There’s not much traffic. Kids are riding bikes. Folks are relaxing and chatting along the waterfront. People who visit Seldovia often say how walking around here feels like stepping back in time, and that’s especially the case on the historic Seldovia boardwalk, which exudes a certain Norman-Rockwell-esque picture of idyllic life.
Indeed, the boardwalk is literally a remnant of days gone by. Before the devastating 1964 Alaskan earthquake, Seldovia’s entire street structure had been made of a wooden boardwalk that followed the curving shoreline of the harbor and slough. Today, the last piece of that infrastructure remains in the form of Water Street. After walking right from the small boat harbor ramp to the street, you just need to follow the pavement to the right, along the shoreline, to find the boardwalk.
That boardwalk—barely wide enough for a car—sits on wooden pylons along the edge of the Seldovia Slough. During high tide, the brackish water of this estuary laps beneath your feet while you walk along the plank structure. And yet, it’s still a city street, lined with private homes (just remember to respect the residents’ privacy).
When you stroll down the boardwalk, it’s easy to see how important water access has been to both Seldovia and Alaska. Native Alaskans once lived along this area of the slough, and over the past 150 years, it’s been a magnet for settlers, fishermen and businesses—for whom having a spot along the slough still holds a lot of cachet.
