From Captain Cook State Recreational Area to Seward
The clouds rolled in over Homer, and we decided to head north. The town of Kenai looked interesting and the reviews of the campground at the Captain Cook Rec area were good. There was thick fog on most of the drive, all the way to the campground. Just as we reached the campground, the fog cleared and we found ourselves in a beautiful, wooded campground, about 25 miles north of Kenai (so in the middle of nowhere), with a short path leading to amazing views overlooking the ocean. Perfect! A short walk took us to the beach. As we looked out across the bay, we saw an oil platform. Actually, multiple platforms in the far distance. Apparently, there are 15-16 of them in the Cook Inlet.
Iris loves the beach. Unfortunately, she didn’t get off-leash because Mike noticed two bald eagles. Later, we took a path along the cliff overlooking the ocean and were nearly on the same level as one of the bald eagles. We were super close, as shown by the picture.
The first evening, Mike took pictures of the sunset from the beach. He also saw two of these crazy critters, who were running all over the place.
We spent two days here because we really liked it. We visited Kenai, which was fine though I got sticker shock when I went grocery shopping. Twice, we visited Kassik’s Brewery. You have to drive into the residential, woods area. The brewery is in a building adjacent to the owner’s house. It’s a little odd to pull into someone’s driveway and then enter a building that appears to be not much bigger than a large shed (actually, it’s much bigger and houses the brewery but that’s not what you see at first). There was no one there except the guy behind the counter. The beer was good.
The weather was sunny, though it wasn’t real warm, maybe it reached 60 degrees. We really enjoyed our last evening, where we sat outside, enjoying the sun, and just talking.
The Milepost book has been awesome and provides lots of interesting, little tips. We followed some of them to our delight, but not this time. It told of a pullout on the way to Seward where a short walk leads to a stream where you can see spawning salmon and possibly bears in Aug/Sept. We stopped and took the trail, with bear spray in hand. As we crested a short hill, there was an awful smell. We got to the stream and saw the grossest sight of the entire trip – large, bloated, dead fish all over. Gross! The rest of the trip to Seward was uneventful.
Seward has been a bit of a disappointment, but it’s probably more us than the town itself. It was cold and overcast when we arrived. Our campground is mediocre. The town seems cute, with a lot of parks. We didn’t get much view of the water or the mountains because of the clouds. We had lunch at the Seward Brewery and had really good food. The beer was good too, especially the red. I’ve been having samplers throughout the trip so we can try the various beers at each brewery. We were shocked at the ABV of the beer. The red was 8%, but oh so smooth and yummy.
But, it’s raining again and cool. The high is 57 degrees today. And it’ll rain all week with choppy waters. Ugh! We are getting very tired of the rain. It’s possible we won’t stay here long. It’s supposed to be sunny in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on Tuesday. We’ll see what happens but we’re contemplating chasing the sun again.
