Homer, Alaska - July 9th to 12th, 2022
There is something about our nature that attracts us to water. The town of Homer sits at the mouth of Kachemak Bay. Camping along the shore there was a real treat.
Saturday was a short drive from Soldotna to Homer. We only stopped at a couple of overlooks along the way. The one right before reaching Homer has a nice view of Homer Spit below. Homer Spit is a four mile long gravel bar that extends into the Kachemak Bay. Highway 1, the Sterling Highway, ends at the tip of Homer Spit.
Our plan was to camp at Mariner Park which is located on the spit, just off the highway as you come onto the spit. It is first come/first serve. Being a Saturday, we knew this was a gamble. We arrived at about 11 am. All the spots on the beach side were taken, but there were a few spots open on the road side of the campground. As we were walking back to the fee station, we noticed it looked like a rig was getting ready to leave. We asked if they were checking out. They were! Score! We hovered over their site until they pulled away. Then we backed our Red Tail Lodge (our camper van) into the spot before anyone else could take it. Thank you!
There is an automated machine to take your payment for the campsite. However, the sign said not to pay before 2 pm. So we went back to our van, ate lunch, and hung out on the rocky beach until 2 pm. At 2:01 pm, we entered our payment. It asks you how many nights you are paying for, then calculates your departure date for you and prints it on your receipt. We’re guessing that if you pay before 2 pm, one of the nights you’ll be paying for is the night before.
If we had not snagged a site with a view, we would have tried to switch sites the next day. We originally thought we’d have to pay for a night at a time, but the payment does not record your site number, so that would have not been necessary.
After paying for our site, we left our sign and our camp chairs to make it clear the site was occupied, then drove into town for the farmer’s market. The market runs from 10 am to 3 pm on Saturdays and from 2 pm to 5 pm on Wednesdays. By the time we reached the market, many of the stands were low on goods. Ann was hoping to buy most of the produce she needed from the market, but she only found one item.
However, we did buy some ice cream from the Udder Delights stand. They were out of many of their flavors. Keith had vanilla, of course. But Ann tried the South of the Border flavor, a dark chocolate with cayenne and cinnamon. She liked it, ice cream with a kick!
While we were in town, we finished our grocery shopping at Safeway, just down the street from the market. Then we used the free dump station and potable water behind the Chevron station. Since we were already at the gas station, we topped off our gas tank. Now that our chores were done for the day, we headed back to the campground to relax on the beach for the remainder of the evening.
Sunday we walked Homer Spit. There is a paved trail along the whole length of the Spit, 4.5 miles long. There is a bike share docking station at Mariner Park run by Cycle Logical. The station has four bikes. There are also two other docking stations, one by the Fishing Hole and another at the end of the Spit. You rent them from a phone app and they cost $7 per hour. Bikes must be returned to the docking station that you started from (or incur an additional $25 fee). That is a wonderful option to exploring the Spit, because finding a place to park at the end of the Spit, where most of the shops and restaurants are, is difficult and costs money. However, we had all day and opted to walk.
The first mile or so from Mariner Park was not all that exciting of a walk. There are wide open views of the bay and surrounding mountains, but it was a hazy day, so the views were not that great. The trail runs right next to the Sterling Highway, so there is constant traffic noise. The highway is surprisingly busy considering it dead-ends at the end of the Spit. We did see a bald eagle from a distance, sitting along the shore.
The trail goes by an indoor ice rink arena and a couple houses. One property was a boat graveyard. It looked like someone was living in one of the old boats. The activity picks up once you reach the Fishing Hole. After that is the boat harbor along with all the shops and restaurants.
We stopped at Captain Pattie’s Fish House for lunch. It was about noon, so we thought we’d have to wait for a table, so we were surprised when we were seated right away. Many of the tables are next to windows with views out over the beach and water. Ann doesn’t like fish or seafood, but felt she needed the whole experience. Homer claims to be the halibut fishing capitol of the world, so that’s what we had. We ordered the deep fried halibut with fries and the baked halibut with slaw. Both dishes were delicious. Ann even enjoyed both dishes, although she would probably order something else next time. We both preferred the baked halibut over the deep fried.
We continued our walk out to the end of the spit, just past the ferry terminal. End of the Road Park is right next to Land’s End Resort. We’ve heard that Land’s End Restaurant is excellent, but requires a reservation. Several people were fishing on the rocky beach of End of the Road Park. There were tons of flat rocks, great for skipping. Surprisingly, Keith did not skip any. What caught our attention were the two bald eagles perched on a piece of driftwood. The eagles seemed more bothered by the sea gulls flying by them than the people walking around them. A few people, eager to get better pictures with their cell phones, were perhaps getting a little too close to the eagles.
In addition to the eagles, there were tons of sea gulls. The piers at the ferry terminal were lined solid with sea gull nests along the sides, with hardly a flat surface anywhere that was not occupied by a bird. It was probably an ideal location, especially with the Fish Factory nearby. There were swarms of birds outside the factory scavenging any scraps left behind.
We poked our heads into the Salty Dawg Saloon, with all the dollar bills hanging from the ceiling. What was more intriguing to us was the group of people behind the Salty Dawg. They were processing all the large fish that an overnight fishing excursion brought back.
On our way back, we stopped at Carmen’s Gelato for a treat. Ann thought her chocolate and mint chip were excellent. Keith had vanilla and their prize winning butter pecan, but he prefers ice cream over gelato.
We returned to Mariner Park after 9.3 miles with an elevation gain of 463 feet in four and a half hours, not counting the time we spent in Captain Pattie’s eating lunch. We counted this as hike #25 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022. We were back just in time to start making dinner. The haze had cleared some during the afternoon, so we enjoyed the view in the evening.
Monday was our Bald Mountain Air flight over to Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and Preserve. This will be a separate post, so stay tuned!
Tuesday was a low-key day hanging out in Homer. We needed a slow-paced day after the exciting day we had the day before. About mid-morning, we drove over to the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, otherwise known as the Islands & Oceans Visitor Center. The center in Homer is the base for the very large wildlife refuge. The refuge covers most of the Aleutian Islands, an area up in northwestern Alaska, and an area of the Inner Passage in the east of Alaska.
The center had a wonderful set of displays about the history of the area and the history of the wildlife refuge. The main activity of the refuge is scientific research and trying to restore the habitat of the shore birds and marine mammals. The mammals were devastated by the fur trade, first by the Russians, then by the Americans. When they had depleted most of the mammals, they turned to breeding foxes on the islands. The foxes wiped out many of the shore birds along with rats which made their way from Russian and American ships to the islands.
In the summer, the refuge’s marine research vessel, the Tiglax, takes research teams out to remote, uninhabited locations to study the health of the shore birds. The ship takes all the supplies the small teams of two or three people need to survive the summer. Radio contact is their only communication with the outside world. An interesting 15 minute video on the vessel is shown in the visitor center.
Behind the visitor center is the Beluga Slough Trail, which is a short trail alongside the wetlands and ends at the beach. The trail is just a little over one mile round trip. We were hoping to see some interesting birds, such as sandhill cranes. We saw a pair of cranes in the marsh when we drove to the campground on our first day in Homer. No such luck this time. All we saw were sea gulls and ravens.
After eating our lunch in the visitor center parking lot, we went in search of a bakery. The Two Sisters Bakery looked interesting, but they were closed on Tuesdays. We drove over to Portside Coffee & Co, only to find out that they only had their drive-thru open. We wanted a place to sit down inside. We ended up at Ano Kissaten Coffee Roasters. They didn’t have much of a selection of baked goods, but their chai was pretty good. Keith had a snickerdoodle cookie and Ann had a brownie. Not exactly what we were looking for, but it will do.
Since we were right across the street from the Chevron station and Safeway, we dumped our gray and filled up our fresh water containers along with picking up a couple of grocery items. Next on our agenda was another short hike, the Calvin & Coyle Trail. This trail is at the northeast end of Beluga Lake, at the end of Mariner Drive. The trail was similar in length to the Beluga Slough Trail, but, instead of being out in the open, it was in the woods. It was a nice peaceful walk, with lots of chirping birds. At the end of the trail is a viewing platform, with views out over the marsh.
We even spotted a mama and baby moose not far off the trail in the trees. Keith would not let Ann stop and take a picture, shooing her down the trail. Ann was rather disappointed because she thought the moose looked calm. However, it was probably the right decision. You don’t want to be too close to a mama and her young, especially moose. Moose attack, injure and kill more humans than bears do.
Just across the marsh, near the airport is the Beluga Wetlands Overlook, so we drove over there to take a look. It was rather disappointing. We did not see any wildlife. There were also no sounds of wildlife, like chirping birds, just silence, broken every now and then by the sound of a float plane landing in Beluga Lake or an airplane taking off form the airport.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out in the campground, enjoying the view from the beach. The smoke from the day before had cleared up, but the views were still a little hazy.
Even though we didn’t go in the water or out on the water in Homer, we enjoyed what the water had to offer. Gazing out over the water, we took in the views of the mountains across the bay. Strolling along the beach and listening to the waves lapping along the shore was relaxing. Watching the boats come in and out of the harbor was a pleasant afternoon. Savoring fresh halibut was a delightful lunch. Observing wildlife, from sea otters to sea gulls, including a close encounter with a couple of bald eagles, made for wonderful memories. Not a bad way to spend five days. And that’s not even counting our plane trip over to Brooks Falls.
Check out our related video: Homer, Alaska
(Ann)