Caines Head Backpacking Trip

Backpacking trip to Caines Head State Recreation Area and Resurrection Bay State Park

Description of area from the Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation: Caines Head State Recreation Area, the scenic site of an abandoned World War II fort, can be reached by boat or foot from Seward. The massive headland rises 650 feet above Resurrection Bay, against a back drop of rolling alpine meadows and sharp peaks, giving way to a sweeping view of the North Pacific Ocean.

We had to start on the trail 90 minutes before low tide in order to get to the park before the water came up. We hiked through the woods for about a mile and then about 4 miles on the beach to North Beach in Caines Head State Recreation area.

Walking up a stream through the woods prior to getting to the beach. It rained the entire hike so some of the pictures are a bit blurry.

Creeks and trails are interchangeable.

The view before we started hiking on the beach

Earlier this year, a flood washed out the bridge over a large creek. There were large trees scattered in the water that we may have been able to cross over but it looked too dangerous and the water was flowing fast and cold.

Everything was covered in moss because we were in a rainforest. Seward (about 8 miles away) averages 60 inches of rain a year.

Another view of the creek that destroyed the bridge. We had to walk to its delta by Resurrection Bay to cross. We ended up crossing in thigh-deep cold flowing water. It was the only way across...

Justin trying to find a path past the destroyed bridge... Caitlin and her tarp

Heading back off the bridge to find another way

Still trying to find a way across the creek... Walking towards the delta. This would all be under water at high tide.

John on the beach

View from the beach

Still trying to find a way across

Lots of signs of avalanches and slides

The beach that we hiked on after we finally crossed the creek

View during our hike
Old picnic shelter at north beach. A sign on it said "Rotten: Use at your own risk." We were soaked and it had obviously been standing for a while so we used it for shelter. We attached a tarp to the shelter and tied it up to trees so that it would hang over our fire pit.
Drying our things next to the fire. Getting the fire going was difficult because everything was so wet.

View from our campsite on North Beach. The pilings are from an old WWII pier. The Good Friday Earthquake and tsunami of 1964 didn't destroy the pier, but it lowered the ground level 5 feet. Waves ended up destroying it. There was a sign on the trailhead that said to seek high ground in the event of an earthquake because of the tsunami hazard. Justin caught a good sized pink salmon and I (Kevin) caught a pretty small pink salmon from the beach.

The view from our campsite

View from our campsite
We ended up taking a watertaxi back because we didn't want to cross the creek again. We hiked about 3 miles to Fort McGilvray, an old WWII fort. It was completely underground and had several chambers and rooms that we were able to explore with flashlights and headlamps. The fort stood about 600 feet above the bay and you could see for miles down Resurrection Bay to the Pacific Ocean. We wish we could've gotten more pictures, but the rain hindered a lot of our efforts. The only time we got wet was on the hike there. It stopped raining while we hung out on the beach and hiked to the fort. Didn't take this picture but here is the view from the fort...

We stopped stealing internet and got a super-fast router and internet connection so I'll try to update more often. Will add more pictures from the trip up soon...