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Kenai Peninsula (page 3 of 3)

11. Seward
Tucked between Resurrection Bay and the foot of Mt. Marathon, the city of Seward serves as the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park, a 580,000-acre mosaic of glaciers, fjords, icefields, and mountainous coastline. At a National Park Service visitor center at Seward harbor, exhibits explain how the local fjords were created by glaciers thousands of years ago. Today, these flooded valleys are home to legions of sea otters, sea lions, whales, and other marine creatures. To view them, observers can board the Seward-based tour boats that cruise up and down the coastline. The boats also provide close-up views of glaciers giving birth to mammoth icebergs, accompanied by ear-shattering crashes and thunderous plunges into the icy sea.

12. Kenai River
After backtracking north to tiny Tern Lake Junction, turn onto the Sterling Highway, a 142-mile road heading west toward Cook Inlet and then south along the inlet to Homer. The Sterling Highway first skirts the northern tip of Kenai Lake and then parallels the Kenai River for about 10 miles. Summer anglers, fishing from the shore and from rafts along this stretch of river, dream of catching a king salmon akin to the 97-pounder caught here in 1985, which set a world record for the species; fish up to 50 pounds are more commonly caught. Moose, eagles, bears, and Dall sheep can be seen from the highway and on wildlife float trips along the river.

13. Skilak Lake Loop Road
Branching off the Sterling Highway, this rough gravel road meanders 19 miles through magnificent high country before rejoining the highway near Sterling. Motorists pass a number of picturesque lakes dotted with canoes and fishing boats, including 15-mile-long Skilak Lake. Look for moose wandering the roadside and be prepared for flat tires.

14. Kenai National Wildlife Refuge
This enormous tract of forests and lakes—nearly 2 million acres —occupies much of the Kenai Peninsula. It was originally set aside to preserve the populations of moose, but it provides a home for a number of other wild creatures as well.

Throughout the summer, motorists commonly see moose cows and calves feeding in roadside woods and wetlands within the refuge. The visitor center near the town of Soldotna offers daily slide shows, wildlife displays, and information about the refuge's 200 miles of hiking trails.

15. Clam Gulch
Turning south at Soldotna, the Sterling Highway reaches Cook Inlet at Clam Gulch. The restaurants in this aptly named town serve clam chowder, steamers, and razor clams, and motels rent buckets and shovels for clamming. During the low tides, on the flats between Cape Kasilof (north of Clam Gulch) and Anchor Point (to the south), clammers dig into the cold sand to extract razor clams, the main attraction here.

To the west, across Cook Inlet from the Clam Gulch tidal flats, a perpetually snowcapped array of tall peaks greets the eye. Mt. Redoubt stands 10,197 feet high, and to its left, 30 miles down the coast, Mt. Iliamna tops off at an impressive 10,016 feet.

16. Ninilchik
Just before entering Ninilchik, take a side road to the town's original site, where it stood from its founding in the 1820s until its mid-20th-century relocation about a half- mile away. At the site of the old village, weathered log buildings still stand in the beach grass, and a Russian Orthodox church built in 1901 overlooks the sea. In present-day Ninilchik a favorite preoccupation is clamming, but when the king salmon begin their summer spawning runs up Deep Creek and the Ninilchik River, the town is overtaken by a frenzied fishing fever, and anglers crowd every bit of the bank.

17. Anchor Point
With high peaks rising to the west across Cook Inlet, the highway hugs the shoreline as it approaches the town of Anchor Point. A short side road leads to the Anchor River Recreation Area, a mecca for anglers. There, too, a plaque notes the spot as “the most westerly point on the North American continent accessible by a continuous road system.

18. Homer
Most of Homer lies on the shore of Kachemak Bay, but part of it—a 41⁄2-mile-long needle of sand, rock, and gravel known as Homer Spit—juts into the bay itself. Surrounded by snowy peaks and icy waters, the spit pulsates with an inviting variety of sights, smells, and sounds. Charter boats chug out of the spit's small boat harbor, their customers hoping to snag one of the regal-size halibut that abound in the waters of Cook Inlet. Heady-smelling shops on the boardwalk dispense fresh seafood of all kinds, both cooked and raw. (If you have a camp stove and a large pot, you can buy shrimp or clams, fill the pot with half seawater and half fresh, and enjoy an open-air seafood cookout.)

Before leaving Homer, cruise along Skyline Drive, which runs atop high bluffs overlooking the town, and gaze down at Kachemak Bay, the rugged Kenai Mountains beyond it, and the glaciers that ooze from the vast Harding Icefield. As eagles soar overhead and fireweed brightens the slopes that frame this Alaskan panorama, you'll come to see why many residents regard Homer as one of the most beautiful places on earth.

From The Most Scenic Drives in America