Homer Spit - South Western side of Kenai Peninsula

Stop! Stop! There is a moose up there!
And now we have arrived at the Western-South side of the Kenai Peninsula...Homer, "where the land ends and the sea begins."

As the sign says, Homer really is the Halibut Fishing Capital, and there were charter boats everywhere suggesting you go with them. We didn't go fishing here either. Homer is also home to a large artist community.

Before going down into Homer and out to the Spit, we stopped at the overview to take a look at the Spit we would call home for the next couple days. It is, of course, the skinny tail made up of a narrow bar of gravel, reaching out 4.3 miles from the larger land mass. During the 1964 earthquake, the Spit sank between 4 to 6 feet.

This blue flower with yellow in the middle, the Forget-me-not, is the State Flower.

Enjoy the sights on the way out to the Spit.

The Bald Eagle was so common around Homer that after awhile we just didn't pay attention anymore; you know kind of the way you do with Seagulls.

the Crab Pot just did not look clean enough for me to even think about eating there. Glad Don didn't see the sign for Scallops, which he loves.

See, just another couple Bald Eagles on a stump.

And, at last a sighting of a Common Loon. Now, a red necked Loon would have been a "lifer" for me...too bad.

And the mesquitos were kept in balance by these very pretty Violet-Green Swallows. These are the most colorful of all the Swallows.

A bunch more commercial shops. Next to Denali, where we are headed shortly, Homer is the most expensive and tourist oriented town in Alaska.

Loved the name of the place, Buttwhackers; no other reason to take this picture. Good enough reason I think.

Ah yes, the Salty Dawg Salon & Lighthouse, where dollar bills hang off every conceivable space within the Salon.






The Salty Dog Saloon & Lighthouse also appears on nautical maps

How about this Yurt? The nomads in Mongolia use these as they move about and some places offer them as personal camping cabins.

The small boats docking area.








The Kachemak Bay Ferry gets loaded to carry folks to surrounding islands.

We believe this is where the Bird Lady of Homer

Spit comes to feed the Bald Eagles. She has been given notice that she must ween the eagles off their feedings within 2 years.








This Lands End Resort is at the very tip of the Homer Spit where Alaskans have come for over 50 years to enjoy ocean views, majestic views of Kachemak Bay State Park, wilderness and age old glaciers.







These 3 pictures are the Seafarers Memorial to
whose who have been lost at sea.

And the seaman of the sea.





The bell tolls for all the souls set free upon the Seas.

Many of the mountains (The Alaska Mountain Range) around Homer are previous volcanoes. A couple of them remain active.

The fish cleaning station at the entrance of the Fishing Hole area where we were camped, is busy every evening and the seagulls wait in anticipation for their share.












When the tides went out, which happens every 12 hours daily, the entire picture of the area changes. Low tide can be pretty.


Homer is surrounded by the Kachemak Bay, which in Russian means "high cliffs on the water". Others interpret the meaning to be "smoky bay" derived from the smoke which once rose from the smoldering coal seams jutting from the clay bluffs of the upper north shore of the Kachemak Bay and the cliffs north at Anchor Point. At one time the exposed coal seams were slowly burning from causes unknown. Today the erosion of these bluffs drops huge fragments of lignite and bituminous coal on the beaches, offering a supply of winter fuel for the residents.


Time to say BBFN, Karen & Don