Driving the Westernmost Highway of Alaska

On Thursday, June 30, 2016, we drove from Homer, Alaska to Soldotna, on the northwestern Kenai Peninsula.  Along the way, we had a chance to check out some things we had missed on our drive down.

The most interesting was Anchor Point, which is on the Old Sterling Highway, known locally as the "Most Western Highway Point" in Alaska:

If it weren't for that pesky 50th State, it would also be the most western highway in the United States. Well, Alaskans still can brag they have the largest state.

From Anchor Point, we could look across Cook Inlet to Lake Clark National Park and Mount Illiamna, a glacier-covered stratovolcano in the largely volcanic Aleutian Range. Located in the Chigmit Mountain subrange in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Illiamna lies approximately 134 miles southwest of Anchorage. Fumaroles located at about 8,990 feet elevation on the eastern flank produce nearly constant plumes of condensate and minor amounts of sulfurous gases. These plumes are quite vigorous and have resulted in numerous pilot reports and early historical accounts of eruptions.

On this side of Cook Inlet, we were intrigues with the DOZENS of bald eagles hanging out on the beach with their seagull friends, looking for the latest discards from salmon fishermen:

In flight, eagles are majestic --

-- even though they often are merely scavengers.  Even when a bald eagle merely perches and looks, he seems to exude Washingtonian authority:

The beach at Anchor Point was very busy with people putting boats into the water and taking them out.  The state park there has sand tractors which move boat trailers out to the surf to load or unload the boats:

Having learned all about Anchor Point, we drove on to the town of Kenai, which lies northwest of Soldotna, near the northwesternmost corner of the peninsula.  One of the most striking attractions in Kenai is Holy Assumption Orthodox Church, also known as Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is a Russian Orthodox parish church.

Completed in 1896, it is one of the oldest-standing Russian Orthodox churches in Alaska and was a major center for the assimilation of the local Native population. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.  Alaska became a diocese in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1840, and the popularity of the Russian Orthodox religition in the Kenai Peninsula region grew, particularly among the Kenaitze, the native people of the peninsula.

We also strolled through Kenai's Historic Cabin Park, which has gathered together over half a dozen cabins built in the region during the earliest days of settlement of the Kenai Peninsula:

Our personal favorite was this cabin and its "little brother," whose logo says it all:

Kenai sits on a bluff overlooking the Kenai River where it empties into Cook Inlet.  Looking west across the mouth of the river and Cook Inlet, we could see the volcanoes of the Chigmit Mountains:

The estuarial flats of the Kenai River have their own unique character:

Looking across the Kenai River, southward, we had a beautiful view of the wetlands in the foreground that have been made into park by the town of Kenai:

The bluffs in Kenai also host an RV park which, while not prepossessing, offers some scenic views to its campers.

Having explored this little corner of the Kenai Peninsula, we drove on to our B&B in Soldotna, looking forward to a good night's sleep before a hike to Lower Russian Lake and Russian Falls in the morning.