Homer and Soldovia, AK

This will be a non-fishing condensation of several fabulous days in and around Homer and Homer Spit on the Kenai Peninsula.

As you travel along the western shore of the Kenai Peninsula you have beautiful views of the bay and mountains but nothing prepares you for the breathtaking view provided at the Homer Overlook. From the overlook you get your first glimpse of Homer, Homer Spit, the bay around Homer and the glaciers and mountains of the Kenai Peninsula that form a backdrop for all of it. Homer is a small town split into two portions, the main town area and that portion located on the tiny spit of land jutting into the bay that contains the small boat harbor, a commercial pier area, lots of shops and the fishing fleet. Homer is known as the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World both for commercial and sport fishing. See the Aug 3rd Blog section on Fishing Homer for details of the fishing and how Dick did fishing.

The night we first arrived at Homer we camped at the very end of Homer Spit in a commercial campground. However, there was construction and the bang, bang, bang sounds of pile driving going on next door and so we moved the next day to a better spot in one of the three public campgrounds on the Spit, and for only $15 per night dry camping with access to a dumping station. We had intended to spend only two days in Homer but ended up staying three days, then leaving for Seward for two days and returning to Homer for 2 more days. This came about as we decided on the spur of the moment that we wanted to take advantage of being here to book a flight to watch grizzly bears catching and feeding on salmon in the Katmai National Park. The first flight we could book was for Sunday August 7 and we booked it on Wednesday the 3rd. We suddenly found ourselves with 3 unexpected days in Homer so Dick booked a halibut fishing charter for Thursday and we went to the other side of the entire Kenai Peninsula to Seward, AK to see it and take a cruise in the Kenai Fjord to view glaciers and wildlife on Friday and return to Homer spit on Saturday. If this sounds confusing it was to us too for awhile but really worked out very well and we had planned to visit Seward after Homer anyway.

Now about Homer Spit. Homer Spit is hardly wider than its single two lane road with the land being very narrow. It’s a very congested and very busy spot not to be missed on a trip to Alaska! We used it for fishing, sightseeing and as a base from which to fly to see the bears feeding on salmon. We will save the bears for a separate Blog section. The visual beauty of the area surrounding the spit is shown in the photos above. No matter what way you look the scenery is really neat!

On our first full day on the spit we took a boat trip to Soldovia. Soldovia is a small town located further out and across the inlet from Homer. It was at one time the largest town on the Kenai Peninsula with large fish canneries but now is a picturesque small community of artists, tourists and a few small fishing boats operate from there. It boasts of its original Russian heritage and has a Russian Church there that we visited. Homes mounted on stilts and homes with beautiful gardens.

On our way to Soldovia the boat took us to observe numerous birds including Puffins that nest on small islands in the area and we watched sea otters in the open water as they played and fed in the giant kelp.