Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island


Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island

South of Anchorage, the Seward Highway hugs the shore of Turnagain Arm past the ski resort of Alyeska to Girdwood . Just beyond, a side road cuts to the ever-popular Portage Glacier , and continues through a new tunnel to Whittier , little more than a ferry dock for accessing Prince William Sound.

Beyond Portage, the Seward Highway enters the Kenai Peninsula , "Anchorage's playground," which at over nine thousand square miles is larger than some states. The peninsula offers up an endless diversity of activities and scenery, mostly concentrated around major communities such as Seward , the base for cruises into the inspirational Kenai Fjords National Park , and artsy Homer , where the waters and shorelines of the glorious Kachemak Bay State Park are the main destination.

Most Alaskans come to the Kenai Peninsula to fish : the Kenai, Russian and Kasilof rivers host "combat fishing," with thousands of anglers standing elbow to elbow using strength and know-how to pull in thirty-pound-plus king salmon. Campgrounds along the rivers fill up fast, especially in July and August.

A hundred miles beyond Homer in the Gulf of Alaska, the "Emerald Isle" of Kodiak Island offers some of Alaska's most uncommon and pleasing landscapes, and is home to the Kodiak bear , an overgrown subspecies of the grizzly.

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