South from Anchorage to Seward Peninsula, Seward

Leaving Anchorage we begin the 127-mile southern trek on the Seward (Sterling) Highway. We headed to Seward on the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsula first. The highway has a triple designation: National Forest Scenic Byway, All-American Road and Alaska Scenic Byway! The Kenai Peninsula measures 150 miles long and 70 miles wide. It is bounded to the east by by the Gulf of Alaska and to the west by the Cook Inlet. Homer is at the end of the western arm. The journey down the eastern side was full of these lush green hillsides topped with granite.

The bear door belongs on the front entrance of the Lodge you may see across the Tenderfoot Lake below. It is made of stain glass and wood--a real beauty.

Not wanting to rush the journey, we stopped for a night at the USFS Camp on Tenderfoot Lake.

Of course I went walking through the camp grounds and discovered more flowers. Can't stop taking the pictures, but don't find the time to look up the names. Anyway it is the beauty that counts.

The lake was so calm the reflections perfect!

This Alaskan Squirrel chattered and chattered to me for so long and posed, begging me to take his picture. He is darling so how could I refuse?

Look closely and you will see waterfalls coming down the green tree covered mountain.

I found the rolled or folded mountains to be so different from the rugged peaks or smoothed out tops we generally see. It becomes so much easier to understand the stories we ready about Alaska
after seeing ther terrain.

The scenery is so diverse. A simple curve in the road or a small hill to surmount and the view changes from green to snow capped. The snow capped mountains close up or in the distance never seem to amaze us. We might get blase about seeing green mountains, but not the snow capped ones.

And whenever we pass glaciers (and there are a lot along this road) we are sure to come upon a silty, muddy river developed because of the snows melting.

Stopping to visit friends, JoAnne and Francis, who are camp hosting at Bird Creek we heard a racket and this dump eagle had fallen down from his perch much higher above. I believe he was quite startled by the incident and it took him some time before he could figure a way out of the tangle of branches he found himself in. He eventually jumped further down the hill to get away from the tree.

Yes, the immature Eagle was watching as the parent disappeared down into the jumble of the tree. Did this youngin' learn a lesson on what not to do?

The rail lines follow along side the road almost all the way from Anchorage to Seward. It is a $100 round trip fare. The tide was going out when we came off this hill to view this photographic scene.

BBFN, Karen and Don