Days 23-24: Homer, AK to Tok, AK
Blame it on the lack of wifi, the beauty of the Kenai, or our upcoming mad dash, but we're going to have to do a couple of multi-day posts to keep up with the blog. So, bear with us. Especially during the aforementioned mad dash: we're trying to make it to Sun Valley, ID for the eclipse, and that's a lot of ground to cover in not a whole lot of days.
We took off from Homer, not without regret, and very much enjoyed our drive up the Kenai to Seward. The drive itself was beautiful as we made our way back up the peninsula, rain and all (as you can see in the video above). And Seward isn't too shabby either. Its main strip is home to a welcoming, quaint line of little storefronts and restaurants, all leading down to the great expanse of slate blue Resurrection Bay. We found a super nice room at Trailhead Lodging, made some dinner, and turned in for the night.
On our way out of Seward
The next day we took some time exploring downtown Seward just as everything was opening up, then briefly debated staying another night, but decided we should get a move on. We'll just have to do that Exit Glacier hike the next time we're in Seward.
In an effort to cover some ground before we cross the border tomorrow, we decided to try to make it all the way back to Tok, Alaska by tonight, with one quick stop on the way. Just outside Anchorage is the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, where all sorts of wildlife find permanent homes after having been injured or abandoned at a young age. For example, an abandoned grizzly cub that was found with her paws covered in porcupine quills, or a bald eagle who had to have a wing amputated. It's a pretty big outdoor park that doesn't take long to walk around, complete with features like a viewing bridge over the bears and a little pen for the three-legged porcupine. We watched a black bear play in a little pond, a grizzly meditatively scratching her back, and a lot of different herds munching away diligently on the grass around them.
A quick note on the beautiful musk ox above: On one of our previous days, we happened to drive by a musk ox farm and were both intrigued. It turns out, the undercoat of a musk ox (known as qiviut) is a remarkable fiber: warmer and stronger than traditional sheep's wool, yet super light and softer than cashmere. Amazing, right?
After that, we got back on the road, made our way through Anchorage and all the way up to Tok. We stopped a few times to take in the beautiful scenery, below, but had to keep it moving.
By now, we've stayed in all sorts of different places on this trip. Cabins and cottages, basement apartments, several nights in a tent, a yurt, a sort of lighthouse, and our fair share of classic motels. Well, we had another first for our second evening in Tok: an RV.
It turns out Alaskan Stoves Campground has a couple of very nicely maintained RVs for rent, much in the same way you'd rent a cabin, complete with a lovely little kitchenette and a TV and a very nice shower in their lodge space. We rolled into Tok a little later than usual (something that will likely become more and more common on our race to Sun Valley), and the folks at Alaskan Stoves were nice enough to accommodate us.