Alaska is spectacular. Many people don't have it on their bucket list of places to explore because they think of expensive cruise ships, bus rides, and train trips. There are other ways to see Alaska. If you don't plan to make it one of your destinations, then please see it through my eyes. It is not to be missed. I will get off the subject and on to closer locations eventually. For now, I will continue describing this wonderland. Once again, please forgive any grammatical errors. I intend for this to be conversational in nature. I am not describing this trip in the order that we actually visited the sites. That may come later. It is my intention that you will find a map of Alaska and locate these places, then search the web for information and pictures of them. Hopefully you will find your own path to take. Keep in mind that you may have many rainy days or none at all. We had quite a few.
After leaving Cooper Creek, we drove south to Seward. We camped in a city owned campground along the shore of Resurrection Bay. The sites were pretty open and not the greatest, but it was steps away from the water. There were flush toilets, picnic tables and a fire ring. The shoreline consisted of gray rocks. Many of them were flat. My husband is a master at skipping rocks, so there was plenty of free entertainment at our fingertips. As we looked across the bay, clouds hovered and the mountains rose up out of the water.. The nearby marina had coin operated showers, so we relished in the nice hot water. It cost $2 for 7 minutes. We walked the port town and the Chinook waterfront area, stopping in the Alaskan Brewing Company for a beer and halibut cheeks. I don't think I have ever heard of such a thing before, but they were delicious. The fact that our table overlooked the marina didn't hurt either.
The next day we drove through the Chugach National Forest and crossed Resurrection River on our way to Exit Glacier. Exit Glacier is in the Kenai Fjords National Park. We hiked some of the nature trails and viewed the glacier. Stunning. Glacier blue is the most beautiful color!
We headed back north and turned off for one last attempt at fishing on the Cooper River. I had given up, but my husband gave it a shot. Still nothing. We drove down Sterling Hwy to Seward Hwy and turned off onto Hope Hwy. The scenery along the coastline on the Kenai Penninsula is gorgeous. We drove to the very end of Hope Hwy to check out Porcupine Campground. It was a pretty drive and the campground is very nice. I would recommend it as a nice "off the beaten path" destination. We didn't stay there because we weren't ready to stop for the night yet. Our next goal was to visit the town of Hope. My mother-in-law goes by the name Hope, so we felt that we couldn't be this close to the town and NOT visit it. There is also a great view of Turnagain Arm from that area. Turnagain arm is breathtaking. The town of Hope turned out to be a bit small. By small I mean tiny. By tiny I mean minute. There were a few preserved buildings from the mining days and an RV park off to the side. We took a few pictures in front of the sign so that we could show them to my mother-in-law. It was definitely off the beaten path.
Coeur d'Alene was our next destination. We had a bit of trouble finding it, but we finally found the road leading to the campground. It was in the Chugach National Forest, seven miles up a narrow, winding, unpaved road that climbed into the mountains.We saw a huge moose along the way. There were about a half dozen campsites beside a small, clear, rushing river. Beautiful. There is a latrine, but no potable water. No problem. We carried plenty. Once again, we had the whole place to ourselves. We built a nice fire and cooked the fresh salmon that Eagle Eye had given us. There we were, all by ourselves, next to a river, deep in bear country and we were cooking salmon on the campfire. We could almost feel eyes staring at us through the trees. We decided that the best thing to do was to stay together at all times. We even walked each other to the latrine. We each carried a can of bear mace. We took the shotgun that Eagle Eye has supplied us with and placed it on the picnic table. Eagle Eye taught us how to load and shoot it. Neither of us wanted to be in a position to actually use that training but we were glad to have some protection. It started raining just as the salmon was finished cooking. We cleared a spot in the back of the van and turned it into our dining facility. I felt so lucky to be sitting there. The surroundings were stunning, the sounds of the river and rain were soothing, and we were dining on fresh caught Alaskan salmon. A five star restaurant has nothing on that atmosphere. After dinner we drove up about a mile or so past the camp. As we climbed in elevation the plant material got smaller and the season seemed to change to early spring. The mountains got closer and suddenly the road was covered in snow. We turned around and drove back to camp. The snow turned back to rain and got heavier and heavier. When we woke up the next morning we could see fresh snow on the mountain tops. As we were driving back toward Hope we saw a young black bear walking on the road. I was very happy that the bears decided not to make an appearance while we were camping the night before.
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