Photos and stories of my journey across the US and Canada
I am back in Durham after my big 2025 road trip and have now resumed posts. I apologize for being so far behind but I have reviewed and prepared pictures taken through August 31 for posting and will post a few things at a time so as not to overwhelm people. I will continue to review and prepare photos taken in September and will have them ready when I exhaust the list I have already.
Thank you for your patience!
I will eventually (probably the summer of 2026) be creating a number of pdf files which list all my previous posts, enabling visitors to find specific posts from earlier trips (over 1,400 and counting). I know how to do it, I just need the time. Lord knows I had plenty of that at home in the weeks leading up to my departure, but it was consumed with other projects, prepping and packing. I will let everyone know when they are completed and will email them to anyone interested.
If you use the calendar grid to the right, go back to May, 2025. Then click on May 13th. There you will find a post I made which contains 100 links to some older posts from 2018 (San Diego)/2019 (Eastern Canada) to give you an idea what I’m talking about. You may also use the calendar grid on the right side of this page to go to any other month the blog existed. I started the blog in the Spring of 2016. I traveled and took photos for two years prior to that but have only posted a select few, and some of my early posts only included 1 photo (I was a blog newbie) and I need to post more from the tens of thousands of photos I’ve taken.
FOR THOSE OF YOU NEW TO THE BLOG:
Welcome to my travel blog, where I post photos of my trips throughout the United States and Canada. For details on my intent for this project please click on “About” in the upper right hand corner. If you have comments or requests please feel free to contact me by clicking on “Contact” in the upper right hand corner.
If you are new to the blog please note that you are seeing the most recent posts first. As you scroll down you are going back in time. You may read statements which may not make much sense right at the moment because they may refer to a discussion earlier in the blog. If you want to find posts for a specific place (e.g. Grand Canyon) enter it in the search box. You may also use the calendar grid to use the “way-back” function to time travel back to a particular day’s posts.
Enjoy, and PLEASE feel free to share the blog address with others. Also feel free to copy and save any photos I’ve taken. You should be able to right-click on them and save them to your device (but if you sell them and make a gazillion dollars, please slip me a zillion or two. We’ll just keep that between us). The photos are best viewed on a computer or tablet, not a phone. The larger the screen the better.
Once I got past the harbor I found some restaurants and other businesses.
I ate lunch at the Harbor Grill. They were offering 50% all food as they were getting ready to close for the season. I was hoping to have King Crab but they were sold out, so since Homer is the “Halibut Capital of the World” I had that.
Further up the road I was surprised to see apartments.
I also saw a sign for another campground.
I also found another memorial:
At the end of the road was the Land’s End resort.
I started heading back to the mainland. Once I got there I drove past a big lake I could see from the high overlook. I had heard, and then seen, seaplanes taking off from that lake, and as I drove past I saw some docked near the road.
I drove back up to the high viewpoint and got a few more glacier photos in the afternoon sun.
I drove past where my Airbnb was located, as the woman at the Visitor Center had told me where she lived. She said they frequently have moose ion their property so I went down that road to see if I might spot some. I did not.
I did see the two volcanoes I had spotted on the drive down.
I went back to the Fen and didn’t have any luck spotting animals there either. I went out again during the night but still didn’t see the Northern Lights.
It had been a beautiful day and I had enjoyed taking in the sights from various vantage points. When I was at the high viewpoint I often just stood and looked. I try to do that everywhere I go – just stop taking pictures and enjoy the view.
Here are more photos from in and around Homer. First, a few more photos that I actually took yesterday . The first two are a closer look at two of the glaciers which were in the panorama shots I posted yesterday. There are also three from something called a Fen, which was very close to the overlook located high over town. I will include a sign located there which explains what it is.
And here is the Kachemak Headwater Fen, located just a short ways up the road from the viewpoint overlooking the Bay.
I stopped at the Fen several times during my stay in Homer, hoping I might see moose or other animals. I never saw a thing. It was a very peaceful place, though.
I had arrived on a Sunday and the Visitor Center wasn’t open, although they did have maps located outside and that was how I was able to find the high overlook. I went there first today and took some photos before driving down into town when the Visitor Center opened.
First, a little bit closer look at the far end of Homer Spit, which was now getting the morning sun.
I drove further east on some of the high roads hoping to get a look “around the corner” of the Bay but didn’t have much luck. Trees were blocking the view many places, and when I reached a point where I could go no further I turned around and headed back to the overlook.
This was a quirky little structure located in front of a house that was for sale. I’m not quite sure what the purpose of it is other than as a landmark to help people find the house, which wasn’t visible from the road.
These were some of the things I saw from further east of the overlook. These were taken just after 9am and the sun was coming up over the mountains to the south.
I drove into town and spent a good bit of time at the Visitor Center. Here is a map of town, and the Spit, from above.
I had gone outside a little after midnight to see if I could spot the Northern Lights. Most of the places I had been so far in Alaska were plagued with cloudy skies (when I arrived in the state I was told it was the “rainy season”). The sky was crystal clear and the stars were amazing. Because I was above town there was no light pollution and I wished I had a telescope. But no Lights.
While I was at the Visitor Center the person there asked me “Oh, did you see the Lights last night?” and I told her no, I had gone out a little after midnight with no luck. She said “Oh, they were at 2 and they were really “dancing””. Terrific.
I drove back to the overlook high above town. It was now just after noon and the sun was pretty high in the sky.
And this is a look at town from above. I never found a central business district. Many of the businesses were along the highway I had come in on.
Homer has a population of around 6,000 people. The town is listed with an elevation of 95 feet. Homer was formed in 1964, the same month as the big earthquake up near Anchorage. The already-close-to-sea-level Spit dropped by 2-3 feet in places and some areas now experience flooding at high tide. Other than the harbor, there wasn’t any severe damage in Homer, and no lives were lost.
When I finally made it to Homer my first stop was at an overlook just off the highway. It was fairly high on a hill overlooking most of Kachemak Bay. The mountains you will see across the Bay are part of the Kenai Peninsula, on which Homer sits. The Bay wraps around further to the left
The first 7 pictures will form a panorama looking from left to right from this vantage point. I will later find an even higher point from which to view the Bay and there will be similar photos in future posts.
Here is a panoramic shot I took with my phone. It ends up being much smaller than a regular photo.
And here is an experiment. I copied another panorama photo and cropped it into two parts. I am posting them here so I can see how each type of photo appears on the blog.
Those last two were taken from the other viewpoint I mentioned above. It overlooks the town of Homer, and I will be spending quite a bit of time up there.
The land mass which juts out into Kachemak Bay is the Homer Spit. I had never heard the word spit used to describe a geographic feature until I was on Vancouver Island in British Columbia my first week in western Canada. When I stayed in Campbell River that town had a spit which went out into the water.
The Homer Spit goes out about 4 1/2 miles and there are a number of businesses and a large boat harbor out there. I will have photos in a future post.
For now, here is a better photo of it from the high viewpoint.
It is connected to land (without a bridge) and the highway goes out almost all the way to the end, where a resort is located.
After I left the first overlook I drove into town and at one point had this view from the highway.
Those are one (or two) of the glaciers on the far mountains. There will be more photos of them in future posts.
This was my Airbnb while I stayed in Homer. It was high up on a mountain above town, not far from the high viewpoint.
It is a recently renovated cabin and I had the whole place to myself. I called the co-owner as I was leaving Homer to tell him that it was one of the nicest Airbnb’s I had stayed in. He and his brother inherited it from their parents and decided to make some changes to it and list it on Airbnb.
As I continued my drive from Seward to Homer I had now driven out of the mountains and wasn’t expecting to see any more until I got to Homer. There frankly wasn’t much to see, and when I got to the Kenai Wildlife Refuge (in prior post) I discovered that a large part of it had suffered a wildfire, and trees in that area were mostly bare.
I was shocked when further down the road I saw this ahead of me:
I stopped and texted that photo to some family and friends, expressing my surprise at seeing such a large mountain ahead of me. It didn’t dawn on me until almost two hours later exactly what I was seeing.
I had failed to grasp the fact that I was driving west for quite a while before turning south. What I was seeing was Mount Redoubt, a volcano, across Cook Inlet and in Lake Clark National Park, on the “mainland” of Alaska (I was now on the Kenai Peninsula). This became clearer as I drove south and could see it, and another large volcano, now on my right and across Cook Inlet.
Once I got closer to Homer there was a pullout where I had a fairly good view.
This is another photo of Mount Redoubt, with Cook Inlet in the foreground:
And here is a closeup using the digital camera with a zoom lens:
For some reason my digital camera makes snow look much darker than it is.
Mount Redoubt is 10,197 feet tall and is considered a highly active volcano, even though it wasn’t emitting steam or lava at the moment. The most recent eruption was in 2009.
To the south of Mount Redoubt I could also see Mount Iliamna, another active volcano. Again, you can see Cook Inlet beyond the brown grass in the foreground and, like Mount Denali, there is a range of shorter black mountains in front of the higher peaks.
And a closeup of the main peak.
Mount Iliamna is 10,016 feet tall and is much less of a threat for a major eruption.
A third mountain I could see to the northwest may be Mount Spurr. It is located 80 miles due west of Anchorage and I was actually concerned about the possibility of it erupting during my trip.
I showed that photo to someone in the Homer Visitor Center and she agreed that it is probably Mount Spurr. When I first arrived in Canada on this trip, and was out on Vancouver Island, there was a tsunami alert issued for coastal British Columbia and the northwest United States after a major earthquake in Russia. I actually altered my plans for the next day on Vancouver Island, though there were no significant waves reported. I did read, however, that Mount Spurr in Alaska showed some signs of life after the earthquake in Russia, although it calmed down a few days later.
Mount Spurr is roughly 80 miles due west of Anchorage. Scientists monitor it very closely as the last time there was even a minor eruption, the volcanic ash caused problems in and around Anchorage.
I will make another post with photos taken after my arrival in Homer.
After leaving Seward I will again retrace my route north, this time only as far as Tern Lake, and then take Highway 1 west, and then south to Homer. Here is a map of the route I will be taking. It shows that soon after I get on Highway 1 I will drive out of the mountains and there won’t be any more until I get to Homer.
Here we go…
(Photo credit: Google Maps)
It didn’t take long to start seeing clouds forming over the snow-covered top of mountains.
Shortly after passing the fish hatchery shown above I reached Highway 1. The road would go west for a short while before getting out of the mountains.
I saw this large moose sculpture outside a local business. It would shed the orange vest and boots by the time I came back north in two days.
As promised, here are more photos of the mountains around Seward. When I woke up I saw that it was a beautiful morning and when I drove out to where I could see the mountains there was a noticeable lack of clouds hovering directly over them. Many of these photos are facing west, towards Kenai Fjords National Park.
Enjoy!
These next 4 shots are looking east, towards the rising sun.
And the last photo from Seward is part of my “go play on the railroad tracks” series. It is looking north, towards the mountains I had passed coming down two days ago, and which I will approach as I head off to Homer.
Here are more of the things I saw as I drove around the small town of Whittier.
The Anchor Inn was one of the largest buildings other than Begich Towers, and would offer lodging to overnight guests. There were a handful of small bars and restaurants in town which were open but most of the touristy shops were closed for the season.
The map above shows the original footprint of the town and some of the buildings which have been replaced or repurposed.
The railroad and waterfront suffered significant damage in the 1964 earthquake and have been rebuilt. The concrete buildings had been built to withstand an earthquake and did not suffer major damage.
It was a cold and very rainy day, and I would have liked to have had an opportunity to walk around in better conditions, but I had seen what I came here to see.
I headed out to the tunnel and a large electronic sign there was advising travelers when the next tunnel passage from this side would be. I was the second car in line, and lots of cars got in line behind me. In other lanes were trucks or vehicles with trailers, small campers and one tourist bus.
I hope I did the town of Whittier justice. It has a very interesting history and is truly unique.
Today’s impromptu trip will take me back up to the southern tip of the Turnagain Arm, where I will once again take the Portage Glacier Road turnoff towards the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center. This time I will travel beyond it to go to the coastal city of Whittier, a town with only one way to get there on land. Not just a road, mind you, but a road through a railroad tunnel. To get there I will have to drive my car through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel which passes through Maynard Mountain – on top of the railroad tracks!
Here is a map of part of the road in from Hwy 1.
(Photo credit: Google Maps)
Yesterday I had driven in as far as the Visitor Center, on the left side of the map. Coming here today I now knew it was closed but would stop there anyway to use the restroom, as I didn’t know how long the wait might be to get through the tunnel. You may be able to see on the map above that the railroad tracks go through another mountain before getting to the tunnel I will be driving through, whereas the road goes around that first mountain.
As you will see in a moment, this is only a one lane tunnel. Train traffic (the Alaska Railroad, with passengers, as well as freight trains) get priority access to the tunnel, then vehicular traffic queues up at each end to wait for the tunnel to open to their direction of travel.
This is the road going around the first mountain to get to the tunnel..
There is a large lake next to the road, and I stopped at an overlook hoping to see the Portage Glacier. It is at the far end in the photo above, and obviously visibility was very poor. The glacier comes right down to the water, but even if it had been a clear day I don’t think I would have been able to see it. I believe there may have been a ship from near the Visitor Center which takes tourists out, but everything was closed for the season.
Before getting back in my car I spotted the railroad tracks coming out of the first mountain on my left.
The road continued up to the toll booth and there were then multiple lanes where vehicles line up, by type, to wait for the eastbound vehicular traffic to be allowed through the tunnel. I paid the $13 one-way toll. The green light was on so I was told I could proceed directly to the tunnel.
Above is the view I had driving in the tunnel. Yes, I had to take the photo while I was moving, but the speed limit was only 25 mph and I was very careful. Other people have posted videos on YouTube.
The tunnel is 2.7 miles long, the longest in the US. There are 8 Safe Houses, one every 1,600 feet, within the mountain in case there is a stoppage, earthquake, or other calamity which would force traffic to stop. Each Safe House can hold up to 55 people and has amenities to accommodate them for a period of time.
The tunnel was originally built in the 1940’s for the military. Whittier was originally designed as an Army port, to allow military supplies to come in by ship and then be transported upstate by rail. The tunnel was converted to dual use in 2000, allowing vehicular traffic to share the tunnel with trains.
Whittier is still mainly a port city, but it also hosts cruise ships and obviously attracts a tourist following. As you will see in the next post, there are some places which offer lodging to overnight guests.
When I got through the tunnel I saw a small harbor to the left of the road, and it is where the cruise ship dock is located. There is a larger harbor closer to town.
The first building I saw when I got to town was the Inn at Whittier.
Because some of the windows were boarded up I assumed it was abandoned but I have since learned that the restaurant and lounge are sometimes open but the hotel rooms remain closed. Even the restaurant may have been closed now that cruise ships were done for the season. Whittier was basically a ghost town while I was here, but then again it was cold and raining heavily at times so people wouldn’t have been inclined to be out wandering around. I pretty much stayed in my car and positioned it so I could take pictures out the windows.
Whittier lost many structures in the 1964 earthquake. I read that most wooden structures (the original Army barracks and support structures) were then burned and rebuilt. The Inn was probably built new after the earthquake, but I don’t know why it has fallen into such a state of disrepair.
There is another building that Whittier is perhaps best known for. Begich Towers:
It is 14-stories tall and is made up of of 3 connected towers. Probably 99 percent of the people who live and work in Whittier live in this building. It was built in 1957 for the military and was renamed and converted to condos in 1972. It is essentially self-contained, with a grocery store, bank, etc. inside. There is a small school behind it with access by an underground tunnel.
There is another concrete building in town which was built for the military. It is only 6-stories tall, and is called the Buckner Building. It was first occupied in 1954 but closed in 1960, soon after the taller building was built and when the Army presence ended. It gave Whittier the nickname “The city under one roof.”
Even without the Army, Whittier is an active port and there were shipping crates stacked everywhere. That and fishing are probably the two main things that people who reside here do for a living. There were many fishing and pleasure craft both in the water and parked on trailers on land. There were some small businesses that cater to tourists, but they were closed for the season.
Here are some of the things I saw as I drove around the small town of Whittier.
That is a small residential building. I guess it accommodates overflow from the big tower, or provides housing for port workers.
After studying the materials I picked up at the Seward Visitor Center when I arrived yesterday, I discovered that there was another part of town I hadn’t seen yet. I thought I might go to the Aquarium, and on the map it was a few blocks south of where I had been yesterday. The person I spoke with had verified that they opened at 10am and that was when I arrived – to find it locked, with a sign indicating that it opened at noon!
I made a command decision to go on a road trip to a place I had hoped I might have stopped at on the way down from Anchorage yesterday, but with the poor visibility I passed it by. I stayed in Seward for about an hour and then headed off on my new plan.
(Photo credit: Google Maps)
This is the view looking south at Resurrection Bay from the southernmost part of Seward.
That is a wide view. Here are two shots zoomed in a bit:
It looks like it is closed in by mountains. This is why I reposted the map showing my route down from Anchorage. As you can see at the bottom of the map above, there is a large opening out to the Pacific Ocean, but from town the view is looking southeast so some of the land masses you see are islands beyond the east side of the opening, and you can also see “mainland” mountains on either side of the Bay which close in a bit as they approach the opening.
Here is a photo looking up “Main Street” (actually, 4th Avenue) from the Aquarium. It goes on for several blocks before reaching the area I was in yesterday. 3rd Avenue, one block to the left from this view, is Highway 9, locally known as the Seward Highway, which is Highway 1 from Anchorage as far south as Tern Lake, where Highway 9 turns off to come down here. The highway ends just south of the Aquarium.
There were lots of stores and gift shops, and more restaurants, down at this end than there were where I was yesterday. Most of these restaurants were still open and had not closed for the season.
This is the “not-open-until-noon” Aquarium:
This is the original railroad station, located next to the Aquarium. It now houses some gift shops.
There was a large parking lot, and tables scattered about for tourists to relax and take in the views of the Bay. I could also see a bunch of mountains from down at this end of town, mainly going up the east side of the Bay.
On the opposite side of the Aquarium was a large research ship operated by the University of Alaska – Fairbanks.
There was a mural on this side of town highlighting the recreation aspect of Seward.
On 4th Avenue, the three windows of the Seward Brewing Company caught my eye because of the stickers plastered all over them:
You get the idea….
Closer to the harbor I found the Mariner’s Memorial.
Inside were lots of memorials to people lost at sea. Here is a small portion.
There were many more, but I figured they’d be so small that you wouldn’t be able to read them.
Here are some other things I saw as I walked around the area on this side of town:
Here is another angle looking at the harbor from near the Mariner’s Memorial.
Here is a small mural on a cannibis dispensary called the Tufted Puffin:
Here are two mountain views from north of town looking east, towards where my Airbnb was located.
I would have a long drive to get to my surprise destination, and will return to Seward for the night, but will have another set of mountain pictures from Seward taken before I leave tomorrow morning for Homer.
I arrived in Seward around 330 in the afternoon, having driven down from Anchorage. I will be here two nights before moving on to Homer.
This is the main runway at the Seward airport, which I passed as I was approaching town. Seward lies alongside Resurrection Bay and there are lots of mountains with some snow and glaciers on them in just about every direction. The best mountain photos will be taken the morning that I leave but you will see some each day.
This next photo is looking a little to the right from the same spot.
I chuckled when I saw this sign on the Visitor Center. It indicates that if you were headed to Seward, Nebraska you must have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way.
Fishing is the main occupation in Seward and this sign shows some of the many types of fish that are caught here. I would have Black Cod (Sablefish), which I had never heard of, for dinner.
Looking at the map it appeared that there is only one road in to Kenai Fjords National Park. I would have liked to learn more but as you can see, the visitor center was closed for the season. There are 8 National Parks in Alaska and this is one of only three which are accessible by car.
Seward has lots of murals scattered around town. This is one of the bigger ones, showcasing the local fishing industry.
Being a fishing town, Seward also has a number of charter boat tours which go out on Resurrection Bay. Most were closed for the season, as were most of the restaurants in this part of town. There was a dock for cruise ships but that season had ended as well. The town was very quiet.
Here are some photos of the harbor:
Below is a photo of the 1964 Earthquake Memorial, showing both the American and Alaskan flags. 13 people in Seward died as a result of the earthquake, and a portion of the water frontage slid into Resurrection Bay. Much of the fishing infrastructure was destroyed. I had seen a photo up in Anchorage of the severe damage to the railroad yards here in Seward.
This was on the door to my Airbnb foyer (I was in the Timberwolf suite). They were wrong about the access code but we quickly got it straightened out.
I have friends in Raleigh who are huge jigsaw puzzle fans and I was pleased to see this completed puzzle mounted on the wall inside my suite.
I will go back into town tomorrow morning before going on another excursion for part of the day.
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