Kenai to Homer

North America » United States » Alaska » Homer
June 4th 2008

Published: June 7th 2008

Edit Blog Post

Carolyn Dave

Sand Hill Cranes

After walking through the town and driving down to the beach, we left Kenai and headed south for our next stop, Homer. We drove through Kenai Landing and down the shore on the Kalifronsky Beach Road. Once back on the Sterling Highway, we saw cars and trucks and campers on the beach below the bluff we were on. We turned around to check it out. At the entrance to the beach road was a tent city. It looks like these native people live here permanently. A little native village called Ninilchik (pronounced Ni-NILL-chick) is on the side road that leads to the beach. On the beach there were hundreds of people clamming at low tide. Some drive their ATVs onto the mud flats. With the debris that lay around some of the campers, it looks like they have been there for months.

The weather has been cool (low 40’s) damp and we have had showers on and off all day. We arrived at Homer and drove out to the Spit, which is a strip of land that goes out 4 miles into the Kachemak Bay . There is public camping allowed just about anywhere for $8 for a tent and

Church Spire

$15 for campers. There are no hook-ups and the bathrooms are bouse-houses. We stopped at Heritage RV Park and their sites were $78 per night. We chose the Homer Spit Campsite which cost $32 with electric ($27 without). Dave is less than happy with the campsites we have encountered in the last few days. They are basically gravel parking lots.

Walking along the spit, we saw a beautiful, huge harbor, filled to the brim with boats. There were boats of all sizes including huge fishing boats and small pleasure craft everywhere. We had lunch at Happy Face with was okay and then drove off the spit to investigate the town of Homer. There was basically nothing there, except for a wildlife refuge area which included a walk in some wetlands. Three Sand Hill Cranes were in the marsh. A woman with a dog, which she let off it’s leash, chased these poor creatures for 10 minutes. It was pitiful to watch this escapade. Inside the refuge building was very interesting exhibits and a short film about the wildlife on the Aleutian Islands.

All in all Homer, the Halibut Capital of the World is really a pretty cool place