Our First Kenai Weekend {Kenai beach, Whittier, Skilak NWR and a winery}

One weekend we set out to explore the Kenai peninsula. 

We drove along the Turnagain Arm to stay at Chugach State Park's Bird Creek Campground.

We walked the trail overlooking the water and mudflats before bed.

Such a scenic campground.

In the morning we drove to Bird Point to check out the view.

Once we made it south of the Turnagain Arm, the scenery changed again. 

We drove thru Skilak, part of Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and saw quite a few black bears. We even saw a mama with two cubs.

The views were beautiful, but after seeing so many bears along the road, we were too nervous to hike inside the refuge.

Next we drove to the town of Kenai. While looking for the beach, we found these bluff lots for sale. They have an amazing view of the inlet and the mountains of the National Park on the far side, however they also loose about a foot of property each year as it falls into the water! Yikes!

Looking down to the beach from the edge of the bluff.

On our way back east, we stopped at Alaska Berries, the only winery in Alaska that grows their own ingredients. They make fruit wines, which we had never heard of before. That means no grapes, they use the different berries that they grow instead. They make a wine of each berry by itself and then also sell popular berry blends. We really wanted to try their blueberry wine, but that one is the most popular. They sell out of that one pretty much as soon as it's ready! We were able to see the farm and the equipment they use to make the wine as well as taste a few different wines.

We ended up buying their strawberry wine and a jar of haskap jam.

That night we camped at Quartz Creek Campground in the National Forest.

We managed to get a great campsite right on the water!

The kids spent the morning playing on the beach. 

And building little teepees.

On our way to Whittier, we stopped at the Begich Boggs Visitor Center where the kids earned Jr Ranger badges while learning more about the area. Going to Whittier requires driving thru a long single lane tunnel. This was originally built for trains, but was reconfigured to allow vehicles to drive thru. Because there is only one lane, a schedule exists to control the flow of traffic. On the day we went, you could enter the tunnel headed to Whittier from 1pm to 1:15pm. If you missed that, you'd have to wait until 2pm to enter. From 1:30-1:45, you could drive the opposite direction, headed away from Whittier.

Whittier is a tiny town, most of it appears to exist right along the harbor. There is one grocery/laundry/hotel/museum on the main road that houses a surprisingly good collection of items in the museum room.

This place has more waterfalls than you can count streaming down the tall, green, snow covered mountains. We followed a road to the base of one waterfall and watched the water rushing by.

Next we found a park tucked away along this small inlet. A fun place to explore for a bit.

On our way out of Whittier, we could see this hanging glacier which I think is Portage. 

Though Asher was more impressed by his first sight of an iceberg floating in the lake.

The flowers in Alaska are so beautiful and unique. These are lupine.

We found another area to get out and explore along Portage Glacier road headed back towards town.