From mundane to spiritual

The Kenai Peninsula Peace Crane Garden Trails are expanding this summer with two traditional Japanese gate structures. That’s what Sarah Pyhala, the president of the garden trail board of directors, told the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce during their luncheon on Wednesday, Aug. 28.

The first, a torii gate, was completed recently, on Aug. 18. It’s a large structure largely crafted from yellow cedar sourced near Seward. The pieces that make up the structure are up to 2-feet thick and 16-feet long. The gate was built by Levi Hogan and is held together via friction fit, with red oak pins for fastening.

“Massive pieces of wood,” Pyhala said. “It’s very grand scale.”

At the garden trails, another foundation can already be seen awaiting a second gate, a munamon gate, that will be even more elaborate. It’s being built by David Lama, and will feature a broader roof, capped on either end by end caps carved by inmates at Wildwood Correctional Facility. It’ll also feature artwork by Dragonfly Gallery, designed by Chelline Larsen and fabricated by Adam Hoyt.

The munamon gate is set to be installed “this summer,” Pyhala said, likely in the next month or so.

Together, the two gates represent a transition, Pyhala said. As a visitor crosses under the munamon and the torii gates — both located just after entering the garden trails — they will move from a mundane space to a spiritual space.

“Peace does begin from within,” she said. “If you can find peace within yourself, then you can bring peace to others.”

That’s the purpose of the garden trails. Pyhala said the trails originated in 2018 when she received seeds from plants that survived the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima by the United States. Those seeds came from Heiwa, a special interest group within Rotary International. Pyhala said she and others formed a task force that over the next few years saw the trails into being.

A grand opening for the trails was held in September 2022, when the garden trails debuted a sandhill crane sculpture designed by Christina Demetro and crafted with help from 40 classrooms around the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

The trails today are around a half-mile long, an “easy trail,” Pyhala said. They offer a quiet space for walking removed from the nearby streets — a space for people to “calm themselves.” They can be accessed by parking at Soldotna High School and walking a short distance further down the sidewalk of Marydale Avenue.

With the addition of the gates, the garden trail is only nearing the end of its first phase of development. Pyhala said that still to come are the addition of a mountain display and a tea house. The entire first phase of development has borough approval. The mountain, Pyhala said, is scheduled for construction “maybe in two years.”

Once those projects are completed, there are two other phases of development on the road map that Pyhala said the garden trails would need to again approach the borough for approval before undertaking. Later projects could include adding a parking lot, a pond, a waterfall, a bridge and a gathering building.

For more information, find “Kenai Peninsula Peace Crane Garden Trails” on Facebook or visit peacecranegarden.org.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.