Day 20
1964, the Plan: Fort Nelson, BC to Valley View, AB.
1964, the Actuality: On Wednesday, August 5, the Explorer Scouts began traveling towards home from Cantwell, AK. Kent reported via postcard that they were finally leaving Cantwell with the bus fixed and they would be home late.
Monday, July 3, 2017
We left Anchorage, AK on the Seward Highway/AK-1, heading south.
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Chapel by the Sea is backed by Turnagain Arm
(body of water) and mountains (not seen today) |
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Former Potter Section House (1929) of the Alaska Railroad,
for the foreman responsible for a section of track |
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| Seward Highway follows the very edge of Turnagain Arm |
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| Beluga Point; it was not the time to see beluga whales or the bore tide |
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| A rock climbing face called Goat Head's Soup (KSS) |
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| Seward Highway and the railroad were side by side |
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| Bird Point Scenic Overlook, with the only belugas we would see |
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| Starting to see the glaciated Kenai Mountains |
We took a detour east on the Alyeska Highway.
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Crow Creek Mine was not the National Historic Site some
sources say it is, rather a private enterprise that has been listed
on the National Register of Historic Places; there is a big difference! |
James Girdwood was the first to stake a claim at Crow Creek in 1896. Established in 1898, Crow Creek Mine continues to operate today. We didn't go to look for gold, but to see a historic mining town. Many of the buildings were constructed between 1898 and 1906.
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| Crow Creek Mine community |
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| A peek into the mess hall (1920s) |
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| A wedding rehearsal! (KSS) |
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| A private home; note the ski lift chair swing |
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| Crow Creek with a gold miner at work |
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| The Crow Creek Mine soda vending machine |
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| These Alaskans save everything! (KSS) |
We continued to the Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood, AK.
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| Alyeska Hotel (late 1980s) |
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| Our Lady of the Snows (2005) at the back of the resort parking lot |
With the clouds blanketing the mountains, today was not the day to ride the Alyeska Aerial Tramway (1992). We returned to Seward Highway/AK-1 to continue southward.
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Sometimes there would be a hole in the clouds
and you could see the top of a mountain |
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The Kenai Peninsula Visitor Information Center is in the middle
of a huge lot that was formerly the staging area for the Alaska Railroad's
vehicle shuttle train, previously the only way for a car to get to Whittier |
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Largely claimed by nature, this area was once the town of Portage,
abandoned after the land dropped up to 12 feet during the 1964
Good Friday Earthquake, and then was flooded with salt water |
After Portage, we were on the Kenai Peninsula with its Kenai River, considered to be the world's greatest sport-fishing river.
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Sixmile Creek was supposed to be worth a photo,
and known for whitewater rafting... |
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Lower Summit Lake has good fishing for
landlocked Dolly Varden fish! Dolly Varden?! |
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| Summit Lake Lodge (1950) |
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| Fishing in Upper Summit Lake |
Next we stayed on AK-1, but went from Seward Highway to Sterling Highway, heading west.
After lunch at Gwin's, where we had the Famous smoked salmon chowder and the Famous carrot cake. For some reason, the waiter thought the fair-sized pieces of carrot cake were too small and gave us two slices for the price of one (we were going to just share one slice!).
Next we took a detour on the Kenai Spur Highway to the city of Kenai.
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Leif Hansen Memorial Park; Leif Hansen was an
Eagle Scout and died in either a drowning or
climbing accident only three years after his high
school graduation in 1983; the park has memorials
for other peninsula residents as well |
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| The custom town clock (2006, by local craftsmen) (KSS) |
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Moosemeat John Hedburg's Cabin, now headquarters
for the Kenai Historical Society |
A stop at the Kenai Visitor and Cultural Center...
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A collection of rock concretions (found on Cook Inlet beaches north of
Kenai) are formed as sedimentary minerals solidify around a nucleus |
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| A local fisherman caught this tangle in 1987 after a two-hour struggle |
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The Kenai Peninsula Woodturners had a display;
this Hollow Form was made by Gary Nelson
from Alaskan birch, ebony, and maple |
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St Nicholas Chapel (1906) on the site of the original
1846 church and burial site of the first resident
priest, Father Igumen Nicolai, and others |
Father Nicolai brought the smallpox vaccine to the Kenai Peninsula in about 1845.
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Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church (1896),
the oldest Orthodox church on the Alaska mainland (KSS) |
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| The Russian Orthodox church is full of icons |
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| And has an 1847 Bible with enamel icons |
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| Parish Rectory House (1881), the oldest building on the Kenai Peninsula |
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| Veronica's Café in a 1918 house |
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| Fish Camp (2014, by Joel Isaak) at the Dena'ina Wellness Center |
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| Part of Fish Camp at the Dena'ina Wellness Center (2014) (KSS) |
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Kent with Erik Hansen, who was an Eagle Scout
before his brother Leif, at the Erik Hansen Scout Park;
Erik died of brain cancer in 1992 at the age of 32 years |
Day 20 continues...
Concretions are neat rocks. You can find neat old stuff, like wood from millions of years ago, in the center of the rock.
ReplyDeleteThat was quite the soda vending machine!
ReplyDelete