Day: March 24, 2026

Homer to Tern Lake, AK

September 30, 2025

Today I will travel from Homer to Wasilla – northeast of Anchorage. I chose to overshoot Anchorage because I will be driving up to Denali National Park tomorrow and I wanted to shorten that drive.

I am going to break up the posts for today into three parts: Homer to Tern Lake (where Hwy 1 meets Hwy 9, which comes up from Seward), Tern Lake to just south of Anchorage, and from that point the rest of the way to Wasilla.

I had missed out on the Northern Lights the first night I spent in Homer. I was awake again shortly after midnight and went outside. This time I used my smartphone camera to look at the sky, as I had been told it is more sensitive to the wavelengths of the Lights and will show things the unaided eye may not see.

Still no luck. Perhaps they showed up later, but at night I try to sleep as much as I can so I didn’t venture out again.

After daylight I drove a “mountain” route of backroads out to the highway because I wanted to try and spot some moose or other animals in more secluded areas where they would more likely be. No luck.

When I got out to the highway I stopped at the viewpoint which had the best view of the two volcanoes over in Lake Clark National Park, on the other side of the Cook Inlet. I have already posted pictures of them but the viewing conditions were a little better, and I had the morning sun rising behind me as I looked west.

This is Mount Iliamna:

And this is Mount Redoubt:

When I got further to where the large moose was located it had indeed shed it’s human-added apparel.

When I got to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge I saw this sign which some people apparently didn’t agree with.

These are from a rest area within the Refuge which show some of the damage a wildfire had done.

I finally got to Tern Lake, which is where the road I was on met the road which had taken me to Seward and Whittier. The photos I posted from the lake previously were plagued by low clouds but today was mostly clear.

It had taken me 3 1/2 hours to get this far and I still had a long ways to go.

The Homer Spit – Part 1 of 2

September 29, 2025

I tried posting this yesterday before Part 2 but for some reason it didn’t go through properly.

As I explained in a previous post, the Home Spit is a stretch of land that juts out 4 1/2 miles into Kachemak Bay. I drove out there just after noon and these are some of the things I saw.

The first place I stopped was at a large campground. There were only a few vehicles parked there but there wasn’t anyone camping. I was told it gets incredibly busy there in the summer but it is almost October and the people who parked here were probably walking, jogging or bicycling. As you can see, the campground sits just above sea level.

As I drove back up to the road I was not at all surprised to see this sign.

I was closer to the mountains on the far side of the Bay so I had a better look at them, as well as some of the glaciers.

This was looking back at the mainland. You can see that the hill above Homer is fairly high.

There was a sports arena further out the Spit.

There were also several fishing and marine related businesses and offices.

Just before I reached the large harbor I came to this well known fishing hole which I had read about.

I’m not a fisherman but apparently “snagging” is the term for hooking a fish somewhere other than in it’s mouth.

This is the harbor where all the boats in Homer are docked. I had been told to keep an eye out for a ship featured on “The Deadliest Catch” tv show, which is often docked here when not out filming, but I did not see it. The Deep Sea dock (upper right on the map shown below) is where cruise ships dock to load or unload their passengers

I had read that at one time a local woman attracted quite a following by feeding bald eagles out at the far end of the Spit, but after her passing that practice is no longer allowed.

Beyond the harbor are several restaurants, boat charter businesses (fishing or sightseeing), as well as a variety of shops and art galleries. I will show you some of them in Part 2 of this post. There was also another campground and even some apartment buildings. There is a resort at the far end of the Spit.

The Spit dropped 2 or 3 feet as a result of the 1964 earthquake, centered east of Anchorage, and parts of the Spit now flood at high tide. Newer buildings and walkways are raised up off the ground to protect them from minor flooding.

(Continued next post)