Rainforest Surprise: Finding Alaska’s Wet Spot

After a few days of staying dry and doing day trips, we decided to bite the bullet and get on with what we intended to do – camp in the wilds of Alaska in whatever conditions were presented to us.

After all, this is possibly a once in a lifetime experience, and we wanted to experience it to the fullest of our abilities.  Besides, hotels in Alaska, Canada, or any popular vacation spots are wildly overpriced for what they provide, and they will drain your wallet in a hurry.  We set out in search of our next place to call home, stopping over in Seward to check out the possibilities.  The campgrounds we found there were, oddly, located in a park-like area in town and not to our liking.  They were surprisingly unsheltered and offered no trees from which to properly hang a tarp over the tent – something we would absolutely need for at least the next couple of days.

So we moved on for a while, and about 20 minutes outside of Homer, we came up on some cars pulled off the road.  We joined them to see this bull moose grazing roadside.  What a magnificent animal!  He was alert but not overly concerned about the road or his audience.

Devoid of common sense, a young couple left their car, crossed the road, and stood at the guardrail taking pictures, within about thirty feet of him.  Lucky for them this bull was in the mood for eating and not fighting, because he could have been on them in the blink of an eye.  If they had to run from him the road was their only escape, which could have turned into a different kind of mess.  They returned safely to their car, and I proceeded to get a nice video of the handsome fellow.  He was really beautiful with his velvety antlers and graceful, fluid movements.

We continued into Homer and out onto the Homer Spit.  It was an interesting place, bustling with activity and offering a large assortment of restaurants and souvenir shops on the almost 5 mile long peninsula.

There were several campgrounds with something for everyone, from tent sites to full RV hookups with Wi-Fi, but again, lacking privacy and shelter.

We headed back out of town to a campground we spotted on the way in – the Stariski State Recreation Site.  We chose a little site and got busy hanging the tarp.  Once we had shelter from the driving rain and wind, we set up the backpacking tent underneath.

The tarp served us well and we stayed fairly dry for the duration of our stay.  We also stayed surprisingly warm in the close confines of the tent, and I’m sure that was due partially to the tarp blocking most of the wind from hitting it.  I tried to capture the gusting wind on video, and like most other things, it didn’t really cooperate.  It doesn’t look half as bad on the video as it actually was, but I “documented” it anyway!
 

The following day, we drove around Homer on a self-guided tour, checking out a few points of interest mentioned in The Milepost.  We pulled into a scenic stop overlooking the bay, where Ken spotted a group of sea otters!  The pictures didn’t come out very clear, but we got an excellent look at them through our binoculars.

Sea otters!

The Homer Spit in the distance

We visited the Pratt Museum, which had a wide variety of displays, many of which were interactive, and all of which were pretty fascinating.  We spent a couple of hours there learning about the wildlife, native people and history of the area.

We took another drive out onto Homer Spit, seeing several bald eagles along the way, and even an active nest.  It’s a favorite hangout for them, as they probably find an abundance of fish scraps to dine on.

Later on while we were eating at Subway, we were approached by a local guy who wanted to know if the Jeep out front was ours, as he was interested in where to get the type of jerry cans we carried.  In the course of conversation, he told us that he’s originally from Ketchikan, which receives around 150 inches of rain per year!  (Ketchikan is further south on the panhandle, and that whole coastal region is classified as a temperate rainforest.  Our location in Homer is on the fringe of this rainforest, but not within it and not receiving that amount of rainfall.)  He was rather nonchalant about it, too… he’s lived in southeast Alaska his whole life, so it’s what he’s always been used to.  In fact, he also stated that this was t-shirt weather for him, while we in our jackets listened with wonderment… and a faint sense of familiarity.  We used to wear t-shirts in this kind of weather many years ago, when we lived in Syracuse, NY.  After a long winter, this weather felt almost balmy!  Now, however, we are Floridians, and there is nothing balmy about any of this!  Oh, and when we’re tent camping in it, the situation approaches miserable, and is definitely a real pain in the neck.  Home is not just around the corner where we can go get dried off and warmed up, and if we do seek refuge at a hotel, it comes with a hefty price tag.  All of this means that extra care must be taken while setting up and doing things around the campsite.  Thankfully, we’ve gotten a pretty good system going for the most part and are pretty well organized, especially considering that we’re living out of our Jeep several thousand miles from home.  So we had a nice chat with Mr. T-shirt Guy, who was very pleasant, though he must have thought we were just as crazy to live in the hot Florida climate.

While on our way back to the campsite, we saw this mama moose with her two babies.  We’ve really hit the jackpot for close-range moose viewing on this stretch of road!  We watched for several minutes as they grazed warily, until finally they headed into the woods, babies leading the way with mom right behind them.

Getting back to the campsite, we settled into the Jeep for a little while, Ken watching movies, and me working on my laptop.  Not too long after, I realized we were having a nice sunset and proceeded to take a ridiculous number of pictures.

I was trying to capture the rays of light coming down through the clouds to meet the water, and although I got pictures I was happy with, they don’t look nearly as dramatic as the scene looked to my eyes.  It was gorgeous against the backdrop of the dark mountains, which were sometimes barely visible beneath the low-lying clouds.

The next morning it was time for our departure, which of course meant that the clouds would start to break up, showing us the sun and patches of nice blue sky!  It made for a pleasant drive on our way back toward Anchorage.

There are lots more photos in this album, so take a look!