Lessons Learnt
I did not stay in Seward long yesterday. Seward certainly is a beautiful city as introduced in a few tour books. But the world class scenic Seward Highway impressed me more than the destination city it leads to. I back-tracked Seward Highway and looped down Sterling Highway to arrive Homer late last night. Homer, known as the “Halibut Fishing Capitol of the World”, is an oceanfront city at the other side of the Kenai Peninsula.
I woke up early this morning and drove to the famous Homer Spit where visitors set tents overnight in front of the ocean. Shops along the Spit were not open yet. I had wonderful time walking the quiet waterfront and enjoyed the gentle breeze and warm sunshine while watching the bluish mountain hid behind the white cloud in a distance. It was still early and only very few people around; I took time to have a close look of sea lives and plants that were washed up to the shore last night then left behind on the sand beach by the receded tide. This was a precious time of solitude out in open air; I knew in a few hours this place would be crowded with tourists, fishermen and boaters from all over the places.
I stopped at a Farmer’s Market before leaving for Hope around mid-morning. Hope, Alaska is a well preserved gold rush town of population 150. It was a salmon fishing weekend, by the time I arrived in the afternoon the campground in town that I planed to stay was all full. I went in a downtown restaurant thinking to have an early dinner before continued on searching for a place to stay. The restaurant did no start serving until dinner time a couple hours later. But I did leave with a manually prepared city map the nice restaurant owner/chef gave me. He told me there were a couple of campgrounds just a few miles away from town that I could check them out.
The first one I tried was named Old Miner’s Campground on the map. Surprisingly, an intended few miles drive turned into an adventure of 15 miles gravel and dirt road with a lot of potholes. This was the worst Alaska road I had ever driven on so far. At the end of the road I saw people panning gold by the creek. The place looked like a deserted old gold mine site and was only panned by vacationing gold seekers now. It did not look safe to stay. I came back to town and noticed my car was covered with thick yellow dust from the dirt road. Luckily, car tires were looked OK.
It was still day light so I decided to try the second one, Coeur D’Alene Campground, maintained by US forestry service. It also turned out to be a 30 miles round trip drive of the narrow mountain road of high elevation. The scenery was magnificent and wild flowers were beautiful though. The campground was at the end of the maintained road high at the top of the mountain. I looked around and could not find anyone there. There was no way I was staying there alone overnight.
Coming back to the city and realized I had just learnt a few good lessons. First, as expected, I finally paid a price for not making reservation in advance for a campsite. Secondly, the free city map was not meant to be accurate in scale. The street detail was magnified for easy downtown visiting and, relatively, the distance to the out skirt campgrounds looked deceitfully much nearer. And, lastly, a top chef might not be a good guide. I should know the risk of asking camping information from a local restaurateur; chances are he never had to stay in his hometown's campground and knew nothing about it. What was I thinking!!
I did not stay in Seward long yesterday. Seward certainly is a beautiful city as introduced in a few tour books. But the world class scenic Seward Highway impressed me more than the destination city it leads to. I back-tracked Seward Highway and looped down Sterling Highway to arrive Homer late last night. Homer, known as the “Halibut Fishing Capitol of the World”, is an oceanfront city at the other side of the Kenai Peninsula.
I woke up early this morning and drove to the famous Homer Spit where visitors set tents overnight in front of the ocean. Shops along the Spit were not open yet. I had wonderful time walking the quiet waterfront and enjoyed the gentle breeze and warm sunshine while watching the bluish mountain hid behind the white cloud in a distance. It was still early and only very few people around; I took time to have a close look of sea lives and plants that were washed up to the shore last night then left behind on the sand beach by the receded tide. This was a precious time of solitude out in open air; I knew in a few hours this place would be crowded with tourists, fishermen and boaters from all over the places.
I stopped at a Farmer’s Market before leaving for Hope around mid-morning. Hope, Alaska is a well preserved gold rush town of population 150. It was a salmon fishing weekend, by the time I arrived in the afternoon the campground in town that I planed to stay was all full. I went in a downtown restaurant thinking to have an early dinner before continued on searching for a place to stay. The restaurant did no start serving until dinner time a couple hours later. But I did leave with a manually prepared city map the nice restaurant owner/chef gave me. He told me there were a couple of campgrounds just a few miles away from town that I could check them out.
The first one I tried was named Old Miner’s Campground on the map. Surprisingly, an intended few miles drive turned into an adventure of 15 miles gravel and dirt road with a lot of potholes. This was the worst Alaska road I had ever driven on so far. At the end of the road I saw people panning gold by the creek. The place looked like a deserted old gold mine site and was only panned by vacationing gold seekers now. It did not look safe to stay. I came back to town and noticed my car was covered with thick yellow dust from the dirt road. Luckily, car tires were looked OK.
It was still day light so I decided to try the second one, Coeur D’Alene Campground, maintained by US forestry service. It also turned out to be a 30 miles round trip drive of the narrow mountain road of high elevation. The scenery was magnificent and wild flowers were beautiful though. The campground was at the end of the maintained road high at the top of the mountain. I looked around and could not find anyone there. There was no way I was staying there alone overnight.
Coming back to the city and realized I had just learnt a few good lessons. First, as expected, I finally paid a price for not making reservation in advance for a campsite. Secondly, the free city map was not meant to be accurate in scale. The street detail was magnified for easy downtown visiting and, relatively, the distance to the out skirt campgrounds looked deceitfully much nearer. And, lastly, a top chef might not be a good guide. I should know the risk of asking camping information from a local restaurateur; chances are he never had to stay in his hometown's campground and knew nothing about it. What was I thinking!!
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Arrive Homer yesterday. Go tour Homer Spit this morning. Homer Spit is a long narrow bar of land extends into Kachemak Bay. Here is the activity center of Homer.
"Lands End Resort" is located at the end of Homer Spit with spectacular ocean view.
Homer Spit - strolling on the sand beach under mild sun and gentle breeze is a great way to start a day. Here is an interesting sand pattern created by the receding tide pulling back the seaweed.
Seaweed on the beach
See what I found here on the beach ..
This one should not be here...
She belongs to here, naturally.
Homer Spit ...
Homer Spit is a favorite tourist stop...
More Homer Spit.
Today is Saturday. Go visit Homer's Farmers Market.
On my way to Hope. I stop by to visit K'Beq (Indian means "footprints"), an Indian Heritage Site on Sterling Highway.
Interpretive sign
Boardwalk to the ancient Indian site
Hope calls itself the "Alaska's best preserved gold rush town".
Hope's cute tiny public library.
Town's famous Discovery Cafe where I had dinner before leaving Hope.
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