Deep Creek and Checking Out the Anchor Point Area

The Deep Creek area has numerous bald eagles in the area and when I get up in the morning, the beach is covered with them.  For those of you following Dennis's blog, you already know that he is thoroughly enjoying the eagles in this area and has warned his followers to expect hundreds of photos of the eagles.  We caught Dennis down on the beach this morning and what can I say…he seems to have confused these seagulls for eagles.  Dennis…eagles are a little bit bigger than this.

Deep Creek has a very unique way of launching fishing boats. When the boat is launched earlier in the day, it has been given a number which is also attached to it’s trailer.  When the boat is coming in after a day of fishing, they call into the launch service to let them know their number, and as shown in this series of photos, a rubber tired skidder with the boat’s trailer backs into the water, loads the boat, and takes it out of the water.

After watching the boat launching, we drove south about 20 miles to the Anchor Point area.  Our destination was the Anchor River (Beach) Road which is just a little over 1.5 miles long.  Obviously it is another major fishing area as it has five state campgrounds along the road in addition to a commercial campground near the end of the road.  At mile .3 we crossed the Anchor River Bridge aka “the erector set bridge”.

At the end of the Anchor River Road is another boat launching service using rubber tired skidders like at Deep Creek.  Looking down at the beach we saw this eagle having a conversation with some seagulls.

From the boat launch, we drove to viewing area.  We had a much clearer day today and got this photo of Mount Saint Augustine which is one of the volcanoes forming the Ring of Fire in the Aleutian Islands.

This was the site of the first mining for gold in south central Alaska.

Anchor Point Road is the most westerly on the North American continent accessible by a continuous road system.

After driving Anchor Point Road, we headed north for a short distance to North Fork Road where we drove east about 9 miles to the Nikolaevsk, a settlement of “Russian Old Believers”.  On our way there, we saw a cow moose and her calf.

The community of Nikolaevsk includes three distinct settlements:  Russian Orthodox, Russian Old Believers, and some non-Russians.  From the Milepost:  “The Old Believers in this area lead a family-oriented, self-sufficient life-style.  They use modern utilities, and food sources are from gardening, small livestock, fishing and hunting.  Families are typically very large (8 to 12 children).  Traditional clothing is worn, Russian is the first language, and the church dictates that males do not shave.”  While in the community, I saw just a couple of people who could have been the Old Believers.  Here are a couple of photos of the Church of Saint Nicholas, the Russian Orthodox church in the settlement.

When we got back to the motorhome, we had a late lunch.  Larry, our friend who lives here in Ninilchik, came by to visit for a while and we had an enjoyable visit with him.  He and Peggy have had a very interesting life and are some of the very early members of Escapees RV Club having joined 25 (more or less) years ago.  He told us of their traveling in Mexico in addition to their time here in Ninilchik.  A parachute surfer put on a show for us out in the Cook Inlet this evening.

We haven’t planned anything yet, but tomorrow should be another great day in Alaska.