August 17, 2024 - Alaska Flight
Kenai - Homer Part One

We're enjoying some good weather today so it's time to go flightseeing in Alaska.    Today I'm going to head south, down the east side of Anchorage and to Homer and back.

A good look at the seaplane slips on Wolf Lake - at right.
   
My daughter's house.  I can see the Sophie the dog looking up at me (by the right rear of the white SUV).
   
A good look at Wolf Lake's gravel runway.
 
A lot of  the bush planes like to use the grass parallel to the main asphalt runway;  they don't need much.
   
Some of the hangar homes at Wolf Lake airport community.
   
Hangar home complete with bush plane.
   
Heading south following Highway One as it crosses the Knik River.
   
Passing Birchwood Airport, one of the few public GA airports in the area.  David, the RV-9 driver who I met at Northway, is based here.
   
Looking down at Lower Fire Lake, right off of Highway One, where they lakefront houses don't have boat docks, they have seaplane docks!
   
Looking east into the Chugach Mountains.
   
The entire complex to the west is Joint Base Elmendorf - Richardson.  The runways in the foreground is the Army helicopter  facility -- what used to be Fort Richardson.  In the background with the long east-west runway is what used to be Elmendorf Air Force Base.
   
From another angle.
   
Now Anchorage comes into view.  Merrill Field airport is only a mile east of downtown Anchorage and can be seen left of center.   Merrill Field is one of the busiest, if not the busiest general aviaiton airports in the U.S.  Opened in 1930, it was Anchorage's only airport until 1951, when the Anchorage International Airport opened.  It has three active runways.
   
The big International Airport comes into view in the distance.   It is southwest of downtown Anchorage and sits by itself out on a peninsula.
   
A slightly better look of the International Airport.
   
I glanced to the left and immediately thought, well, this must be where the rich people of Anchorage live.  It's a community called Rabbit Creek.
   
A little ways further and there is Turnagain Arm.
 
Turnagain Arm was named by William Bligh of HMS Bounty fame. Bligh served as Cook's Sailing Master on his third and final voyage, the aim of which was discovery of the Northwest Passage. Upon reaching the head of Cook Inlet in 1778, Bligh was of the opinion that both Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm were the mouths of rivers and not the opening to the Northwest Passage. Under Cook's orders Bligh organized a party to travel up Knik Arm, which quickly returned to report Knik Arm indeed led only to a river.
 
Afterwards a second party was dispatched up Turnagain Arm and it too returned to report only a river lay ahead. As a result of this frustration the second body of water was given the disingenuous name "Turn Again". Early maps label Turnagain Arm as the "Turnagain River".
   
I continue south, cross Turnagain Arm, and then come to a marshy area.
   
 
   
Mud-flats.
   
 
   
Then the land turns to forests interspersed with small lakes.
   
There is no civilization in this area.
   
An orange-spotted lake.
   
 
   
 
   
A little creek snakes through the muskeg.
   
Very pretty.
   
 
   
A low-flier's paradise.
   
Civilization!   I'm on the outskirts of Sterling.  That's tthe Moose River at right.
   
Highway One comes in from the east, down from Anchorage and then looping around the eastern end of Turnagain Arm.
   
Highway One -- called Sterling Highway here -- continues to the west.  It will eventually go all the way to Homer.
   
A private airstrip.
   
A private airport community with gravel strip.
   
Floatplane on lake.
   
Passing Soldatna Airport which has a nice 5,000 foot asphalt runway.
   

A closer look at Soldatna.  They have fuel.  Notice the gravel runway parallel to the asphalt one.

There is also a towered-airport 8nm northwest of here called Kenai Municipal Airport.   I was surprised there was so much civilization out here.
   
I continue west and shortly thereafter I come to Cook Inlet.  I turn left and follow the coast south.
   
Following the coast which drops off sharply.
   
I'm definately flying into some weather.
   
Some buildings at the base of the cliff.
   
Looking west out into the cold waters of Cook Inlet.
   
A low overcast is forming.  I decide to turn east, inland.
   
Looking down at Ninilchik Airport which is a public 2,400 foot gravel strip.
   
A small gravel strip out int he bush.
   
Now heading south direct to Homer.  I can see snow-covered mountains to the east.  These are the Kenai Mountains.
   
Looks like they have some nice glacier action.
   
Kachemak Bay shows itself.
   
And there is the town of Homer at left with the airport at right.
   
 
   
Looking down at Homer Airport.  It's a public, non-towered airport with 6,700-foot asphalt runway.  Avgas is available but it's going to cost you.
   
Highway One actually runs to the end of that peninsula!
 
Notice how the overcast cuts off the top of the mountains.
   

The overcast effect is even more pronouced over Kachemak Bay.

Click next to go to Part Two, the flight back to Wolf Lake where I take the inland route.
   

The SPOT Track for today.
   
 
   
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