South on the Kenai Peninsula – First Stop: Homer

Beginning our travels again after sitting still was bittersweet. It was nice to have routine and familiar, but we were ready to explore more of Alaska! Heading south on the Kenai Penninsula was our plan for the next couple of weeks, first towards Homer, then towards Seward. After consulting The Milepost, talking to locals and the internet, we decided to wing it and try for either first come, first serve spots or boondocking as much as possible.

Our first drive day was along the Turnagain Arm, with its beautiful mountains and overlooks along the water. As we rounded the arm, we passed the turn towards Seward and looped back west to see the southern side of Turnagain Arm.

Our first overnight choice was at Cooper Creek South, a US Forestry Service campground, just passed Cooper Landing and there were several spots available for the night. We opted for a double site, thinking we’d have more room, but after getting into the spot so we were out of the way and then going to the pay station, we found out the military discount was only on single sites. The double site rate was $33 for the night instead of the $11.50 a single would have been. Lesson learned. It was a quiet, dry camping site that we walked and explored the creek a bit before settling in for the evening. In spite of the muddy paw marks on the bear box from attempts to find food, we didn’t encounter any wildlife and left in the morning.

We continued west along Highway 1, then turning south at Soldotna, watching Cook Inlet open up, and just over the water, the Aleutian Mountains leading the way as we passed through a blend of trees and fishing villages. We stopped at a coffee shop and talked to a local who told us about a dry camping spot that most people overlook–Deep Creek South Recreation Area.

We pulled in and were happy to see many spots open, and they had fire rings and picnic tables, so we found one to fit our rig near the creekside with a lighthouse perched on a cliff high above us and bald eagles soaring around the mouth of the creek where it met the inlet. For $20 a night, we were happy to watch the eagles fishing, the salmon jumping, the waves rolling and a juvenile moose trying to play with the eagles in the creek.

We reluctantly left the next morning, but were excited to head down to Homer Spit, a place we’d heard so many travelers rave about. We had made a reservation at Heritage RV Park with full hookups for the one night they had open and made the most of it doing laundry, baking bread and getting our tanks cleaned and refilled since it was $103. We went down to the wharf area to watch the fishing boats and explore the shops and were treated to seeing a pair of sea otter playing in the marina they call home.

On our way south we had spotted another first come, first serve camping area along the inlet, Mariner Park, for $30 a night so we headed there. We were lucky enough to get a spot backed up to the beach and set up for a couple of nights. These spots also had fire rings and picnic tables, as well as access to the beach and it’s crazy swing of tides.

We had a bit of confusion with the sites since a post was knocked down and a tent was diagonal from our site but their tag was expired. But when the family showed back up, it was resolved easily enough and they stayed set up where they were since we weren’t in each other’s way. They turned out to be very kind locals that we spent our evening around the fire sharing stories with.

One of the nights we heard the wind start raging just before midnight. We cracked the blinds to look out (since it was still dusk) and saw another neighbor’s campfire starting to reignite in the wind, smoke and embers flying up. BJ grabbed a jug of water and doused it and we chatted with them in the morning. They were shocked since they are locals and know to do it, but thanked us for catching it for them. Just a reminder how quickly it can start up again–so remember to separate the logs, douse with water and bury with sand to ensure they won’t reignite. This is the 3rd time we’ve put out an unattended fire in the last coupe of years–so important to stay vigilant, especially with so many wildfires right now.

While there, we treated ourselves to some pizza from The Twisted Goat, ice cream from Bubbly Soda Parlor, explored the wharf area again, and BJ got lots of photos with his fancy camera of the sea otters as they played–he’ll be sorting photos for days to find his favorites! Homer is a great area for fishing charters and bear site-seeing tours to Kodiak—neither of which is on our list.

I’ll have a breakdown of our spending for the week in our recap video tomorrow on Facebook and Instagram, if you’re curious on the numbers!

Next week, we head to Seward, on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula and have to make a tough decision. See you next week for all of those details!

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