JOIN USLores ashore Ninilchik
Spending time within Alaska was crucial, we thought, during the family’s planned cruise recently. So, we reserved a fortnight just for this, the core of our Alaskan adventure!
From the warm coastal Atabaskan native villages of ancient Alaskans around Anchorage, to the cooler frozen climes of the Denali National Park, into the virgin habitats of the grizzly bears inside the Clarke’s National Preserve in the south-west, and the suspension bridge over the Yukon within Canadian Alaska during the White Pass Yukon Route Trail by the antique Frontier Rail, to the dwarfed and stunted vegetation of the tundra and the taiga (or the snow forest) characterised by coniferous pines, spruces and larches – we saw it all.
We remembered the Klondike God Rush of 1898 and witnessed the stunning views of the Hurricane Gulch from 300 feet above the canyon again when we took the luxurious Gold Star for our return ride to Anchorage!
For the helicopter ride into Lake Clarke National Preserve to encounter the grizzlies, we went to Homer – claimed to be the Halibut capital of the world; on the way to which we took a diversion to break the monotony of the drive from Whittier.
This was to the beach at Ninilchik – where my grandchildren collected smooth flat-stone pebbles from the non-sandy waterline as souvenirs to inscribe each of our names on. On our way out of Homer, remembering the cute little Russian Orthodox Church with onion-shaped domes I had seen earlier, we decided to explore it further at Ninilchik village.
At the Ninilchik Orthodox Church and its freshly maintained cemetery complex, we stumbled on to a fascinating tale of bygone days. Ninilchik in Kenai Peninsula, with a population of less than a 1,000, overlooks the volcanoes of Cook Inlet — Mount Spurr, Mount Redoubt, Mount Iliamna and Mount St Augustine.
Historically an area used by Dena’ina Indians for fishing, we found Ninilchik to be also the oldest settlement on the peninsula. Even though Russian-Americans had reportedly dwindled down to almost nil in the present times, the spotless and charming beauty of fresh flowers with which the graves in the cemetery were decorated spoke another story!
We learnt that Ninilchik was established by a Russian fishing company in the 1820s for its elderly and disabled employees, who could not endure the long journey back to Russia. However, local legend credits the Russian community here to have evolved from one single family – the Russian Grigorii Kvasnikov, his Russian-Alutiiq wife Mavra Rastorguev, and their children.
Other Russian settlers soon congregated, and in 1901, they constructed the community’s Russian Orthodox Church perched on a hill overlooking the village below against the backdrop of acres of the pink fireweed swaying in the breeze. After Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, most residents elected to stay, and today, their descendants are many times removed form the core of the present community.
And the fairy tale iconic place attracts a pack of tourists too, many of whom
we believed to be of Russian descent! Ninilchik boasts of a small fishing harbour and is known for its Salmonfest, with Halibut, in the nearby Cook Inlet, and the popular Pacific Razor Clams for digging when the tides are low enough on the beaches near Ninilchik.
Panoramic views of the four Cook Inlet volcanos, the historical Old Village, the iconic Russian Orthodox church, the River and Deep Creek watersheds, abundant wildlife, and the bluff-lined beaches here are attractions that have indelibly planted this little village in the minds of everyone who encounters it.