Day 31, August 11...Anchorage to Homer to Soldontna, Alaska

I left Anchorage this morning around 7:45 to a steady rain and temperatures in the mid-50's.  I was headed south on the Seward Highway to the cutoff that goes to Homer, on the west coast of the Kenai Peninsula. Homer is the westernmost location in North America that you can travel to by road.  It's also a fishing village and has a very active fishing charter presence there.

My first stop was the village of Ninilchik, a former Russian fur trading village on the west coast of the Peninsula.  There's not much to see in the village itself, but they do have an interesting Russian Orthodox church that was build in 1901, replacing one built in 1846 when the village was founded:

From the looks of things, they must still have an active congregation.

From Ninilchik, the Sterling Highway generally followed the coastline with a few places where you could see Cook's Inlet:

Just before dropping to the shoreline at Homer, they have a nice roadside viewing pull-off where some of the scenery is pretty impressive:

Homer is apparently pretty proud of this, too:

When I got to Homer, I headed out on the Homer Spit, which sticks out into the harbor about 3 miles or so.  At the end, of course, is Land's End, THE most westernmost place in North America where you have to start swimming:

And this is the harbor itself:

Anyway, pretty cool.  After taking in the local historical museum (no pictures with a flash!), I headed back north and am spending the night in Soldotna, about 150 miles from Anchorage.  I'll be in Anchorage tomorrow night, and then I'll start the trip out of Alaska.

Miles today:  302
Total:          7,118