Beyond the end of the road: Seldovia

To escape the hustle and bustle of the seaside ports of the Kenai Peninsula, there are small towns that are only accessible by plane or boat across the bay from Homer, Alaska. The port of Seldovia is one of these towns that ironically was at one time larger than Homer but when the road south was completed to Homer it grew much larger. Houses were even dismantled in Seldovia and brought by barge across the bay to Homer to be rebuilt!

In Homer it is often said it is located at “the end of the road”. Seldovia is farther still.

Getting to Seldovia is a little confusing since there are several options. There is a large parking area on the Homer Spit for the Alaskan Marine Ferry which can transport vehicles, but the one that you want to take is the Seldovia Bay Ferry which leaves from the small boat harbor next to the new harbormaster office. Various companies also provide water taxi service to the other side of the bay.

The Seldovia Bay Ferry is very nice and makes two round trips a day, so it easy to spend the afternoon in Seldovia. Our daughter, Kimberly, was able to go with us on the 45 minute ride to the small enclave, across the Kachemac Bay.

The ride was beautiful and afforded numerous photo opportunities, but the highlight of the trip was the large pod of orcas swimming near some of the bay islands. The ferry slowed down so that we could watch the orcas that were on both sides of the boat. We had traveled via the islands to avoid the rougher seas that morning. You definitely had to hold on to the hand rails when moving about on the boat.

Upon arriving in the Seldovia harbor the local sea otter greeted us.

One of the things we wanted to do was to hike one of the area trails. The local school group has created the Otterbahn Trail though a dense wooded area that leads to a local beach. They did an excellent job with signage along the way describing the plant and animal life in the area.

We had a great view along the beach at the end of the trail.

After our hike we had a late lunch at a local eatery which overlooks the harbor, then we walked through the historic area of the town which has houses built high up on pilings.

Here is another photo from the historic area.

It was soon time to take the ferry back and before we knew it we were back in Homer.

If you go. You can make reservations for the ferry, but it did not appear to be necessary. The Alaska Tour Saver book that has saved us hundreds of dollars helped here again with two-for-one coupons for the ferry. We purchased our book at Safeway, but they can be bought on line as well.