drove through Seward and 2 miles beyond to Lowell Point on a very narrow road that almost literally hugs the cliffs. 

End of the road at Lowell Point, 2 miles beyond Seward. 

We could have camped there but were later glad we rejected it, for we camped on a large site just feet from the fjord’s edge for half the price.The glaciers that filled the valleys across the fjord appeared and disappeared with the caprices of wind and clouds.

Camped on Resurrection Bay, a fjord, in Seward.

Picnics without glaciers as backdrop are going to be difficult.

    Named for William H Seward, Seward’s harbor is ice free year round and thus a highly desirable port. Seward oversaw the US purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. At the time he was mocked for his “folly.” Between the two world wars, Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, in testimony to Congress said, "I believe that, in the future, whoever holds Alaska will hold the world.” He too was scorned.
    We walked about Seward's small downtown and discovered a quilt shop, a used book store, cafes, and the Once in a Blue Moon gift shop.

    Where downtown meets the bay is a monument to the Iditarod Trail and Jujiro Wada. In 1909 he led a group of mushers and sled-dog teams in creating a trail from Seward to the gold fields of Iditarod. The return trip was extremely difficuilt. Wada had also traveled by sled-dog team what became the Yukon Quest Trail.

    Along Seward's long waterfront were numerous lovely memory gardens. I especially liked this one: 

It includes a toro, a stone friendship lantern, a gift from the Island of Hokkaido, Japan, for Seward's support of its fishing vessels. 

There is also a gazebo, a gift to Seward from its sister city, Obihiro, Japan.

    It adds a bit when even the necessities in downtowns and campgrounds are spruced up a bit.

All the dumpsters in Seward were whimsically painted. 

    We visited several libraries in Alaska. All were modern, full of information, and busy. Seward's has a cool exterior of colored stainless steel tiles

The Seward library's exterior colors change with the light and view point. 

The stainless still protects the building from salt and water.

Travelers: Vans for some. Cruise ships for others.

    One day we drove to Exit Glacier Nature Center and took the trail to the glacier.

Just driving by another glacier.

    Originally named “Resurrection,” the glacier's name was changed to “Exit” in 1968 when the first explorers to cross the Harding Icefield finished their trek at the glacier.

Exit Glacier.

Note the people over Doug's shoulder who hiked cross country to the edge of glacier.

    If we'd been there in 2005, we could have touched Exit Glacier, but today it had receded much further up the mountain.

Exit Glacier has melted significantly just since 2005.

We gazed at the deep blues of the glacier, tried to fathom its immensity, and wondered how long it will exist, given the rapid rate at which it is melting. 

Contemplating.

    Next was a drive out Nash Road, to take pictures of the bridges our friend Ed engineered in the early ‘70s. We reached him by phone and it was great listening to his reminiscences of his time in Alaska as we drove along.

Bridge along Nash Road engineered by a friend from home who lived in Alaska in the '70s. 

Oil rig at end of Nash Rd. on the other side of Resurrection Bay from Seward.

Even looking at these photos brings me the sense of awe and peace I felt in Alaska.

    Back in Seward, we were walking toward the harbor from our campsite when we spotted empty sights that were more more isolated than ours. Marilyn stayed on a site while Doug retrieved the van and moved it.

We spent 2 nights in a larger site with almost no neighbors.

How do you say perfect?

    It was near the end of July and we wore winter clothes—but who cares? We were in Alaska surrounded every day by dream-like scenery.

It was a bit nippy in Seward. 

    After three days, we left Seward—as we have everywhere in Alaska—with regret.

Passing through Girdwood en route alongTurnagain Arm.

Flora in Seward & Girdwood:

  

Intersection garden.     Arctic daisies (?) along Nash Rd.

     

Butter and Eggs (said to be nonnative & invasive)

Wooly geranium (?)

Northern Jacob's Ladder?

   

I love the poppies in the memorial garden with lantern.

   

Poppies hiding secrets in the memorial garden with lantern.

Seward—Resurrection Bay.

Next up: Back to Anchorage & on to Valdez.