My second failed attempt to see aurora borealis. 9/30, Friday, sunny. Arrived at Anchorage at 12:20am. Minor hiccup at car rental. Drove out at 1:20 for an hour, 39°F. Had to take a nap in one of the numerous pullouts, getting too sleepy to stay on the road. I could see stars from the window, no color in the sky. Got up early, freezing temperature, drove another hour.
Arrived at Exit Glacier as sun was rising, the first car in the giant parking lot. Checked out the campground first (half a mile before the nature center - closed until next May), no glacier view, a couple almost have view of Resurrection River. Has a picnic shelter, a water pump. I ate, repacked, and took the bear spray. Hit the lower trail to Glacier View point. All in the woods. Not worth going, unless you don't go up high. Right now, the cottonwood is shedding, so the flat trail is covered golden. Pretty in color, as everywhere else now in southern Alaska.
Harding Icefield Trail is glorious. About 9 miles RT, well maintained and well graded. Its official trailhead is about 0.3 miles from the parking lot. After ~1.5 mile zigzag in the woods, you hit Marmot Meadow. Ash berries are bright red. The next 2 miles are heaven. As you get higher, patches of red huckleberry, not much fruit (less taste), creeks crisscross. Possible to find perfect campsite. Views down the golden valley, with snowy peaks beyond, Exit Glacier below, and snowy peak across. 
The last mile or so is barren. Rocks, and snow patches. There's a small shelter perched on the rock. Shortly after a trail end marker telling you that you are at 3512'.On my way down, met quite a few hikers and one backpacker. Met 2 rangers at the registration post, sharpening the pencils and adding paper. They recommended Lost Lake (14 miles RT), Grayling Lake (shorter), and Caines Head. They told me the restaurants that were still open. And this area is used year round: after the road is closed in winter, people snowmobile / ski in. There were a few tiny flies around the parking lot. They bite.
I drove to the end of the Seward Highway, to Seward. Pretty little town. I bought a small canister of isobutane gas ($6 + tax, compared to $4.5 in Portland) - my only purchase this weekend. It is big enough to have a Safeway. All but one company still offers day cruises, but only at 1:30pm for 3 hours in the Resurrection Bay. Not going anywhere further. Everything else seems to be closed. Here's where you can take a photo of how big your catch is. South of downtown is a day use waterfront park (with running water), and beyond that are a series of camping area by water with awesome view. Only $5? Saw a few RVs. Continue down on a gravel road to Caines Head State Recreation Site, if you want to hike Caines Head Trail to the WWII site, or to the beach. As the time is getting late, and the trail is in the trees as far as I could see, I left.
Now driving back along Seward Highway, I realized how much scenery I've missed last night. The bridge going across Resurrection River is beautiful, but no place to stop. It goes along Snow River, then along the z-shaped and huge Kenai Lake. It's a beautiful drive. At Trail River, there's a campground with waterfront day use areas. 
There, around Moose Pass, there are a lot of hikes in the area. Continue north on Seward Hwy to the V shape Trail Lake (also pretty), turned west in a beautiful valley towards the smaller, but lovely Tern Lake. A swan was floating here when I stopped by! Here I turned left for Sterling Highway west. Soon hit the NW part of Kenai Lake, and then along Kenai River - one of the more renowned fishing rivers in Alaska. Beautiful scenery but no place to stop or turn around. Copper Landing is a collective housing (fishing outfits mostly), rather than a town. I didn't see any boat/ferry at Kenai-Russian River Ferry. This is also a campground, which an outhouse and of course a boat launch.
My destination for the night is one of the numerous lake side campgrounds in Kenai Wildlife Refuge in the Skilak Lakes area. I envisioned a marshy land teeming with moose. It turns out to be very wooded. I didn't see a single moose here. Lots of lakes here. But most campsites don't have water view. They are cheap: $10 or free during the season. Now, all free: the fee deposit posts are tied up in garbage bags. No drinking water, no garbage collection. I checked out Hidden Lake Campground (big and more established). All waterfront spots (not many, maybe 3) were taken. 
I finally settled at Lower Ohmer Lake (free all year round) way past sunset. It has an outhouse, still has toilet paper. 3 lake front camp sites next to each other. Each has a picnic table. You'd better be friends with your neighbors if you want to camp here, or there's no neighbor. After I pitched my tent (already quite late), two cars drove in. Luckily they both left. One of them didn't even stop. I stayed up late, till around 11pm, hoping to catch some dancing lights in the sky, but no luck. Plenty stars. Not very dark that night. The photo left is taken from my campsite the next morning at sunrise. No reflection due to wind.10/1, Saturday, cloudy. Before I could take a nice photo with my tent, the wind toppled it. As I was driving out of the refuge on the wide gravel Skilak Lake road, saw two guys in camouflage clothing emerged from the trees. No capture though.
Continued on Sterling Highway to the city of Kenai. All along the highway, there're moose crossing signs. The visitor center is big. The lady there doesn't know many hikes. She recommended Captain Cook state recreation area north of Nikiski (she lives in Nikiski) and Kenai River trail. She said that the beginning of Kenai River trail was closed due to a recent bear kill, but I could access it from the lower entrance. This last bit of info got my attention. She also told me that someone saw a herd of caribou walking over a parking lot in Soldotna (the neighbor town) that very morning. Nikiski seems like entirely occupied by petroleum enterprises. Tesoro has a pipeline running from here to Anchorage. Captain Cook has many lakes with boat launch access. Two can be seen from the road. I took a very short walk from the camping area to the ocean front. Mud flat (low tide?) and many snowy peaks across the wide Cook Inlet. Too cloudy to be pretty. 
Equal view can be had at the end of Beach Rd in Nikiski or from downtown Kenai. I like the view points stationed across the Estuary of Kenai River. Some with elevated boardwalk (short). Many gulls. Spring must be a wonderful time to come out here.Kenai Wildlife Refuge center in Soldotna is staffed and open. I'm very surprised. Quite a few visitors. I was informed that no big animal has been sighted today. I took the short hike to the Headquarter Lake. There's a boat launch (closed). Nothing special.
Instead of continuing Sterling Highway all the way down to Homer, I decided to check out bears at Kenai River trail. When I arrived at the trailhead, it was open, and a few cars. A warning notice of bear kill posted two weeks ago. Nonetheless, I grabbed my bear spray, didn't take any food, and walked into the woods. It's less than a mile to a rocky top overlooking the green Kenai River flowing below you. Some distant mountains obscured by clouds. Quite nice. No bear. I then walked the shorter (1/4 mile) to the waterfront. Saw a couple fishing. Both of them carried bear spray. Russian River and Kenai River are prime locations to see bears when salmon are running. The season is over now. Back at Tern Lake, I saw quite a few big reds at a salmon view area at the end of a short side road west of the lake. 
Continued on the Seward Highway in the valley towards Turnagain Pass. The view is superb. Tenderfoot Campground by Upper Summit Lake seems to be an ideal spot. Tucked away on the far side of the lake, which is stocked.
Turnagain Pass Rest Area has picnic tables, outhouses, lovely view. Spectacular views continue. Place River is another such beautiful spot. I turned east on Portage Glacier Rd, great view all the way to Portage Glacier. The eponym glacier is retrieved so far behind the lake, that you could barely see it.
I hiked to Byron Glacier. The flat trail officially ends 1 mile later at a stone bench. The glacier is quite a bit behind, but can be accessed after some scrambling. My guide book suggests to come here after dark to see ice worm glow. I'm just checking out the route. I drove back on the road to find a campsite in one of the campgrounds by the road. I settled in Williwow: paved road, big sites in the trees. You have enough trees between you and your neighbors. There were some RVs in the campground. Felt safe here. After dinner, I waited for it to get dark. It rained! I drove to Byron Glacier trailhead, and waited for the rain to dissipate, but it never did.
10/2, Sunday. Didn't pack out until rain stopped (mostly). Saw a pair of bald eagles in the creek by the road. Before I could snatch a photo, they flew away in opposite directions. A turn-off north with a blue sign 3535 seems a better camping spot (I saw one RV), maybe a boat launch area. A sign of USFS says pack in and pack out. South of the road, pullout 2630 has a big parking lot, a picnic table, a map, and a no-camping sign. It's on the Blue Ice Trail which parallels the road. View of the creek, and shrunk glaciers across. Moose Flat north of the road has a huge parking lot, multiple outhouses, some lovely picnic tables each at its own water front, away from the others. Sign 1401. I didn't see a moose here. Not sure if you are allowed to camp here. It would be nice.
Now back on Seward Highway. Crow Pass TH is at the end of Crow Creek Rd, above the ski town Alyeska. About 7 miles gravel road, not too bad, passing a few other trail heads, then you get to village perched on the hills. Great setting. Continue to a good size parking lot, with great view of the valley. The trail is open almost at the get-go. Alpine meadow was yellow with some red huckleberry bushes, glaciers to your left. This is the old gold mining area. However, I didn't get to a good creek to try my luck. After the mining remains and the Crow Creek Falls, I decided to hike down due to the increasing cloudiness. If continue up to the pass, you can get to Crystal Lake and Raven Glacier (a great day hike). You are on Iditarod Historical Trail. In fact, the most popular section is the 23 mile trek from Crow Pass to Eagle River.
Now driving towards Anchorage along the north side of the Turnagain Arm. View is outstanding, as always. Here is also a good place to see bore tide. You have to come about 30 minutes past lowest tide in Anchorage, preferably around the days with new moon or full moon (for bigger tide). I was about an hour too late, I think. An elderly gentleman set up his huge telescope. I saw a black bear and a goat through his 80X lens. From my 8X binocular (at least it's light enough to carry), I could only see about 7 or 8 goats high on the slope scattered. He was very friendly, happy to chat and share the lens with me and a group of Indian tourists. THANK YOU! 
There are many other good viewing spots and pullovers. Usually the water side is for the view, and the mountain side is for trails. One I may want to hike later is at McHugh Creek day use area. Apart from a pleasant picnic area, you can hike up to Rabbit Lake and McHugh Lake in an alpine setting along McHugh Creek Trail.
One curious pullover is a bit west of MM109, on the north side (east bound) of the road. Not just for the view. You run across the 60mph traffic, to this water spigot. Some people were filling a row of 5-gallon water bottles. He was kind enough to let me cut in, to fill my 1-litre bottle. Yes, clean spring water! 
Saw a group of swans by the road over Virgin Creek. Very marshy. Maybe because it was low tide. Over a dozen swans at Potter Marsh. There's a long boardwalk at the west end of the marsh, fit with telescopes tall and short. This is only minutes out of Anchorage.
By the time I got to the city, it started to rain. Eagle River Nature Center is about 45 minute drive on the other side of Anchorage (NE). On this rainy late afternoon, I was hoping to see some big animal. But no luck. There a short boardwalk over some marshy area. Couldn't really see any salmon. One trail is closed with ribbons, warning of bear activity over a month ago.
My last stop is Point Woronzof Overlook behind the airport. A bit too late for sunset, but doesn't matter: clouds were too thick anyway. In fact, it was drizzling. Saw 2 moose behind the thicket of trees by the driveway. I turned around in the parking lot. Saw them again. Once I parked by the road, and walked back, I couldn't find them anymore. Two ladies stopped their cars and warned me, when they saw me walking.My overnight flight home is uneventful. Was still hoping to see some lights from the plane window. Not a dark sky, even after we ascended above the clouds. Sort of pinkish. Probably another rainy/cloudy day in Anchorage tomorrow. Thus ended my last minute travel - unsuccessful in a way, but satisfying in another. I'm glad I went, and I will return.
