Day 19 – Homer, AK to Bird Creek, AK

We headed out today in backtracking mode, making our way back along the Sterling Highway towards the junction with the Seward Highway. Before we left Homer, we fueled up and then went for breakfast at the Duncan House Diner, a nice family owned place in town.

The views were pretty clear when we started off, and after a stop to check out the Kasilof Mercantile along the way, we headed towards the Kenai Peninsula HD shop near Soldtona, where the appropriate poker chip was acquired. The closer we got to Sterling, the thicker the air was with smoke from the wildfires and it got even thicker for quite a stretch until we got just past Cooper Landing. Thankfully, after that it eased off and by the time we got to Summit Lakes, we were back in blue skies and sunshine.

We took a detour off of the Seward Highway to go see the unique town of Hope – late 1800’s/early 1900’s construction is still very much evident in the

sleepy little town right on the opposite shores of the Turnagain Arm from the place where we would wind up spending the night.

Once back on the Seward, we jogged up the road to go check out the very busy Alaska Wildlife Conservation Centre, where we got to see bears, elk, caribou, reindeer, wood bison and many other species native to Alaska.

After a short run along the south shore of the Turnagain Arm, we reached our destination for the night, the Bird Creek Motel and RV Park in Bird Creek/Indian. After we got cleaned up and settled, we took a short drive up the road to the Turnagain Arm Pit BBA for dinner which was followed by a short drive up to see some local falls.

For the day, we logged 415 kms for a total to date on the trip of 9,555 km