Anchorage to Homer, USA

Journey to the End of the Alaskan Road


back to port
Fishing boat about to sail through Kachemak Bay, about to enter Homer's harbor.
Business Wing
Sequence of wooden stilt houses that house different stores.
adventure for two
Casal descends the Kenai River during the short Alaskan summer, very fast and full of salmon.
Business Wing 2
Another perspective of the stilt platform houses a series of shops, seen at low tide around Homer's panhandle.
weighing station
Homer's young dock worker weighs large freshly caught halibut.
Salty Dawg Salon
Homer's most famous and picturesque of bars, with its notes hanging from the ceiling.
russian heritage
A visitor to the "Russian" cemetery of Ninilchik, an Alaskan village of Russian origin.
bush planes
Two Alaskan "forest seaplanes" docked near Homer.
homer-alaska-travel-anchorage
homer-alaska-travel-road-anchorage-air
Alaska's largest city, Anchorage, seen from an airplane.
RV avenue
A shore of Homer's Spit filled with American RV (Recreation Vehicle) vacation vehicles.
Halibut Jackpot
Panel announces a contest to fish for alibots, one of the most common fish in the waters off Alaska.
Pier One Landing
Gulls occupy the roof of Homer's Pier One theater.
If Anchorage became the great city of the 49th US state, Homer, 350km away, is its most famous dead end. Veterans of these parts consider this strange tongue of land sacred ground. They also venerate the fact that, from there, they cannot continue anywhere.

The Aleut natives called it Alyeska, "the great land."

The notion of vastness has always been inseparable from this remote domain of the American continent.

Some numbers and geographic facts take care to clear up any doubts. With 1.717.854 km2, only eighteen of the countries in the world surpass it in size. Nationally, Alaska has a longer coastline than all other US states combined.

And more than two gigantic Texas would fit in its space as immense as inhospitable.

But the austere climate typical of the high latitude – 51º.20 N to 71 N – and the geographic loneliness in relation to the rest of the world are uninviting and neither the financial privileges nor the technological endowment of the main towns have arrived to sustain an immigration that, during the various gold rushes, excessive fear was feared.

With its 710.000 inhabitants, in terms of population, Alaska appears almost at the end of the ranking of USA

Kerby “Crazy Doughnut” is one of the last refugees from Anchorage, the northernmost city in the country and at the same time home to 40% of the state's population.

As he confessed to us, at one point, his existence in lush Los Angeles had become unbearable, and the reputation of the genuine, tax-free life of the last American frontier seduced him more than the blinding lights of Hollywood and plastic refinement. in Beverly Hills and Mulholland Drive: “Californians are cants…,” he vents as he downing his second shot of vodka in the last ten minutes.

“Year after year, I pretended it was my problem but I couldn't keep lying to myself anymore. What counts there is what is displayed and everyone wants to pass over everyone else. I had a relationship that I considered blessed until I realized it was just another lie.

It was the last straw. As soon as I felt energetic I moved here and, although it's not all rosy, I'm adapting and business is going well…"

The city that welcomed him is also thriving. From a port and railroad warehouse, it developed without return with the installation of several military bases and the discovery of oil at Prudhoe-Bay, on the north coast of Alaska.

Today, Anchorage has recovered from the devastation of the second largest earthquake on record in the world (9.2 Richter) – which shook a significant part of Alaska on Good Friday in 1964 – and its streets are wider, delimited by housing pre-built with a maximum of three floors.

In terms of construction, only the “downtown” was considered exceptional and is dominated by the high-rise headquarters buildings of the multinationals that trade the black gold, such as the powerful BP and ConocoPhilips Alaska and multimillion-dollar airlines that profit from the city's position , strategic for several routes connecting the Lower 48 states to destinations nerves in Asia.

Anchorage's success opened doors to the sophistication of nightlife and different cultural expressions with formal exponent at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.

Kerby, himself defined as a “creator”, makes his contribution and continues to exist. Painter, designer and multi-faceted plastic artist, his talent impressed club and bar owners and, from the moment he decorated the first spaces, he was in frequent demand.

Homer Travel to Alaska Anchorage

Alaska's largest city, Anchorage, seen from an airplane.

But Anchorage is also an almost mandatory arrival and departure point for visitors to Alaska who, from June to the end of August, finish their trips there, rent cars and caravans and make the last purchases, thus boosting the local economy.

We are no exception to the rule.

In two days, we finished the preparations and ended the exploration of the city, which modernization made less interesting than other places in the state. We then go to the Seward Highway and south of the Great North.

From an eight-lane lane exiting Anchorage, the road quickly tapers into two more as it approaches Cook Inlet, an arm of the Gulf of Alaska that separates the Kenai Peninsula from the mainland. For several tens of kilometers, we huddled between the foothills of conifer-covered mountains and a river-like sea.

Blue lingers in the sky.

We took advantage of the more than 18 hours of daily light and, in the same afternoon, we left for Homer, a place as emblematic as it is controversial, located in the almost western end of the Kenai Peninsula.

we interrupt the trip whenever the scenarios require it and to enjoy the bizarre sight of a huge salmon fishery that we spot on the banks of the Russian River.

Passing Nikolaevsk and Kasilof, we also stopped a few kilometers from the final destination, in Ninilchik, a village founded in 1820, also by Russian settlers, as the name suggests.

There we find its white Orthodox church and adjoining cemetery, full of conventional crosses and eight arms, headstones with Russian names, equipped with United States flags that form a posthumous monument to the delicate relationship between Alaska and the Russia.

Ninilchik, Alaska - on the way to Homer

A visitor to the “Russian” cemetery of Ninilchik, an Alaskan village of Russian origin.

In 1867, the two nations traded Alaska for 7.2 million dollars, (108 million at today's exchange rate), the equivalent of then two cents per acre.

Just a few years later, the scale of the Russians' error had already been realized.

Like a mirage, the long (7km) Spit of Homer invades Kachemak Bay and marks the end of the road as far as the Kenai Peninsula is concerned.

Homer, directions, Alaska

Classic of an End of the World, the aggregation of arrows with the most different directions.

Despised by some (who consider him squatter) and idolized by others who appreciate him as "A Quaint Little Drinking Village with a Fishing Problem”, the village has changed little since the recovery from the tsunami that passed over it in 1964. Every year, it conquers new fans.

For Alaska veterans, Homer is sacred ground, a kind of sub-arctic Shangri-La that attracts worshipers like few other villages. The atmosphere of the place is relaxed, favored by the grandeur of the surrounding nature and the privileged climate.

Among the tourists – dazed by the profusion of bars and souvenir shops – there coexist radicals, artists and theorists disillusioned with society in general, and dedicated to the permanent exchange of utopias.

There is also a theater – Pier One – which now serves, above all, as a landing for seagulls.

Homer, Worst One Theatre, Alaska

Gulls occupy the roof of Homer's Pier One theater.

This decadent concert hall is surrounded by countless RV's (recreation vehicles), the immense caravans that often tow huge jeeps or SUVs, shared by families who spend their holidays in the village fishing and devouring halibut & chips.

Homer, Alaska, parked RV vehicles

A shore of Homer's Spit filled with American RV (Recreation Vehicle) vacation vehicles.

It's the last of the activities that we indulge in at the Salty Dawg Saloon, the most eccentric and revered of the local bars. When we enter that dark den where sunlight is forced through an old wooden window, we feel like intruders.

Homer, Alaska, Salty Dawg Saloon

Homer's most famous and picturesque of bars, with its notes hanging from the ceiling.

The tightness of the meager space retracts us, like the weight of the countless notes hanging from the irregular ceiling and the short walls that support it. Still, we move forward. We found a perch on the huge golden board covered with carved names that served as a table.

We ordered beers and soaked up the noisy atmosphere of that secular den, housed in a house built in 1897 and that, over time, served a little of everything: police station, railway station, grocery store, office of a construction company. coal mining, among others.

We knew that, outside, the sunlight was going to last so we savored Alaskan Amber unhurriedly.

From Salty Dawg we proceeded through the long “Spit” out with no greater expectations. Just a few hundred yards away is an informal weighing station for catches caught by resident fishermen and those arriving during the Alaskan summer excited by the genuineness of the hobby.

There, a group of workers in casual attire hang and display the specimens for a while.

Homer, Alaska, weighing halibut

Homer's young dock worker weighs large freshly caught halibut.

They are, for the most part, huge halibut, shallow, voracious fish that feed on all the other species they can bite into and that the Alaskans, in turn, devour in industrial quantities even in times of fresh and easy salmon like the one in which we were.

The work took place in front of one of several wooden buildings erected above the highest level of the tongue of land (less than 6 meters high), in a stilt style, the way the local community found to protect them from the vagaries of the tides. , from storms and beyond.

Homer, Alaska, Spit

Another perspective of the stilt platform houses a series of shops, seen at low tide around Homer's panhandle.

Like much of coastal Alaska, Homer also suffered from the tsunami generated by the great Alaska earthquake of 1964.

On Good Friday that year, at twenty minutes from six in the afternoon, the zone shook with the intensity expected of a magnitude 9.2 Richter earthquake, the most powerful in North American history.

In Homer, in particular, no one fell victim to the tragedy. Even so, the “spit” sank almost two meters due to the sub-soil yielding and a wave of eight meters was generated. The old harbor and several buildings – including the old Salty Dawg Saloon – did not withstand the sea torrent, as did a portion of the once longest tongue of land and all its ancient vegetation.

What's left of the winding tip is still a lot. It continued forward.

Homer, Homes on Spit, Alaska

Sequence of wooden stilt houses that house different stores.

We walked it through the long day and that Alaskan end of the world finally in its dying throes. As we reach the last few meters, we come across the frigid sea of ​​Kachemak Bay contained by the still semi-snowy mountains of the Kenai Peninsula.

Successive fishing boats returned to the village's port, small metallic knot shells that faced the arctic waters so often in turmoil.

Homer, Alaska, Kachemak Bay

Fishing boat about to sail through Kachemak Bay, about to enter Homer's harbor.

A flock of ospreys perched on the ground watched us and the sea, eager for food.

A father and two sons were entertaining themselves by throwing stones so that they would jump as many times as possible over the almost immobile water. Even if in a strange way, everything seemed to be in its place, so we soon traveled across the strange peninsula in the opposite direction.

In recent times, more and more inhabitants of the Lower 48 North American and even Anchorage seem to have had enough of the summer shuttles and settled on Homer for good, many of them because of the tranquility of life and the abundance of sun.

“Homer inspires the dreams of those who want to change but, in return, it requires a good dose of tenacity” says Asia Freeman, who moved from San Francisco with her parents when she was just six years old. Right now, she and her husband run an art gallery. “My parents weren't interested in the kitschy art that predominates in Alaska.

Instead, they invited artists of all kinds: writers, musicians, poets. Gradually, the city came to be desired by the most creative souls.

homer, alaska

Passerby walks along the Spit's wooden walkway.

But not just anyone survives here. My husband and I share five jobs. Sale of works of art, teaching, a B&B, construction and real estate management.”

We soon found another of these examples. Michael – we only learned his first name – settled in Alaska to fly planes and show fishing boats the location of the best schools.

Homer, Alaska, Halibut Jackpot

Panel announces a contest to fish for alibots, one of the most common fish in the waters off Alaska.

During Homer's high season, he operated guided air trips to the coast of Katmai, a territory par excellence of the local grizzly bears.

He invited us to join a group the next day, something we accepted with great enthusiasm.

We returned to Homer safe and sound and continued to explore the city.

Homer a Whittier, Alaska

In Search of the Stealth Whittier

We leave Homer in search of Whittier, a refuge built in World War II and housing two hundred or so people, almost all in a single building.
PN Katmai, Alaska

In the Footsteps of the Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
Ketchikan, Alaska

Here begins Alaska

The reality goes unnoticed in most of the world, but there are two Alaskas. In urban terms, the state is inaugurated in the south of its hidden frying pan handle, a strip of land separated from the contiguous USA along the west coast of Canada. Ketchikan, is the southernmost of Alaskan cities, its Rain Capital and the Salmon Capital of the World.
Mount Denali, Alaska

The Sacred Ceiling of North America

The Athabascan Indians called him Denali, or the Great, and they revered his haughtiness. This stunning mountain has aroused the greed of climbers and a long succession of record-breaking climbs.
sitka, Alaska

Sitka: Journey through a once Russian Alaska

In 1867, Tsar Alexander II had to sell Russian Alaska to the United States. In the small town of Sitka, we find the Russian legacy but also the Tlingit natives who fought them.
Juneau, Alaska

The Little Capital of Greater Alaska

From June to August, Juneau disappears behind cruise ships that dock at its dockside. Even so, it is in this small capital that the fate of the 49th American state is decided.
Talkeetna, Alaska

Talkeetna's Alaska-Style Life

Once a mere mining outpost, Talkeetna rejuvenated in 1950 to serve Mt. McKinley climbers. The town is by far the most alternative and most captivating town between Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Prince William Sound, Alaska

Journey through a Glacial Alaska

Nestled against the Chugach Mountains, Prince William Sound is home to some of Alaska's stunning scenery. Neither powerful earthquakes nor a devastating oil spill affected its natural splendor.
Valdez, Alaska

On the Black Gold Route

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker caused a massive environmental disaster. The vessel stopped plying the seas, but the victim city that gave it its name continues on the path of crude oil from the Arctic Ocean.
Skagway, Alaska

A Klondike's Gold Fever Variant

The last great American gold rush is long over. These days, hundreds of cruise ships each summer pour thousands of well-heeled visitors into the shop-lined streets of Skagway.
Seward, Alaska

The Longest 4th of July

The independence of the United States is celebrated, in Seward, Alaska, in a modest way. Even so, the 4th of July and its celebration seem to have no end.
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.
Okavango Delta, Not all rivers reach the sea, Mokoros
Safari
Okavango Delta, Botswana

Not all rivers reach the sea

Third longest river in southern Africa, the Okavango rises in the Angolan Bié plateau and runs 1600km to the southeast. It gets lost in the Kalahari Desert where it irrigates a dazzling wetland teeming with wildlife.
Hikers on the Ice Lake Trail, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 7th - Braga - Ice Lake, Nepal

Annapurna Circuit – The Painful Acclimatization of the Ice Lake

On the way up to the Ghyaru village, we had a first and unexpected show of how ecstatic the Annapurna Circuit can be tasted. Nine kilometers later, in Braga, due to the need to acclimatize, we climbed from 3.470m from Braga to 4.600m from Lake Kicho Tal. We only felt some expected tiredness and the increase in the wonder of the Annapurna Mountains.
Itamaraty Palace Staircase, Brasilia, Utopia, Brazil
Architecture & Design
Brasilia, Brazil

Brasília: from Utopia to the Capital and Political Arena of Brazil

Since the days of the Marquis of Pombal, there has been talk of transferring the capital to the interior. Today, the chimera city continues to look surreal but dictates the rules of Brazilian development.
Tibetan heights, altitude sickness, mountain prevent to treat, travel
Adventure

Altitude Sickness: the Grievances of Getting Mountain Sick

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Conflicted Way
Ceremonies and Festivities
Jerusalem, Israel

Through the Belicious Streets of Via Dolorosa

In Jerusalem, while traveling the Via Dolorosa, the most sensitive believers realize how difficult the peace of the Lord is to achieve in the most disputed streets on the face of the earth.
Luderitz, Namibia
Cities
Lüderitz, Namibia

Wilkommen in Africa

Chancellor Bismarck has always disdained overseas possessions. Against his will and all odds, in the middle of the Race for Africa, merchant Adolf Lüderitz forced Germany to take over an inhospitable corner of the continent. The homonymous city prospered and preserves one of the most eccentric heritages of the Germanic empire.
Singapore Asian Capital Food, Basmati Bismi
Meal
Singapore

The Asian Food Capital

There were 4 ethnic groups in Singapore, each with its own culinary tradition. Added to this was the influence of thousands of immigrants and expatriates on an island with half the area of ​​London. It was the nation with the greatest gastronomic diversity in the Orient.
Garranos gallop across the plateau above Castro Laboreiro, PN Peneda-Gerês, Portugal
Culture
Castro Laboreiro, Portugal  

From Castro de Laboreiro to the Rim of the Peneda – Gerês Range

We arrived at (i) the eminence of Galicia, at an altitude of 1000m and even more. Castro Laboreiro and the surrounding villages stand out against the granite monumentality of the mountains and the Planalto da Peneda and Laboreiro. As do its resilient people who, sometimes handed over to Brandas and sometimes to Inverneiras, still call these stunning places home.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Sport
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
Devils Marbles, Alice Springs to Darwin, Stuart hwy, Top End Path
Traveling
Alice Springs to Darwin, Australia

Stuart Road, on its way to Australia's Top End

Do Red Center to the tropical Top End, the Stuart Highway road travels more than 1.500km lonely through Australia. Along this route, the Northern Territory radically changes its look but remains faithful to its rugged soul.
Coin return
Ethnic
Dawki, India

Dawki, Dawki, Bangladesh on sight

We descended from the high and mountainous lands of Meghalaya to the flats to the south and below. There, the translucent and green stream of the Dawki forms the border between India and Bangladesh. In a damp heat that we haven't felt for a long time, the river also attracts hundreds of Indians and Bangladeshis in a picturesque escape.
sunlight photography, sun, lights
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Natural Light (Part 2)

One Sun, So Many Lights

Most travel photos are taken in sunlight. Sunlight and weather form a capricious interaction. Learn how to predict, detect and use at its best.
Earp brothers look-alikes and friend Doc Holliday in Tombstone, USA
History
tombstone, USA

Tombstone: the City Too Hard to Die

Silver veins discovered at the end of the XNUMXth century made Tombstone a prosperous and conflictive mining center on the frontier of the United States to Mexico. Lawrence Kasdan, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and other Hollywood directors and actors made famous the Earp brothers and the bloodthirsty duel of “OK Corral”. The Tombstone, which, over time, has claimed so many lives, is about to last.
Rottnest Island, Wadjemup, Australia, Quokkas
Islands
Wadjemup, Rottnest Island, Australia

Among Quokkas and other Aboriginal Spirits

In the XNUMXth century, a Dutch captain nicknamed this island surrounded by a turquoise Indian Ocean, “Rottnest, a rat's nest”. The quokkas that eluded him were, however, marsupials, considered sacred by the Whadjuk Noongar aborigines of Western Australia. Like the Edenic island on which the British colonists martyred them.
Passengers on the frozen surface of the Gulf of Bothnia, at the base of the "Sampo" icebreaker, Finland
Winter White
Kemi, Finland

It's No "Love Boat". Breaks the Ice since 1961

Built to maintain waterways through the most extreme arctic winter, the icebreaker Sampo” fulfilled its mission between Finland and Sweden for 30 years. In 1988, he reformed and dedicated himself to shorter trips that allow passengers to float in a newly opened channel in the Gulf of Bothnia, in clothes that, more than special, seem spacey.
Cove, Big Sur, California, United States
Literature
Big Sur, USA

The Coast of All Refuges

Over 150km, the Californian coast is subjected to a vastness of mountains, ocean and fog. In this epic setting, hundreds of tormented souls follow in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and Henri Miller.
Jabula Beach, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
Nature
Saint Lucia, South Africa

An Africa as Wild as Zulu

On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Young people walk the main street in Chame, Nepal
Natural Parks
Annapurna Circuit: 1th - Pokhara a ChameNepal

Finally, on the way

After several days of preparation in Pokhara, we left towards the Himalayas. The walking route only starts in Chame, at 2670 meters of altitude, with the snowy peaks of the Annapurna mountain range already in sight. Until then, we complete a painful but necessary road preamble to its subtropical base.
Principe Island, São Tomé and Principe
UNESCO World Heritage
Príncipe, São Tomé and Principe

Journey to the Noble Retreat of Príncipe Island

150 km of solitude north of the matriarch São Tomé, the island of Príncipe rises from the deep Atlantic against an abrupt and volcanic mountain-covered jungle setting. Long enclosed in its sweeping tropical nature and a contained but moving Luso-colonial past, this small African island still houses more stories to tell than visitors to listen to.
now from above ladder, sorcerer of new zealand, Christchurch, new zealand
Characters
Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

Despite his notoriety in the antipodes, Ian Channell, the New Zealand sorcerer, failed to predict or prevent several earthquakes that struck Christchurch. At the age of 88, after 23 years of contract with the city, he made very controversial statements and ended up fired.
Bather rescue in Boucan Canot, Reunion Island
Beaches
Reunion Island

The Bathing Melodrama of Reunion

Not all tropical coastlines are pleasurable and refreshing retreats. Beaten by violent surf, undermined by treacherous currents and, worse, the scene of the most frequent shark attacks on the face of the Earth, that of the Reunion Island he fails to grant his bathers the peace and delight they crave from him.
knights of the divine, faith in the divine holy spirit, Pirenopolis, Brazil
Religion
Pirenópolis, Brazil

A Ride of Faith

Introduced in 1819 by Portuguese priests, the Festa do Divino Espírito Santo de Pirenópolis it aggregates a complex web of religious and pagan celebrations. It lasts more than 20 days, spent mostly on the saddle.
End of the World Train, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
On Rails
Ushuaia, Argentina

Last Station: End of the World

Until 1947, the Tren del Fin del Mundo made countless trips for the inmates of the Ushuaia prison to cut firewood. Today, passengers are different, but no other train goes further south.
Buffaloes, Marajo Island, Brazil, Soure police buffaloes
Society
Marajó Island, Brazil

The Buffalo Island

A vessel that transported buffaloes from the India it will have sunk at the mouth of the Amazon River. Today, the island of Marajó that hosted them has one of the largest herds in the world and Brazil is no longer without these bovine animals.
the projectionist
Daily life
Sainte-Luce, Martinique

The Nostalgic Projectionist

From 1954 to 1983, Gérard Pierre screened many of the famous films arriving in Martinique. 30 years after the closing of the room in which he worked, it was still difficult for this nostalgic native to change his reel.
Rhinoceros, PN Kaziranga, Assam, India
Wildlife
PN Kaziranga, India

The Indian Monoceros Stronghold

Situated in the state of Assam, south of the great Brahmaputra river, PN Kaziranga occupies a vast area of ​​alluvial swamp. Two-thirds of the rhinocerus unicornis around the world, there are around 100 tigers, 1200 elephants and many other animals. Pressured by human proximity and the inevitable poaching, this precious park has not been able to protect itself from the hyperbolic floods of the monsoons and from some controversies.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.