Homer Alaska On A Clear Blue Sky Day

Homer, Alaska (72 degrees, blue skies, sunny, perfect)

The worlds big

and I want to have

a good look at it

before it gets dark"

John Muir

Homer Spit

John Muir wrote this quote while visiting Homer Alaska. One thing for sure it rarely get dark this time of year. At ten o'clock at night it's still light outside. In fact, it's not until about 3 am when night arrives and only for a few hours. It takes some getting used to. One person told me they had to set an alarm for dinner time. Otherwise it would be around 10 pm before they realized it was so late. Crazy!

Russian Orthodox Church

We are now staying outside of Homer Alaska in a small Russian town called Ninilchik. It's about a 50 minute drive to Homer and away from all the hustle and bustle of that town. The weather has been fantastic. Perfect blue skies create some stunning views of Cooks Bay. a huge inlet ringed with mountains and even some volcanoes on one side. 

Halibut Catch

Island and Ocean Visitor Center NWR

We stopped at Alaska Island and Ocean Fish and Wildlife Visitor Center for a Beluga Slough guided hike after a nice breakfast together in Homer. The hike was interesting and well done by some interns who are staying there this summer. The visitor center is stunning with lots of interactive displays. It's a beautiful facility and the movie was well done. Who knows..maybe we will volunteer there someday.

(L-Jann, me, Bob D, Patsy, John R-Barry, Bob C, and Becky

Long boardwalk on Ranger hike

We drove down to the Home Spit, a four mile stretch of road which was formed by a glacier. It's ringed with lots of gift shops and campgrounds. We were all somewhat disappointed in it. The campsites look over the ocean and are really expensive. Everyone was packed in like sardines. It didn't look very appealing to us. 

We took several beautiful scenic drives which over looked the spit and town. We stopped often and felt very happy to be here. 

Barry's new hat

Moose on the loose

Original Homestead

The next day we went with Bob and Patsy to a homestead which is featured on the Discovery Channel. It's called Alaska - The Last Frontier.  We had a tour of the homestead and part of the farm. We got to meet Otto, one of the cast members on the show. He was very funny. 

Patsy, Otto, and Bob

John and Bob at the most westerly highway point in North America

Down from our campground is a Fish Weir. It's sort of like a holding pen for salmon. There are large fence like structures which close after the salmon come in. We watched the Fish and Game employees round up all the salmon which had entered overnight. There were hundreds of King Salmon.

Some of the salmon were huge

This "fish rodeo" sorts the wild salmon from the ones raised in a fish hatchery. This can be determined by a fin which is removed at the hatchery. The wild salmon get to live another day and are released upstream. The hatchery salmon are put in big tanks and injected with hormones to make their eggs mature quicker. In six days the fish will be killed and the eggs collected. It was really fun to watch them round up all the fish. We were especially happy for the ones which were released. However, the wild ones will only live a few more days. After the female lays her eggs and the males fertilizes them the fish die. Most are around 4-5 years old before they return to where they were born. Nature sure is amazing. They have managed during this time to live a nice life and have avoided fisherman, predators, and casting nets.

Large grey tube is where the wild salmon are released upriver

Campground Review:  All Seasons Campground, full hookups, 30 amp service, level gravel sites with some grass, WiFi is poor, in need of some maintenance, friendly owner, Passport America rate $21/night, best deal so far for camping