Day 3: Anchorage to Homer and Halibut Cove

We bailed out of the Anchorage hostel early, and got on the road down to Homer. This road is called the Seward Highway and it has some great scenery:

(<-- look close, that's the moonrise)

This road follows a body of water called the Turnagain Arm, which is unnavigable. On its banks there are extensive and dangerous mud flats. Evidently a number of people have tried to walk on the mud, gotten stuck, and drowned when the tide came in. We didn't try that...

Along the way, we passed several "ghost forests." When the 1964 Earthquake hit, the land dropped significantly, and the saltwater from the Arm flooded many areas. This killed the trees, but the saltwater also preserved them, so they still stand, dead. Here is a picture of one ghost forest, with Portage Glacier in the background:

We also stopped at Anchor Point, where we saw bald eagles on the beach, fighting sea gulls for fish.

We got down to Homer and went out on the Homer Spit, which is a long finger of land stretching out into the Kachemak Bay. It's lined with charter boats and tourist spots, so it's not exactly rustic. But that's where we hopped on a ferry (the Danny J) to head out to Halibut Cove, which is on the other side of the Bay.

Here we are on the ferry ,

and the view looked like this:

then here's how it looked as we approached Halibut Cove: .

In Halibut Cove, we stayed at the Quiet Place Lodge (the lodge is to the left in the picture).

Our room had a very scenic view of the Cove at sunset

which only became more beautiful at sunrise (about 4am).

Day 4 or Trip Overview