Camping in Seldovia

Shortly after our trip to Council, the kids came down with hand-foot-and-mouth disease so we spent a week or two at home. It felt like it took forever, but eventually their blisters faded and we were no longer deemed “contagious.”

In 2018, our friends the Barnetts started spending their summers commercial fishing in Seldovia. That year, Atlee was just a baby, and we decided to visit our friends and explore Seldovia. Ever since then, we’ve made a trip to Seldovia a summer tradition.

While we enjoy staying with the Barnetts in their cozy off-grid cabin, as our family has grown, we’ve also found that camping at the Seldovia airport is a very nice alternative since we have an established rhythm with camping that we enjoy no matter our location.

For us, camping at the State runway is great option. Not only are we close to our plane and town, but the view from the State runway is beautiful, and the slough and grassy area surrounding it is a natural playground for the kids.

The kids headed out towards the slough to play.

Woodsen and I set up camp just in time to sit back and enjoy golden hour. All sorts of wildflowers graced the edge of the runway.

We explored the slough and area near the road to town and Atlee found the tallest fireweed we’ve ever seen.

I followed the kids as they explored the area, and at one point, I happened to look down and couldn’t believe what I saw. Strawberries! Seldovia is abundant with berries; salmonberries are everywhere, and blueberries aren’t too hard to find, but this was my first time finding strawberries!

I excitedly shared my discovery with the kids and we busied ourselves picking and eating the sweet, tasty berries.

We spent a big chunk of the evening picking strawberries, but eventually we wandered till we found a beachy area near the slough and enjoyed the view.

We had recently celebrated Melozi’s birthday while the kids had hand- foot-and-mouth. We had made the most of it, but it had been dissapointing to Melozi to not be able enjoy it with family and friends.

Melozi and I had talked about how our Birthdays aren’t always as special as we hoped, but I’ve found that throughout the year there are days that turn out to be so special they feel like a gift or a birthday, kind of like a bonus birthday. Melozi and I both agreed that this sun-kissed evening arriving in Seldovia, running in the lush grass, soaking up the sun, picking wildflowers, exploring the beach and finding strawberries was so good we were going to claim it as our bonus birthday.

We ended the evening with happy kids and bellies full of strawberries.

I had brought yogurt and granola for breakfast, so the next morning we enjoyed it with the strawberries we had picked the night before.

After breakfast, the kids went back to the slough to play. Later in the day, we planned to meet up with the Barnetts.