Saturday, July 3, 2010.

Today the boys and Daddy drove down to Homer, Alaska on the bottom of the Kenai Peninsula which has a population of 5500. Homer is considered to be the end of the road because the road goes right into the bay. The bay is called Kachemak Bay , a Russian word that means high cliffs on the water. They also say the name means smoky bay because smoke used to rise from the smoldering coal seams jutting up from the clay bluffs. In the early days these coal seams were burning from causes unknown. Now because of erosion of these bluffs you can find huge pieces of lignite and bituminous coal right on the beach. In fact the supply of coal in Homer is 400,000,000 tons. From the late 1800s to 1907 a railroad line carried the coal right onto the Homer spit from the bluffs; but it was abandoned when the gold seekers came for the fields of gold in Hope and Sunrise. These bluffs are 1200 feet high and are the southern rim of the western plateau of the Kenai Peninsula. From June through September they are a pretty site with verdant greens and pastel wildflowers. In the fall the flowers become yellow
The Homer Spit is a long, narrow bar of land that juts out into the bay 4.3 miles into the bay.This spit is a terminal moraine made of sand, gravel, coal and debris left from a retreating glacier. The road from the Kenai Peninsula to here is called the Sterling Highway and it runs right out onto the Spit. In 1964 when Alaska had its big earthquake, the land on the spit sank 4 to 6 feet.Now the Spit is a major dock facility for boats loading and unloading, servicing and refrigeration. They ship out large amounts of Cook Inlet fish from the canneries in Homer. Their deep water port makes it a favorite spot for cruise and cargo ships. Homer is known as the capital of halibut fishing and draws thousands of fishermen each year. One of the RV parks is right on the spit at the water.
Across the Kachemak Bay from Homer is the Kachemak Bay Sate Park. There are 400,000 acres here that the government has opened for people to explore. It has mountains, streams, creeks, forests, glaciers and lots of wild animals.