Experience - Walking Among Lupines

Lupine on Kachemak Bay

Stats

When: June - July                                                                                            Where: All over Alaska

Summary

The Lupine bloom is the first of the big flower blooms in Alaska; although there are other wildflower that bloom before they don't grow in such huge clusters.  Like most flora displays the timing and quality vary from year to year. 

Opinion

While not a spectacular as the Fireweed bloom the Lupine season is quite dramatic and well worth seeing.

The Experience

Lupines Up Close

Lupine seems to like cliffs, hillsides and berms.  Once it really gets going, you can find swaths of blue in surprising places.  There are many places to find beds of Lupine.  We live in Homer and did not go searching for lupines in other places since we can find it close to home, so we're going to tell you where to enjoy this experience in or near Homer.  That doesn't mean you can't find the lupine fields somewhere else.   If you have a favorite spot to share, please add it in a comment to this post.

Two of the easiest places we've found so far to see Lupine up close is on the cliffs of the beach along Kachemak Bay, one good access is the Diamond Creek Trail.  The other is the roadside on Skyline Drive.  We dodged several tourists stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures.  The flowers are worth a closer look, but it would be better to find a pullout and walk back, rather than risk an accident by stopping in the road.

Lupine Against the Sky

Diamond Creek Trail: In mid June of 2013, we walked down the Diamond Creek Trail and the cliff sides were swathed in lupines.  The lupine could be found about 100 ft from where the trail exits onto the beach in both directions.  There are more patches along the cliff for the entire length of the beach.