Advertisement
Published: June 18th 2011
Edit Blog Post
June 6th Ekdutna Lake Campground mileage at 9377 48 degrees at 10:10 and mostly cloudy
Drove down to the boat ramp area to look at the lake. The campground, lake, and road are in a deep, narrow, mountain pass formed by a glacier and the river out of the lake. At the boat ramp area we noticed again, what we have seen by all other Alaskan boat ramps, a stand full of children’s life jackets under a sign that says, “kids don’t float.”
Drove back to the freeway south out of Anchorage and went just a few miles before it abruptly went into a narrow two lane road and back into the typical forest environment. If you have been following our trip on a map you can see that we are heading toward the Kenai Peninsula. The road follows along the very edge of Turnagain Arm. This arm has extremely high to low tides somewhat as bad as the Bay of Fundy. There is just space for the road and the railroad tracks between the cliffs and the water. This is an area where you might see Beluga Whales, but you have to catch the tide just right.
At the end of the Arm is was the town of Portage—so named because goods were shipped by ship to Whittier and then transported up the steep mountain pass to Portage and then on to Anchorage or wherever. There is now a road to Whittier but it has a one way only tunnel that must be shared with the train so timing is important. On Good Friday, in 1964, Alaska was struck by a 9 point something earthquake centered in Anchorage. The town of Portage was completely destroyed by the earthquake as the land dropped 5-6 feet. This earthquake and the resulting tsunami drastically affected this whole huge area.
Took our time driving this scenic road, stopping a various pull-outs and interpretive areas to view the mountains across the Arm and the Dall sheep on the mountain sides.
We turned at where Portage used to be and went down the road toward Whittier. Found a nice campground, among spruce and birch trees, again in the Chugach National Forest, and settled in. Out any one of Rosie’s II’s windows you could see the snow covered mountains with waterfalls from the snow melt. Pretty, pretty place.
KENAI PENNINSULA
Tuesday June 7th and Wednesday the 8th Mileage 9471 48 degrees misty left camp at 12:30
Set out back the way we came that afternoon, to the Seward Highway, and on toward Seward on Resurrection Bay. We found a campground spot owned by the City right on the waterfront for $15 a day. No hookups, but got to watch the harbor seals and sea otters right in front of us. There was also plenty of activity in and out of the port—small boats, large fishing boats, a huge Russian tanker being loaded with coal, plenty of sea gulls, and cormorants. The picture of the cormorants shows the pilingsof what remains of an old wharf that was destroyed by the tsunami following the Good Friday earthquake.
Took kind of down time and relaxed and read our books. Went to the library and used their wifi. Went to Safeway and bought bread and a few frozen veggies. Talked with a few fellow Roadtrekkers that showed up on the 2nd day. Made reservations for a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park that you can only get to by water, small plane, or hike into. Most of it is
covered by the Harding Ice Field, the largest one completely in the US, which receives 400-600 inches of snow a year
Advertisement
Tot: 0.08s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0438s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1mb