LUXURY LODGES
Alaska accommodations offer great amenities in beautiful settings
By Eric Lucas
>>Stillpoint Lodge has all the comforts you'd expect at any boutique luxury resort. Guests stay in one of a dozen custom-crafted spruce-and-cedar log cabins perched above the Kachemak Bay shoreline.
The main lodge is a spacious facility with a small spa, an intimate dining room, a gourmet kitchen and a comfortable relaxation area warmed by a flickering fire. Huge picture windows offer a vantage on the rainbows that light dynamic skies and overlook the lodge's charming kitchen garden. Appetizers sucj as salmon nori rolls enjoyed with elderflower spritzer precede delicious cuisine such as caramelized scallops. A waterfall feature trickkles in the main lodge entry.
This is Halibut Cove, Alaska, a remote community across from the village of
Homer off the southwest corner of the Kenai Peninsula. It's accessible only by boat or plane. Sea otters splash in the cove and in a beautiful channel a short kayak paddle from the lodge. Humpback whales ply the main bay. And then there's the matter of the local ursids
"When you walk up to the viewpoint, keep your eyes peeled for a mother bear with a couple cubs," advises lodge owner JT Thurston as I'm checking in. "We've been seeing them on the beach across the water, looking for clams."
Like a dozen or so such outposts in Alaska, Stillpoint is a remote guest lodge. The fact that it offers both unparalleled natural surroundings and unparalleled luxury exemplifies a unique niche of Great Land travel that's available in few other places...
