Seward to Hyder

 

Tuesday 

Seward is another picture perfect town sandwiched between Resurrection Bay and the Kenai Mountains, on the east coast of the Kenai Peninsula. It has quite a few fisheries and we smelled the fish immediately, but its good points outweighed the smell. The Harbor is richer than the one in Homer, there seemed to be larger and more recreational boats there. There is a town owned campground overlooking the bay, no cruise ships were in at the time. We spent one day in Seward driving to Lowell Point, visiting the shops, small boat harbor, National Park Visitors Center, and Exit Glacier. We were lucky to get to Exit Glacier just in time for a Ranger led tour. The ranger explained why it is called Exit Glacier; some folks from Homer decided they wanted to be the first to walk across Harding Ice Field, and when they reached the other side the exited on this glacier, hence Exit Glacier. The trip out into the bay to see wildlife and see and hear a calving glacier is one of the things most people come here to do. We chose not to indulge this time, but it is quite a nice trip. The Iditarod Trail starts here and continues 1049 miles to Nome. The Seavey Family lives here and has a business giving dog sled rides. Three generations have been active in mushing and Mitch (2^nd generation) won the Iditarod in 2004.

We drove back out of Seward then along the Turnagain Arm past Anchorage to Palmer, where in 1935 the government planned a farming colony and sent 200 families from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, to homestead the land. The government transported the families and the building products to build homes and gave each family 40 acres. They billed each family $3,000 and told them they would soon be able to repay the money with the produce they would be growing in the silt loam soil that is excellent for farming. Cold winters helped to prevent weeds and some insects, and the 19 hours of daylight in June gave plants extra growing time. Palmer is known for its huge cabbages, and other vegetables. The living was tough, and the failure rate high. Not enough buyers for the veggies. There was a lottery for the parcels of land and if you drew one that needed cleared of trees it was a lot of hard work until you could even start your home, and then there was the winter! There are still many descendants of these original families, and they hold a well-attended reunion each year. I imagine they got pretty close living through that.

 We also drove up the west side of Hatcher Pass, and drove right up to the summit. When coming from the East we thought we couldn’t drive through, but we found out the road was just fine, we had taken a wrong turn. We arrived at the summit at the same time a para-glider was setting his wind flag, so we stuck around to watch him float off over the edge. He came back to the same spot several times and took off again.

We drove the farm loop and stopped by the Musk-Ox farm.

Wasilla is only about 12 miles from Palmer so we went to the Iditarod Trail Headquarters, then continued out the Knik-Goose Bay Road, stopping at old Knik Museum and a traditional Athabascan grave site. Many mushers live in the area, they are a tight knit community.

From Palmer we traveled to Valdez, stopping at the Wrangell Saint Elias National Park. They showed a movie and there was an Athabascan Indian Museum there. We spoke with a girl wearing a beautiful beaded sash. She told us it was the sash her mother carried her with as a baby. It had her name in beading, and I ask her if she would make one for her babies and she said she would need help from her grandmother. Lost arts in all cultures, Carissa will have to learn to sew from me, and I never learned to tat from my mother.

We continued down to Valdez, driving between masterful mountains enjoying glaciers. We drove out to the fish hatchery and saw more fish than we’ve ever seen in our lives, they were there to spawn where they were hatched and they couldn’t get in so they were bunched up outside. The sea otters, harbor seals, and eagles were taking advantage of the situation. Just down the road we were strictly forbidden from going any further, it was the entrance to the pipeline storage facility and since 9/11 there is no admittance, and an FBI sign warned us to turn back. We also watched a small black bear fishing for salmon, and filling his belly often.

From Valdez we decided to meander back to the lower 48 but I still wanted to stop at Hyder, which is located in southern AK. We drove to Whitehorse YT, then took the Cassiar Highway through BC to Hyder. There was a lot of construction on the Cassiar and we took on a few more dings and cracks in the windshield. Saw 3 braes and a cub, in the afternoon.

 Spent the night along the road and got to Hyder about 3pm Aug 14^th. We’re staying at camp RUN-A-MUCK, about 4 miles from the Salmon Creek bear and fish viewing bridge. We saw one large grizzly in the creek, the park service said when the grizzlies are present the black bears stay away.

The 15^th we got up and left for the bridge at 6:15 AM hoping to see bears and wolves, nothing was displaying itself so we left to take the drive up the mountain to view Salmon Glacier. We remembered enjoying this drive last time and it didn’t disappoint. It’s  28 miles of dirt road, some rough, but worth every mile. Salmon Glacier is the only glacier you can drive above and look down on. There are also glaciers hanging above you on other parts of the road, you feel like you are on top of the world. There are several active mines we drove past and finally one at the end of the road.

 At one of our stops to look, we heard this squeal; it was a marmot warning his friend of danger. Marmots look like a larger version of a prairie dog and one posed for me while his buddy squealed for him to warn him I was near.

 

Tuesday 

Seward is another picture perfect town sandwiched between Resurrection Bay and the Kenai Mountains, on the east coast of the Kenai Peninsula. It has quite a few fisheries and we smelled the fish immediately, but its good points outweighed the smell. The Harbor is richer than the one in Homer, there seemed to be larger and more recreational boats there. There is a town owned campground overlooking the bay, no cruise ships were in at the time. We spent one day in Seward driving to Lowell Point, visiting the shops, small boat harbor, National Park Visitors Center, and Exit Glacier. We were lucky to get to Exit Glacier just in time for a Ranger led tour. The ranger explained why it is called Exit Glacier; some folks from Homer decided they wanted to be the first to walk across Harding Ice Field, and when they reached the other side the exited on this glacier, hence Exit Glacier. The trip out into the bay to see wildlife and see and hear a calving glacier is one of the things most people come here to do. We chose not to indulge this time, but it is quite a nice trip. The Iditarod Trail starts here and continues 1049 miles to Nome. The Seavey Family lives here and has a business giving dog sled rides. Three generations have been active in mushing and Mitch (2^nd generation) won the Iditarod in 2004.

We drove back out of Seward then along the Turnagain Arm past Anchorage to Palmer, where in 1935 the government planned a farming colony and sent 200 families from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, to homestead the land. The government transported the families and the building products to build homes and gave each family 40 acres. They billed each family $3,000 and told them they would soon be able to repay the money with the produce they would be growing in the silt loam soil that is excellent for farming. Cold winters helped to prevent weeds and some insects, and the 19 hours of daylight in June gave plants extra growing time. Palmer is known for its huge cabbages, and other vegetables. The living was tough, and the failure rate high. Not enough buyers for the veggies. There was a lottery for the parcels of land and if you drew one that needed cleared of trees it was a lot of hard work until you could even start your home, and then there was the winter! There are still many descendants of these original families, and they hold a well-attended reunion each year. I imagine they got pretty close living through that.

 We also drove up the west side of Hatcher Pass, and drove right up to the summit. When coming from the East we thought we couldn’t drive through, but we found out the road was just fine, we had taken a wrong turn. We arrived at the summit at the same time a para-glider was setting his wind flag, so we stuck around to watch him float off over the edge. He came back to the same spot several times and took off again.

We drove the farm loop and stopped by the Musk-Ox farm.

Wasilla is only about 12 miles from Palmer so we went to the Iditarod Trail Headquarters, then continued out the Knik-Goose Bay Road, stopping at old Knik Museum and a traditional Athabascan grave site. Many mushers live in the area, they are a tight knit community.

From Palmer we traveled to Valdez, stopping at the Wrangell Saint Elias National Park. They showed a movie and there was an Athabascan Indian Museum there. We spoke with a girl wearing a beautiful beaded sash. She told us it was the sash her mother carried her with as a baby. It had her name in beading, and I ask her if she would make one for her babies and she said she would need help from her grandmother. Lost arts in all cultures, Carissa will have to learn to sew from me, and I never learned to tat from my mother.

We continued down to Valdez, driving between masterful mountains enjoying glaciers. We drove out to the fish hatchery and saw more fish than we’ve ever seen in our lives, they were there to spawn where they were hatched and they couldn’t get in so they were bunched up outside. The sea otters, harbor seals, and eagles were taking advantage of the situation. Just down the road we were strictly forbidden from going any further, it was the entrance to the pipeline storage facility and since 9/11 there is no admittance, and an FBI sign warned us to turn back. We also watched a small black bear fishing for salmon, and filling his belly often.

From Valdez we decided to meander back to the lower 48 but I still wanted to stop at Hyder, which is located in southern AK. We drove to Whitehorse YT, then took the Cassiar Highway through BC to Hyder. There was a lot of construction on the Cassiar and we took on a few more dings and cracks in the windshield. Saw 3 braes and a cub, in the afternoon.

 Spent the night along the road and got to Hyder about 3pm Aug 14^th. We’re staying at camp RUN-A-MUCK, about 4 miles from the Salmon Creek bear and fish viewing bridge. We saw one large grizzly in the creek, the park service said when the grizzlies are present the black bears stay away.

The 15^th we got up and left for the bridge at 6:15 AM hoping to see bears and wolves, nothing was displaying itself so we left to take the drive up the mountain to view Salmon Glacier. We remembered enjoying this drive last time and it didn’t disappoint. It’s  28 miles of dirt road, some rough, but worth every mile. Salmon Glacier is the only glacier you can drive above and look down on. There are also glaciers hanging above you on other parts of the road, you feel like you are on top of the world. There are several active mines we drove past and finally one at the end of the road.

 At one of our stops to look, we heard this squeal; it was a marmot warning his friend of danger. Marmots look like a larger version of a prairie dog and one posed for me while his buddy squealed for him to warn him I was near.