8/17 – We are in Kenai (town) and will head for boondocking (no electric, water, sewer) for the next few days. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge beckons. It is the premier wildlife viewing area in Alaska and we will head for Skilak lake tomorrow and spend a couple days. The Kenai River actually runs through this lake and there is currently a big run of sockeye and silver salmon. I’m not that keen on fishing as it cost $25 a day for a nonresident license, but the attraction here should be black and brown bear feeding on the salmon on their spawning grounds. After that, Seward for a couple days and then on to Anchorage.
8/18 – Well, that didn’t happen.
We made it to Skilak Lake road heading for this campground 10 miles away (nasty gravel road). At the first stop we noticed a big smoke plume up ahead. (Picture above – “not clouds”)
To make a long story short, they closed all the roads and campgrounds and ordered everyone out of the refuge. The Swan Fire had reignited due 40 mph winds which jumped the Sterling Highway, the main and only highway that connects the western half of the Kenai peninsula with the rest of the state. So we backtracked and got an RV site for tonight and possibly tomorrow if they don’t open the road. Naturally, problems like this happen on a Sunday with so I many people are trying to get back to Anchorage for work AND schools start Tuesday! So, motels and RV parks are filling up fast.
8/19
Wow, what a day! We waited until late morning then they announced the road would open at noon. We took off. It started getting smokey. Then, we came to a complete halt for almost an hour – accident. (For a state with a population of less than a million, it seemed half of them were on this 10-15 mile “parking lot”). Once moving we went thru 30 miles of fire, often on both sides of the road – very very smokey. Once we turned south towards Seward things improved.
We decided to stay downtown Seward. There must be 500 of these Class C motorhomes here, mostly rentals. They are really popular with foreign tourists. See below:
The city owned campground is huge. You just pick an empty site and pay at a auto pay station, all right on Resurrection Bay. The view is simply amazing.(pic)The boat traffic was heavy and this huge Norwegian Line Cruise ship was in harbor.
8/20
We will spend one more day here, and possibly more. Anchorage, our next destination, is “the most air polluted city in the US” at the present time. The fire we drove thru yesterday is not affecting Anchorage the one up towards Denali is. North winds are blowing smoke from both fires to the south. That’s bad news for Homer and the rest of the Kenai. Actually, our visibility has been dropping all day here in Seward.
8/21
It is very smokey this morning with visibility less than 1/2 mile. Around 4AM I looked outside and one of these huge cruise ships was ghosting into the harbor. (Pic)
It was all lit up and with the smoke it was an eerie sight. It then does a 180 and backs into its birth. Impressive.
So, by mid morning we packed up and drove to Anchorage – 130 easy miles. Along Cook Inlet, south of Anchorage, there were lots of beluga whales right along the road. I never knew how big they were. On the other side of the road are these impressive basalt cliffs that had pure white Dall sheep here and there.
Anchorage is not smokey at all. Two days here and off we go again.
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