Alaska's Kenai Peninsula: Seward, the Kenai Fjords and Homer

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Anchorage

   Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to your hotel in central Anchorage

   • Environ 18 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Anchorage
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), about 10 km from downtown, and a driver meets you for the short ride to your central hotel. Plan to land by about 4 pm to meet the group; the exact time is confirmed with your final itinerary. Anchorage sits between two arms of Cook Inlet with the Chugach Mountains straight behind it, and in summer the evenings stay light until very late. If you arrive early, the Anchorage Museum downtown covers the state's art, history and Alaska Native cultures, or you can walk a stretch of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail along the shore, where moose sometimes browse in the birch woods. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: the plan for the boats, what to wear on the water and how the long last day is broken up. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner in town.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Activités en option

   • Anchorage Museum

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

   

2. Jour 2 : Turnagain Arm, Exit Glacier and Seward

   Anchorage along Turnagain Arm to Portage, then Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park and Seward

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Seward
   Détail du jour 2

   We leave Anchorage after breakfast on the Seward Highway, which runs along Turnagain Arm under the Chugach cliffs. At Beluga Point we stop to scan the water for the white whales that sometimes follow the tide in, and the rock above for Dall sheep. At Portage, at the head of the arm, we spend about an hour at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, a sanctuary for orphaned and injured animals: brown and black bears, moose, musk oxen and wood bison along a loop road. Lunch is on the way south, then the road climbs over Turnagain Pass and past the long lakes at Moose Pass. Just before Seward we turn up the valley to Exit Glacier, the part of Kenai Fjords National Park you can reach by road. Signs along the approach mark where the ice stood in past years. Your guide leads the walk to the glacier viewpoint. We reach Seward, at the head of Resurrection Bay, in the late afternoon, and dinner tonight is together at a local seafood restaurant. About 220 km and 3 hours of driving in all.

   Compris

   • Beluga Point on Turnagain Arm
   • Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, Portage
   • Lunch on the Seward Highway
   • Exit Glacier walk with your guide, Kenai Fjords National Park
   • Dinner together in Seward

   Option plus facile : The Glacier View Loop, a short accessible trail to a view of the glacier.

   Option plus active : The first section of the Harding Icefield Trail, steep and rocky, with the turnaround set by your guide. The full trail is about 13 km (8 miles) return and is not part of this trip.

3. Jour 3 : Kenai Fjords National Park by boat

   Seward, Resurrection Bay and Aialik Bay

   • En bateau
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Seward
   Détail du jour 3

   Start at the Alaska SeaLife Center on the Seward waterfront when it opens: an aquarium and research centre where you watch Steller sea lions, harbour seals and puffins above and below the water, and hear about its work rescuing stranded marine mammals. Late morning we board a six-hour cruise into Kenai Fjords National Park. The boat runs the length of Resurrection Bay past sea stacks and seabird cliffs, then out round Aialik Cape into Aialik Bay to the face of a tidewater glacier, where the captain idles the engines so you can hear the ice crack and fall. Watch for humpback whales, orcas, Dall's porpoises, sea otters, sea lions hauled out on the rocks and puffins on the cliffs. Lunch is served on board. If the sea outside the bay is rough, the captain keeps to sheltered water and the route changes on the day. We are back at the small boat harbour in the early evening, which is yours: the harbour restaurants are a short walk from the docks.

   Compris

   • Alaska SeaLife Center, Seward
   • Six-hour Kenai Fjords National Park cruise to a tidewater glacier
   • Lunch on board

   Temps libre : Evening free in Seward

   Activité : About 6 hours on the boat, with indoor seating and open decks. Bring a warm hat, gloves and seasickness tablets if you need them.

   

4. Jour 4 : Across the peninsula to Homer

   Seward to Cooper Landing and the Kenai River, then Ninilchik and Homer

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Homer
   Détail du jour 4

   After breakfast we drive north out of Seward, then turn west onto the Sterling Highway at Tern Lake. The first stop is Cooper Landing, where the Kenai River runs out of Kenai Lake an unreal turquoise and, from about mid-June, anglers stand in the water for salmon. The road crosses the flat lake country of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge to the Cook Inlet coast, and lunch is in Soldotna or Ninilchik. At Ninilchik a small Russian Orthodox church stands on the bluff above the old village, a sign of the Russian settlers who came before the Americans, and on a clear day the volcanoes of the Aleutian Range rise across the inlet: Redoubt, Iliamna and, further south, Augustine. We reach Homer in the mid-afternoon, about 275 km and about 4 hours of driving in all, within our cap. After check-in, your guide takes the group to the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center, then out along the Homer Spit, five miles of gravel into Kachemak Bay, in the long evening light. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Kenai River viewpoint at Cooper Landing
   • Lunch on the Cook Inlet coast
   • Ninilchik village and church (outside)
   • Islands and Ocean Visitor Center, Homer
   • Homer Spit walk with your guide

   Temps libre : Evening free on the Homer Spit or in town

   Activité : The longest drive before the last day, broken by stops at Cooper Landing and Ninilchik and by lunch.

5. Jour 5 : Kachemak Bay by boat

   Homer Spit by boat past Gull Island to Kachemak Bay State Park, and back

   • En bateau
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Homer
   Détail du jour 5

   Kachemak Bay is usually calmest in the morning, so we are at the Homer Spit harbour early for the boat across. On the way out the boat slows at Gull Island, a rock in the bay where thousands of seabirds nest through the summer: common murres, kittiwakes, cormorants and, with luck, puffins. Sea otters float in the kelp beds, and eagles are a near-certain sight. The boat lands us on the far shore in Kachemak Bay State Park, a roadless park of spruce forest, beaches and glaciers that comes down from the Kenai Mountains. Your guide leads the walk, with an easy and a longer choice, and lunch is a packed picnic on the shore. We are back on the Spit by mid-afternoon. The rest of the afternoon is free: the galleries of Pioneer Avenue, the Pratt Museum, or a coffee on the Spit watching the fishing boats come in. Dinner tonight is together in Homer, with halibut and salmon from the bay on the menu. We confirm the boat and the trail for your dates.

   Compris

   • Boat across Kachemak Bay past the Gull Island seabird colony
   • Guided walk in Kachemak Bay State Park
   • Packed lunch
   • Dinner together in Homer

   Activités en option

   • Pratt Museum, Homer

   Option plus facile : A short shoreline and forest walk near the landing, with time on the beach.

   Option plus active : A longer trail through the forest towards Grewingk Glacier's lake, about 2 to 3 hours on foot with some rough ground; the route is set by your guide and the boat schedule.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free in Homer

   Activité : About 1 to 2 hours on the water in all, in an open or part-covered boat. Bring a warm layer and waterproofs.

6. Jour 6 : Girdwood and back to Anchorage

   Homer to Cooper Landing, then Girdwood and the Alyeska tram, then Anchorage airport

   • Environ 5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   Détail du jour 6

   Homer is at the end of the road, so today is the one day over our usual four-hour cap: about 355 km and about 5 hours of driving in all, split into three legs. We leave after an early breakfast and drive about three hours back along the Cook Inlet coast and through the refuge to Cooper Landing, where lunch is by the Kenai River. Then it is about an hour and a half over Turnagain Pass and along the arm to Girdwood, a small mountain town in a valley on the north shore of Turnagain Arm, where we ride the Alyeska Aerial Tram to its upper station at about 700 m for the view over hanging glaciers and the arm. Then it is about 45 minutes to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, arriving at about 5:30 to 6 pm, or to downtown if you are staying on. Book a flight leaving after about 8 pm; many flights south leave late in the evening. Your guide sees you to the airport before saying goodbye.

   Compris

   • Lunch by the Kenai River at Cooper Landing
   • Alyeska Aerial Tram, Girdwood
   • Drop-off at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) or downtown Anchorage

   Activité : About 5 hours of driving, broken by lunch at Cooper Landing and the Girdwood tram. Book a flight leaving after about 8 pm.

   

Faune et météo : Summer days on the Kenai coast are usually about 10 to 18 °C, often grey and with rain possible on any day, and colder on the water near the glaciers. June has the longest light and the most mosquitoes; salmon run in the Kenai and Russian rivers from about mid-June into August, and seabirds and puffins nest on the cliffs through the summer. Whales, sea otters, sea lions and eagles are likely on the boats but never certain, and a rough sea outside Resurrection Bay can change the cruise route on the day.

• Anchorage1 nuit
• Seward2 nuits
• Homer2 nuits