One of my favorite memories of my last Alaska trip was the time we spent at Miller’s Landing in the Kenai Peninsula. Miller’s Landing is located just outside of downtown Seward down a narrow road lined with waterfalls and inlets of water filled with floating otters.
Once the narrow road ends the facility, located on Lowell Point, opens up to a large RV park that also contains cabins and places to camp in a tent. The RV spots line Resurrection Bay and RVers can set up their RVs right along the bay and watch the Sea Lions swimming along the shoreline. Nature is abundant at Miller’s Landing, and we were lucky enough to have a Bald Eagle’s nest right over our RV, so the distinct chirp of a baby Bald Eagle was our lullabies each night. When the Bald Eagles weren’t chirping, the Sea Lions were barking. Sometimes their barks were so loud in the evening it was impossible to hear our own voices at our campfire. At night, the sun never went down, and it seemed like the Sea Lions wanted to bark like crazy about 2 am. They always stayed far from the shore, and we could see them circling and dancing in the night sun, but they never approached the shore. At least that is what we thought…
One afternoon, my sister and I went for a hike on the other side of the bay. My brothers had left for a fishing excursion, so we decided a little hike was in order. We were walking along the shoreline in awe of the snowy mountains juxtaposed against the blue sky. Seriously, I never tired of seeing the snow-capped mountains. A man was playing with his chocolate lab nearby, so we walked over to make conversation with him since we both are huge fans of labs. This dog has to be well over 100 pounds and never tired of running after his stick his owner was throwing into the water. We talked for about 5 minutes when all of a sudden a giant sea lion leaped out of the water and chased the dog out of the water onto the beach. It was one of those moments where everything moves in slow motion and each second lasted longer than it should. Immediately, the man was calling for his dog and trying to get him to come towards us. The dog, oblivious to the fact he was almost sea lion food, trotted over to us with his stick in his mouth and his tongue hanging out. Our hearts were pounding, and the sea lion retreated back into the water. Needless to say, that man wouldn’t let his dog back in the water. As enchanted as I had been the nights before listening to the bark of the sea lions and watching their heads bob up and down in the water, I knew these were animals best left to view from a distance.
The rest of our time at Miller’s Landing was uneventful, just the way we liked it to be. We circled the RVs and grilled the fresh fish my brothers caught. We spend our time sitting on rocking chairs at The Salty Captain’s shop overlooking the bay and throwing axes into the tree stump named Snoopy. We did our laundry and watched kayakers in the bay.
In two weeks I am headed back to the Kenai with a different RV and a new adventure. Miller’s Landing has already been reserved and I am looking forward to seeing all of the things I missed out on seeing the last trip. I can’t wait!
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