We left on a Saturday heading for Seward on the Seward highway. We ended up getting backed up in traffic for the first half of the day. It always sucks being stuck in traffic but we had an amazing view of the Turnagain Arm, which is the body of water that branches from the Cook Inlet. The Seward Highway follows along the Arm for quite a while.
The closer we got to Seward the thicker the clouds started to line the sky. By the time we reached our destination it was cold and raining. Through many sources we found that you can camp off Exit Glacier Road for free. It is a little outside of the town of Seward but we were camping along the Resurrection River, which was also flooded. The next day we woke up and the weather looked the same, cold, rainy and gray. We decided to pack our gear for a day trip and try to make the best of it by going to check out the Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. It is the only section of the park that you can access by land. And it is the first National Park Tim and I have been to that was free. We took the trail to the Glacier and it was very easy and besides the weather the glacier was awesome. We had a good view of it and got some great pictures.
The same day after going to the glacier we went to Seward to see if maybe we should camp there instead but nothing really jumped out at us. They have lots of camping options in city run campgrounds but only a few of the sites had hookups, which we were needing because the solar panels were not getting a good charge. The campgrounds were all packed and the weather was just bumming us out really bad. We decided against going on a cruise since it was storming and I am already prone to sea sickness. We couldn’t go fishing either. Even if the weather was better we were told the fish aren’t running good right now because the water is too high and fast.
That night Zygi got his first fever and so we decided to head up the peninsula closer to a doctor in case he needed medicine. We weren’t ready to give up on the Kenai yet though. We found a campground with hookups that also serves as a hostel called Jana House in Sterling. We wanted to stay in Cooper Landing but not only were the campgrounds super expensive ($50/night!) but they were fully booked. So Sterling it was, and I’m sorry to stay that when we pulled in I almost laughed. There was no one camping there besides a couple of seemingly abandoned vans. The campground was a sh*thole. I mean, the sites had huge rocks scattered about and were severely unlevel. It felt like we somehow were back in Mexico or something. But even there the campgrounds were never like this. The first site we pulled into and got set up but then the electric hookup was not working so we had to move to another site. It was a huge pain. The people running were very friendly however and the showers were great, though a little irony…like the metal. Yes the water was yellow because of the excessive iron content. It ended up staining the side of our RV orange.
Although the weather improved a little after leaving Seward we couldn’t do anything outdoors since Zygi was recovering from whatever bug he had. Luckily we didn’t need to go to the doctor since his fever stayed low grade. So to sum it up, our experience in the Kenai peninsula SUCKED! I know that the weather and Zygi getting sick had a big part of it so I’m not trying to discourage anyone from visiting there. But if we did go back I would choose to stay in Cooper Landing along the beautiful Kenai River. The river is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. It is a spectacular turquoise blue like I’ve never seen. I would avoid going to Seward. It felt so touristy and meh. We decided against checking out Whittier after we read that all the locals say, “Everything is shittier in Whittier.” We had our fill of shittiness.
