We followed the Sterling Hwy and saw the volcanoes in the Ring of Fire
We left Hope, AK on a
nice summer morning after a short tour of the village and headed back out to
Highway 1 to Sterling Highway Junction at Hwy 9. We will continue to follow #1 to take us across the
Peninsula on the Sterling Hwy down to Homer for our next stop.
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| Highway 1 on the Kenai Peninsula |
We are now on the Kenai
(kee-nye) Peninsula where most tourists will visit when they head to
Alaska. There has been some great
scenery we got to enjoy on our travels this summer and the Kenai Peninsula has
definitely got some more of that.
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| Kenai Peninsula scenery |
The lush green mountains
on this drive continue all morning of our day.
The summer blooms are out and the Fireweed lines the roads, adding more
to the beauty of the area.
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| Fishermen line the shores of the Russian River |
We are here during the
peak fishing season so have been seeing many fishermen in the rivers as we pass
by. Boatloads of them plus shorelines
with dozens of fishermen lined up to catch some salmon.
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| Sterling Highway |
There is over 23,000
square kilometres (9,000 sq mi) on the Peninsula all filled with glaciers, the
Kenai Mountains, rivers, lakes and great seasonal fishing. There are several
towns and we pass through some of those today on our travels following Hwy 1
and so many lodges that accommodate the hunters and fishermen and those here for adventures like the white water rafting .
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| Kenai River |
This peninsula is known
as “Alaska’s Playground” and tourism is a major industry. Alaska does
not have areas called a county as in the other states, but is called a
borough, instead. There are over 58,000
people living in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, which is quite a lot compared to
other boroughs in the sparsely populated state of Alaska. The cities of Fairbanks and Anchorage are the
only more populated boroughs.
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| Mt. Redoubt |
The glacier covered Mt.
Redoubt is part of the Aleutian Range and has erupted several times over the
years. This is part of the Pacific Ring
of Fire, which encircles the Pacific Ocean.
It covers 40,000 kilometres (25,000 miles) in a horseshoe shape. There are a total of 452 volcanoes on the
Ring of Fire, which is more than 75% of the worlds’ total number of volcanoes. Thankful for a sunny day to be able to see these beauties.
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| Mt. Iliamna |
We are now viewing Mt.
Iliamna of the Pacific Ring of Fire. It
is actually 84 km (52 mi) away but with an elevation of over 3100 metres
(10,197’) is a sight to see. This
mountain frequently spits out some steam but has no record of eruption. Imagine living across this field of color
looking at that beautiful mountain every day!
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| View of the Kenai Mountains |
We are now approaching
Homer which is graced with this view of these Kenai Mountains across the Kachemak
Bay. We are enjoying the sights from
the Homer viewpoint which included flower and vegetable gardens grown and
maintained by the Homer Garden Club. The
flowers may be expected at a viewpoint but surely not a vegetable garden. Great idea! I looked for a sign to explain but none was found. I wondered if the mature veggies were shared with whomever needed them.
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| Homer Spit, Alaska |
We have arrived in Homer
and are able to see the Homer Spit which we will follow to find ourselves an RV
spot to camp in. We had nothing booked
but we do manage to find a spot, more on that next time. The temperature is almost 21 C (69F), which
is higher than the average, when we arrive so great weather to enjoy.
