Wanderung 29

Alaska or Bust

July 2014 - August 2014

3 Farewell to Denali
Kenai Fjords 4
Index


 

July 28: Anchorage to Seward, Alaska

Bob:

I had been using the Priuschat website to learn the idiosyncrasies of our Prius, and when I asked about traveling in Alaska I received advice from "Spiderman", a native of Anchorage. He seemed nice (he owned a Prius, after all!) and invited us to stop by if we ever actually made the trip up to Alaska. As we were now passing by, I took him up on his offer and we drove into downtown Anchorage to spend a nice couple hours with him. Taking him away from his "day job" for a bit, we hied ourselves to the Dark Horse Coffee Shop for a cup of coffee and a chat. Then we wandered around the central business district a bit while he explained things about life in Anchorage. Clearly the folks there cared about the appearance of their (rather neat and clean) city as we saw several flower beds and some nice murals painted on the sides of the buildings. Finally we let Spiderman get back to work while we hopped back into the car and drove South to Seward, Alaska, on the Kenai peninsula.

Monika:

After breakfast at Ihop, we repacked the suitcases and the car, so that all our dirty clothes were in our backpacks. Bob had gotten in touch with a guy he had met in Priuschat and he had invited us to meet with him in downtown Anchorage where he worked. He was a really nice guy and we had a great time chatting.

Bob:

The drive down to Seward was on a winding, two-lane highway that hugged the coastline between the water and the mountains. Although the driving was a bit challenging, the road gave us some really nice views out across the water to some rather impressive-looking mountains in the distance. Monika tried to take pictures through the car windows as we were moving, but that is rather a chancy business at best. So at one point I just pulled over into a small rest area and we got out to make sure we got some decent pictures of the truly spectacular combination of bright sun, dark wind-ruffled water, white clouds, deep blue skies, and rugged, black mountains with their brilliantly white snowy peaks. A photographer's dream, really.

Monika:

Driving to Seward was through a remarkably scenic area, first up a fjord than through the mountains. When we had taken a cruise out of Seward 20 years ago, we had taken a bus and I had thought it was rather boring. But I was wrong. It was a remarkably beautiful drive.

Bob:

We had heard an intriguing story that after the huge earthquake and Tsunami of 1964, which devastated the coastal areas of Seward, the city fathers had declared that all new buildings would have to be back up on higher ground, and had turned the coastal area of Seward into a city park complete with a campground. We decided to check the putative campground out and found that it did, indeed, exist and offered campsites right next to the fjord for a very nominal fee. Score! We picked a site where we could back the car up and then pitch our attached tent in the tent site, and had a great view out over the fjord to the mountains looming across the way.

Monika:

The guys from the campground in Denali had told us about a city campground in Seward right by the water that had a tent section. We found it, and some sites were set so that we could back in the car and put the tent on the tent space. Perfect.

Bob:

After setting up the tent, we walked North along the waterfront past a small marina to a commercial district where we purchased our tickets for a boat trip into the Kenai Fjords National Park the next day. If you ever do this, make sure you buy the longer 7 or 8 hour tour packages as those take you into some of the more distant fjords, each with their own set of glaciers. (The shorter trips only traverse the fjord on which Seward is located, so you wouldn't see anything really "new".) We even opted for the combined ticket with a luncheon on board, because I didn't think I could go without eating that long!

One odd sight down near the waterfront was a couple of old railroad cars on an abandoned siding that had been turned into a bike shop and a small cafe.

Monika:

The next part of our agenda was a boat tour to the Kenai Fjord NP and the glaciers. We decided on the 7 hour tour and sprung for the optional lunch. So the next day's agenda was set. This day we still had to eat a rather late lunch and then find a Laundromat, since our clean clothes were non-existing. Luckily the Laundromat had comfortable chairs and Wifi. So all was good with the world. However, then it started raining we were worried about the weather for our tour the next day.


Copyright 2014 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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