The Kenai Peninsula in southern Alaska is bordered by the Cook Inlet on the West and the Gulf of Alaska on the East, and semi-separated from the mainland by the Turnagain Arm.
Before we go any further: there is no way a video or photos could come close to showing how stunning Alaska truly is. None of the photos, videos or stories I came across prepared me for the size, the colors, the air and seeing all the moose, eagles, sea otters, whales out in the wild and right in front of you – just doing their thing. You have to see Alaska with your own eyes to really get it. So I hope this video will be a little extra encouragement for you to travel there yourself one day – because Alaska is so much more than what I can convey in one minute and in only two dimensions.
Alaska Highway 1 (aka Sterling Highway) is the only major highway that traverses the peninsula from the direction of Anchorage, North of the Kenai Peninsula, to Homer at its Southern tip. Alaska Highway 9 (aka Seward Highway) is the road that splits off from that highway to take you to Seward on the Gulf of Alaska.
This past week, Scott and I flew to Anchorage and took that magnificent drive to Homer and back. I was there to film Tessa Drais for the ongoing documentary project All’s Well and Fair, and Scott was there to fly fish the rivers of the Kenai Peninsula.
In this short video you get to see (in order of appearance):
Turnagain Arm (and the mountains of northern Kenai Peninsula)
Seward (with more mountains and a cruise ship)
Kasilof River
Kenai River
Seagull eating salmon
Salmon Creek (Scott fishing for salmon, naturally)
Young moose crossing Sterling Highway
Bald Eagle
Volcano (I suspect it’s Mount Redoubt)
Kachemak Bay (and Grewingk Glacier, I think)
Halibut Cove (off Kachemak Bay)
Birds at Seagull Island
Humpback whale (shot by Scott on Sony, while I took photos on Panasonic 4k)
Sea otter
Mountains and volcanoes seen from Homer Spit (including Mount Augustine?)
I plan to release quite a few more videos from Alaska in the coming weeks, including one from the actual drive and one from Homer. One of those videos will hopefully also be chosen as an extended video by my supporters on Patreon.
The song in the video is “Green Leaves” by Jason Shaw of Audionautix. He has made this and many great tunes available via a CC BY 3.0 license. Thank you very much, Jason, for all your wonderful and free music!
You can look at more photos of the Kenai Peninsula in the In Another Minute 2016 Flickr album and this blog post: Photos from the Kenai Peninsula (Alaska). I actually think in this case, the photos might be better than the video, especially those of the wildlife.