Alaska Culture Experience:
Homer Tour with Stillpoint Lodge
A Look Inside Alaska Communities

Alaska lures visitors with its stunning scenery and opulent wildlife. Visitors come to experience the state’s blue glaciers and tall peaks, its wild coastline, and fish-filled rivers and ocean. But, Alaska’s varied communities have a lot to offer too. An excursion into Homer from Stillpoint Lodge can provide you with a glimpse into the lives of Alaskans and the workings of one of the state’s most important maritime communities.

Adventure Into Homer, Alaska 

I will admit, when it comes to Alaska’s communities, I’m partial to my hometown. Homer is located at the end of the road. That means it’s not a through-town, it’s a destination. Homer sits on the shore of Kachemak Bay, and a narrow, four-mile-long gravel spit sticks out into the middle of the water. Even those of us who have lived here for decades still gawk at the views of the bay, the Spit, and the mountains across the water which are the backdrop for Stillpoint Lodge.

What Does Homer Have to Offer Alaska Tourism? 

The view is just one reason I’m partial to this place. I love Homer for its locally owned bookstore, coffee shops, art galleries, clothing stores, and restaurants. I love how extreme high tides flood the slough in the middle of town, and winter storms send sea spray onto the roads. I love how each spring, cow moose drop calves in people’s backyards, and black bears range through in the fall. 

I’m partial to this place, too, because it’s filled with good people, where you know the owners of the local bakery, where your kids’ teacher is a commercial fisherman, where someone will tow your car out of the ditch no questions asked, and where my children can wander. Life here is a labor of love. Volunteers groom the vast network of ski trails just outside of town, coach the kids’ sports teams, and build public playgrounds. Friends and neighbors serve on the city council, run the local Rotary chapter, and organize fundraising events when someone gets sick or a neighbor’s house burns down.

How The Sea Affects Life in Homer

And Homer remains a place where people live off the land and sea. Even a walk around the harbor can be an education in the unique lives and livelihoods supported by the sea—longliners, gill netters, and charter boats crowd harbor slips. Fishing boats offload their hauls at the city dock and pick up ice and supplies. Sport fishermen drag their catches up harbor ramps and clean them at public counters. All the while sea otters meander among the harbor floats or nap on the docks.  

Day Trip To Homer From Stillpoint Lodge

While Homer offers most of the conveniences of life anywhere else in the country--you can buy a really good bottle of Scotch or go out for decadent coffee and dessert — Homer is not Anywhere, USA, not one of those nameless places we often find ourselves in these days. Eagles nest in tall spruce along the roads. The mudflats at the edge of the bay fill with shorebirds each spring. And friends and neighbors often swap a kind of currency that has nothing to do with money: fresh fish, a tool to loan, a warm fire on a cold night.

At Stillpoint Lodge, our inclusive rates offer a half day visit to the town of Homer, based on your length of stay. Explore – get back to simpler life and enjoy.

Written by Miranda Weiss
Author of Tide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska
www.mirandaweiss.com