Sites to visit between Homer and Anchorage, Alaska
 

We will be visiting Alaska in August of this year and have a day to get from Homer to Anchorage. I know the trip will be 200+ miles but we have all day. What should we see?

Are you planning to visit the Pratt Museum in Homer?
Check to see where salmon are running. Timing might be good for Bird Creek. It will only take a few minutes to stop and view the fisherman and the incredible sight of all those salmon.
Visitors center at Portage Glacier. The town of Portage had to be abandoned after the earthquake. Listen to recordings of what it was like during the earthquake.
Tram ride up Alyeska. Make a snowball in August.

There is a wonderful wildlife refuge (the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center) just past Girdwood Girdwood along the Seward Hwy. It's well worth an hour or two's visit. A picnic along the Kenai River, on the Sterling Hwy, is also fun.

And you are staying a couple days in Homer?? "Necessary" in my opinion.

Portage Glacier Vistor Center is well worth the stop, Crow Creek Mine, if of interest. Alyeska and the tram. It's pretty dull between Cooper Landing and Soldotna. Then all along the Cook Inlet is excellent with a detour north well worth the time. Request the visitor guide www.kenaipeninsula.com

Here is an offbeat suggestion that will not require a lot of time and is free. The old Russian Orthodox church in Ninilchik. It's off the main highway and can be hard to find. We stopped in a small store along the highway, found postcards of the church and asked the person behind the counter how to get there. Bring your cameras as the entire area is very scenic. Take a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ni...ian_church.jpg

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I second the idea of visiting the church in Ninilchik. My DH and I stopped there in August 2009 on the way from Girdwood to Homer. The church is on a side road with a small sign. It turned into a dirt road that dead-ended at the church. (we had a 25-foot RV and there was enough room to park it and turn around after.) We had a wonderful visit and took many many gorgeous photos -- not only of the church, but we took a walk behind it and saw the tiny town below us in the cove. A priest answered some of our questions inside. I think we stayed there about an hour. It was a good break. It really is a bit of Alaska's multicultural history.

We took the tram up Alyeska and walked around a bit up there. We stayed in the parking lot at the base of the resort (where they allow RV's to stay for $10) and next to the parking lot was a little cafe where we had breakfast.

Definitely the Ninilchik church and graveyard, maybe also a walk on the beach at Clam Gulch, then possibly a short side trip down to Hope, the only town on the north shore of the Kenai Peninsula (more or less opposite Girdwood) before Portage and all that. Hope is an interesting gold mining town with about as much history as one gets in this part of the state.