CoolRVers On and Off the Road: Seward, AK -- Part 1

After a week in Anchorage, we left Fort Richardson’s Black Spruce Campground this morning under clear skies and a smile on our faces.
Diesel Price Drops
Diesel fuel price on this Army base DROPPED from $4.30 yesterday to $4.19 per gallon today. We only needed about half a tank of fuel but we had to swipe the card three times at the pump because of spending limits on the pump. (Normally I go “inside” to pay for a fill-up, but on the military base we don’t have all the privileges of active and retired military. Luke is retired from the Dept. of Defense which allows us to use the FamCamps, but not the Commissaries, Base Exchanges or other direct services.) Bottom line… saved about $5, enough to cover the Grande Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino I bought yesterday.
Seward Highway

Our journey took us 137 miles south to the town of Seward, Alaska. On two previous sightseeing trips out of Anchorage we had seen much of the “Turnagain Arm” bay that the Seward Highway (AK 1) follows. Traffic was light and the tide was in so the mudflats we had seen before were not visible today. Instead, we had lots of white-capped water and still marshes that mirrored the many snow-covered mountains and glaciers that fill the hills through Turnagain Arm.

Once we passed the Portage Glacier road, we were on new territory for us as the road took a couple of gentle turns that put us across the land that connects the Kenai Peninsula with the “mainland”.

Crossing the bridge over the Sixmile Creek near Hope

Our drive took us through lush green meadows that covered hills that were once blasted away when hydro mining techniques were introduced during the Alaska Gold Rush. There were lots of opportunities for pull-off pads and plenty of passing lanes as we gently climbed the hills through the little town of Moose Pass.

After a brief siesta in a pull-out overlooking Kenai Lake, we headed into Seward where Frank and Gloria King had already found a couple of spaces facing the water at Seward City’s Resurrection Bay Park – South.

It didn’t take us long to decide the VIEW was spectacular!!!

Our rig is the gray/brown motorhome “nosed-in” on the left where Luke is removing the bikes from the CR-V. The Kings are backed-in three spaces over to the right (next to the truck with the bikes on the roof) to take advantage of their picture window view from their 5th Wheel.

Frank even broke down and cleaned their living room bay window while Gloria documented the moment.

Star had to check out her new neighborhood and didn’t notice the excursion boat that was heading out into Resurrection Bay.

Once we were settled in and had paid our $15/night dry camping fee, we we took a drive to check out the

rest of the town. We were unanimous that we did not want to move from the water’s edge at the City Park for either the Army “Seward Resort” or the Air Force’s Seward FamCamp. While everyone is tightly packed into every campground, you can’t compare our scenery.

The Seward “downtown” area (left) is an easy walk from our campground and will give us an assortment of shops and dining areas to check out. The SeaLife Center (right, as seen from the backside) is just up the street and will be one of our first stops.

After dinner (left-over chicken and noodles) and watermelon or ice cream for dessert, everyone settled into their own rigs to take in the scenery and relax for the evening.

For me, it was time to grab my laptop, lap-board table, and settle into my navigator’s chair to write this blog and to watch the people and boats go by.

How’s this for a corner window office?

People-watching is great. We are parked on the main bike/pedestrian path. Check out the guy on the skateboard being pulled by his dog.

Wildlife

Maybe a better title to this section should be “marine” life while we are in Seward. Our drive today was wildlife-free, but when we parked Frank spotted a seal and then we saw our neighborhood otter who has floated in front of our parking area quite a few times.

As our stay in Seward continues this week, we plan to take a couple of tours that should make this wild/marine life reporting section much more exciting.