Water Taxi/Hike to Caines Head/Fort McGilvray – Seward, Alaska

We arrived in Seward last night.  Seward is a little harbor town that sits at the head of Resurrection Bay.  It is also known as the “Gateway to the Kenai Fjords.”  It is hard to believe that we are already at our last stop on the Kenai Peninsula and that it is September!  Where did the time and my schedule go?  Guess I am learning how to let go, at least, a little. 🙂

The rain poured down in buckets last night.  I was very thankful not to be in a tent!  Yesterday afternoon I paid for our water taxi to take us to Caines Head State Park today, where we planned on hiking up the hill from North Beach to a little over 2 miles to Fort McGilvray(which sits in a tangle of trees 650 feet above the ocean. The fort was part of the Seward Harbor Defense plan of the early 1940s, and it was designed to prevent Japanese forces from infiltrating a key American supply line fed by the Alaska Railroad), so when I kept waking up to pouring down rain, I just wanted to cancel.  Luckily, by the time we left, it was only lightly sprinkling.  Yes, I was very thankful!

We ended up only having a little light rain, some sunshine, then just cloudy.  We we were so thankful!  We took a water taxi(10 minute boat ride) to the the North Beach of Caines Head State Park.  They dropped us off about 12pm and we had to meet them back at the beach at 4pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful hike up to Fort McGilvray through the forest with sweeping views of the bay.  We had lunch at a picnic table next to the gun mount overlooking the beautiful bay.  Little info on the fort: Fort McGilvray was carved out of enough rock to build a series of concrete passageways and storage rooms, which were then camouflaged with dirt, trees and grass. On each of two outside corners of the facility, flanking the battery command station and overlooking the bay, stood a 6-inch M1 heavy artillery gun capable of striking a target more than 10 miles away. They started building it July of 1941 and was dismantled in 1944 only 90% complete.

We took our flashlights and walked through the dark, lonely hallways.  It was spooky.  I felt like we were in a horror movie and the bad guy was going to jump out any minute.

Being here, made me want to learn more about WWII.  It also reminded me of how thankful I am for our military that protect our country.  I am thankful for Scott’s Grandpa who fought in WWII.  I can’t even imagine what it was like to live through WWII. Seeing Fort McGilvray brought up some interesting questions from the kids also.  Why did Japan want to attack the US? Are there wars going on now(yes, I have sheltered my kids)? Is the US friends with ______(I think they named every country)?

As we waited for the water taxi, Kat loved playing with the smooth, shale rocks while Kane tried to climb on some bigger ones as well as skip some of these(they were perfect skipping rocks).  We enjoyed watching a sea otter floating and diving down into the ocean.  The view across the bay was majestic with the mountains and glaciers.  I am so blessed!