The Wet Half of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Since leaving Palmer and the warm hospitality of Cathy and Mark Lee, the weather has played quite a dominant part in our Life on the Road, as we headed south from Anchorage and onto the famed Kenai Peninsula.

the coastal road from Anchorage to Girdwood along Turnagain Arm, the inlet that Captain James Cook sailed along, thinking it was the coast, only to realize his error, thus forcing him to Turn Back Again

It began raining once we’d set up our tents at the community campsite in Girdwood. That was the start of what has been a very wet week for us!

 camping in Girdwood

Packing up wet tents in never much fun, but once done, at least we had a warm (if a little steamy) car to take refuge in. We headed off to the small town of Portage, which sits at the end of the Turnagain inlet, on a small piece of land that connects the Cook Inlet to neighbouring Prince William Sound. Along the way, we stopped off at various sites, always in the rain and always happy to climb back into the car!

wetlands boardwalk

  Explorer glacier across Portage Lake

  a viewing site from which to see the spawning salmon (though not through the telescope, as Max is demonstrating!)

Then, for want of anything better to do, we decided to drive through the hole in the mountain to see what was on the other side…

  the toll tunnel from Portage through to Prince William Sound

…to the ex-naval town of Whittier. A friend once quipped that there was “no place Shittier than Whittier”. We have to admit, that we had to agree with him!

  Trudging through relentless rain in the grey town of Whittier

Although it must be said, Whittier’s port into Prince William Sound was very pretty

   Whittier Port

Needing to find a place to stay for the night, we headed south down to Seward, where although grey, it was temporarily no longer raining and we found ourselves a site right on the ocean front with a beautiful view of snow-capped mountains

 Seward town campsite

Seward is so-named due to the Secretary of State Mr William H. Seward, the man responsible for the purchase of Alaska from Russia, back in 1867. For those of you interested, this marvelous piece of land was bought for a mere $7.2 million. Put another way, that equates to approximately 2c per acre!

We awoke to following morning to a wet, cold and grey day…

   wet, cold and grey

…so we sought refuge at the wonderful sea life centre for a few hours.

   Alaska Sea Life Centre

   sea otter

   Max and sea lion

   friendly looking Mr Eel

Then it was back to a soggy, cold tent!

   soggy indeed

The next several days were spent continually wet, as a Hawaiian hurricane wreaked havoc on our little town of Seward. To add to the humour, Kumba, our Jeep Cheroke, decided she needed a new drive shaft, so we had to stay put for a few more days of rain, wet, and forced laughter!

  Ben, only slightly mad

  breakfast inside the tent

Day 3 of rain, after a particularly wet and horrendous night, brought on mutiny in the troops: three of us stood our ground and declared we were simply NOT going to spend another wet night in the tent! So we checked in at Moby Dick’s backpacker’s lodge and took over a ‘dorm’

  kids on top bunks, oldies on the bottom

Day 4 actually saw a break in the weather - at least for an hour around lunch time. Still, it raised morale and meant to we got to see the true splendor of Seward…

   overlooking Seward marina

a visit to Exit Glacier

Day 5, the day we’ve been waiting for; the day that Kumba gets fixed; the day that we leave Seward and, hopefully, the rain!

the glacier from which mountaineers exit the Harding Icefield at the top. The Harding Icefield, by the way, is the largest icefield on mainland USA

Continued rain whilst at the glacier made us all turn a little crazy…

 Max, Mands and Ben

 Max with some ice

  Ben, Gus and Max

And so farewell to Seward. And farewell to the rain…Until the next time!