Day 14 -- From Homer to Mt. McKinley

July 2, 2014

We woke up in the vacant lot, with the sound of water hitting the beachfront.  The twilight, had never really faded into the starlight, just barely let us glimpse the volcanic mountains on the other side of the water, but perhaps that had been our darkest night in several nights.  We cooked a quick breakfast before heading out on the road, yet again. 

We filled up in Soldotna for 4.39 per gallon.  There were frequent views of the snow-capped volcano, Mount Redoubt, across the inlet, and we could imagine its last eruption in 2009. 

Not long outside of Soldotna, we took a divergent path down Kalifornsky Beach Rd.  We drove beside Cook Inlet and through a campground.  Here, the inlet was filled with fishermen, probably commercial fishermen, with large nets and waders.  We felt like intruders into a tiny make-shift beach community filled with campers and fishermen. 


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After returning to the main road, we once again took the next side road, Kasilof Beach Road back toward the inlet.  It led to the grassy mud flats at the mouth of the Kasilof River, where again the water was filled with fishermen.  





































Kasilof River is a glacial river, draining from the largest lake in the peninsula, Lake Tustumena.   We passed the worn and gray, McLane Building, current home of the Kasilof Regional Historical Museum.  The building had once been a cannery hospital In the 1890s, before it had been moved away from the mouth of the Kasilof River.  It had been the Kasilof Territory school from 1937 to the 1950s.

We returned to pavement and continued on our way to Homer.  Our next scheduled stop was in Clam Gulch, where we wanted to dig for clams.  However, at the time of day, we arrived the tide was in and digging for clams wasn’t much of an option.   We paused to take in the views of Mt. Redoubt, Mt. Lliama, and Mount Spurr, across the inlet, but we took no delay at all in continuing down the road. 

We paused again, at Deep Creek, to use the restroom and to take in the air.  The wildflowers were in full bloom as we overlooked the creek.  

We continued our drive, overlooking Cook Inlet to our right, into Homer, AK.  

We paused at several viewpoints overlooking the Kachemak Bay, but we did not continue on to the famous spit, where Homer had been founded back in 1895.  During that time, exposed seams of coal were burning slowly from unknown causes.  Today, the erosion of these bluffs drop huge fragments of coal on the beaches, creating plenty of winter fuel.  There is an estimated 400,000,000 tons of coal near Homer.  Behind downtown, bluffs, about 1,200 feet high, form the southern rim of the western plateau of the Kenai Peninsula. 

We were hurried now, it was late it the day and we still had a long way to go to make it all the way to the Denali National Park area before bed.  Jason paused at a McDonalds’ restaurant, as we were both craving a delicious double cheeseburger, but for twice the price of one in the lower 48 states we decided against it.

We turned back on the highway, now, heading the direction we had come.  However, we did not stop and fill up the tank with gasoline, like we should have. 

We stopped for a shower in a little laundromat on the side of the road.  It was a clean little shop with a wall filled with a lending library, and provided a few minutes of a refreshing solace.  But, we could not break for long and were quickly back on the road.

We made good time on the way back, but before we could return to Portage for fuel, our gas gauge hovered on empty.  We stopped in the same parking lot we had spent the night before in, to pour in our reserve two gallons, so we could make it to the gas station.  We re-fueled for 4.38/gallon, and double-backed down toward Portage Glacier Road, watching kite-surfers in the bay. 

We would not be travelling all the way to Whittier.  

Before the access road was built, the only access to Whittier had been through train. 

Part of the vehicle access spur, when it was built, included the modification of the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel to allow the use of the one lane for alternating between train and vehicle.  This cost not only a toll, but the amount of time spent waiting for the lane to switch traffic types.  We would be turning around before entering the 2.5 mile tunnel.  

However, we were able to get some good views of the mountains and of Portage Glacier itself. 

We returned to the main road, only to take the next like side spur of the Alyeska Highway.  We were hoping to catch some good views, but were disappointed to only find views of the ski resorts.  

We again returned to the main road, and on into Anchorage.  There, we got on the Parks Highway, once known as the Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway when it was constructed in 1971.  It was renamed in 1975 the George A. Parks Memorial Highway, after the territorial governor from 1925-1933.  This highway connects two of the major population centers of Alaska.  

North of Wasilla, we began to catch our first glimpses of Mount McKinley, at 10:30 pm, including the peak, When we reached Cantwell, we re-filled at 4.78/gal.  

We entered a flat valley, with magnificent mountain views on all sides.  We drove close to our destination for the next day, and found a little pull-off on the side of the road, under the shadow of Mt. McKinley and the rest of the range, to set up our camper.  Here, a good rest was had by all.  

**Since this entry was wrote/experienced Mt, McKinley has since been renamed to Denali.  This entry does not reflect the changes, nor will it, so that the entries remain historically accurate. **