Alaska Sojourn: The Snow Clad Mountains to Seward

Saturday was a transition day. We would be leaving the interior of Alaska and traveling south to Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. This would be another long day of driving for us.

After packing up our stuff and getting it all in the car, we left for the first stop on our journey south, the tourist town of Talkeetna. The town is actual quite close to where we were staying as the crow flies. Unfortunately the Susitna River separates the two areas. We had to go south about 15 miles and then go back up 14 miles to reach our destination.

Just as we were entering the town we had a beautiful view of the Alaska Range. The sun was breaking through the clouds in a few spots while some of the mountains were still partially shrouded in clouds. It was a beautiful scene. I had heard that there were good views of the mountains from the town. I thought there would be places near the river or other spots with an equally beautiful view. Unfortunately I was wrong. When we returned to the spot later to capture the scene, the clouds had settled down around the mountains, and there was nothing to see. We had missed our opportunity.

The town of Talkeetna is an interesting little town. There is one main street in town that goes for about three blocks. There are a mix of businesses and restaurants, but no national chains here. In some ways I got a hippie vibe from the town. There was that artistic-back-to-nature sense about the town. We did get some coffee at Conscious Coffee which was good, but we had a long wait as they were very busy. It was obviously the place to be on a Saturday morning.

Having had our morning coffee, we continued on the road. Unfortunately, we encountered a delay along the way. A car accident occurred on the highway, and there was no way around it. We probably waited about 40 minutes for them to clear the road and let us continue on. Hopefully no one got seriously hurt.

We began to encounter quite a bit of traffic as we went through the city of Wasilla. This was the most traffic we had seen since we arrived in Alaska. Construction work didn’t help. We have encountered quite a bit of construction during our travels. Their long winters give Alaskans a short window of time to do construction work so a lot of projects happen at once.

Eklutna, on the edge of Anchorage, was our next destination. This was an unusual place. I wanted to stop because I had heard that there was an interesting Russian Orthodox Church here. I also had read something about spirit houses. This turned out to be an interesting place indeed. There was an old church built of logs beside a newer church built in 1962 which had the Russian look I was expecting. However, it was the spirit houses that were more fascinating. The native Athabascan families built these over the grave sites of their deceased family members.

The Spirit houses were a result of an adaptation of the Orthodox theology. The native Alaskans had cremated their dead. However, when the Orthodox missionaries began to convert the natives, they taught against cremation. They believed that souls would take 40 days to move from earth to heaven. This was a concern for the natives, and so spirit houses were developed to contain the spirits during this 40 day period. It is certainly a colorful tradition that developed at the graveyard at St. Nicholas Church.

Passing through Anchorage, we decided to stop for lunch and gas before heading on south to Seward. Upon leaving Anchorage we began traveling through the most beautiful part of Alaska we had seen yet. The road out of Anchorage goes along a narrow inlet called Turnagain Arm. The road hugs the coastline and across the water are mountains that seem to rise up from the water. The mountains still were streaked with snow, and during our trip they were often topped with clouds as it was a cool and cloudy day. The combination of clouds, snow, mountains and water made for absolutely beautiful scenery. The only obstacle is the railroad tracks that lies between the road and the water.

There were quite a few places that travelers could stop and take in the scenery as well as snap their photos. I wanted to stop at all of them, but after a few stops my daughter began to complain. I had to reign in my enthusiasm and focus on getting to our destination.

When we finally left Turnagain Arm and reached the Kenai Penninsula, the mountains didn’t stop. They continued on. It was the same thing. We would go past one mountain area and then another one would approach. Again I really wanted to stop and take a lot of photos, but I had to restrain myself. Some of the mountains here had more snow on them than others so there was quite a range of mountains to see. We also followed along some rivers and lakes with the mountains on the other side. It was a stunning drive at this time of year.

We finally reached Seward. Out hotel was near the beginning of civilization here so we checked in before actually getting into town. We drove over and found the bay, and it was again very beautiful. Mountains surround the bay, and there are mountains behind the city so pretty much there is a mountain view in every direction.

We began to follow a path that went along the water’s edge. There were some historical markers along the way. We discovered that Seward was the beginning of the original Iditarod Trail. Further along we discovered campers, hundreds of them. There were a lot of RV campers, but also tents set up in sites along the water. It looked like big parking lots, but the campers had their own spots. If they were lucky to be on the water side, there was a fire pit set up on the water side of the walkway.

We passed many groups sitting around their campfires as it was a cool evening. There were kids all over as well. It was crazy to see all these people here in this small town enjoying the opportunity to be there with their friends and family. My one thought was, I would hate to be going home when all these RVs left town. The two lane highway will be very crowded when that happens.

And so our day began to wind down. It had been a long day of travel, but the amazing vistas had helped to make the day go by faster. The plan for tomorrow is to go on a boat trip out to see Kenai Fjords National Park. We are hoping for a successful trip. Read all about it next week.

I hope you are enjoying reading about our sojourn through Alaska. If you have questions or comments please feel free to write them in the comment section below. I love hearing from you. If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next three installments of our trip.