Kenai Peninsula – Alaska’s Playground

A sockeye salmon jumping the Russian River Falls to get to its spawning grounds.

If you like to fish, raft, hunt, kayak or hike, then Kenai Peninsula must feel like Disneyland.  Especially this time of year when the fish are running and the rivers are high.

The Kenai River at Cooper Landing.

We left Homer on a very rainy day and drove about 50 miles north to the town of Kenai.  Our campground was on bluffs overlooking the Kenai River as it empties into Cook’s Inlet.  Supposed to be a good place to spot beluga whales, but we had our usual luck (or lack thereof) and didn’t see any.  We had an interesting first afternoon in the campground – there was quite a strong rainstorm with winds gusting up to 25 mph.  That shook our trailer around a bit, but it was so cozy just staying in the trailer and watching the storm.

Everywhere we went, there were fishermen along the banks of the streams or in boats in the middle of the rivers. Stores have advertisements about shipping your processed fish home via UPS or FedEx.  And there are many fish processing facilities.  So fish is king around here!

Visited the Kenai visitor center which apparently has North America’s largest collection of stuffed bald eagles.  I think there were three. Took some drives through the local area and looked for wildlife.  Saw several bald eagles. The Russian influence is very prominent in the area – there was a beautiful church within a block of the campground.

This church was established in the 1800s and is still active today. This is the oldest Russian Orthodox church building in Alaska.

One highlight was the Peninsula State Fair. The weather calmed down enough for us to spend an afternoon looking at the agricultural exhibits and watching a rodeo.  We didn’t see any 90 pound cabbages, people told us that the growers save those size vegetables for the Alaska State Fair which we will be going to next week. That will be fun!

Yum!  A prize winning Thanksgiving dinner for some lucky family.

Many of the exhibits were submitted by children.  This won first prize in its category for 8 year olds.

Team roping on a very muddy field.

Junior bullriding for teens up to 17 years old.

This one did not stay on for the required 6 seconds.

Instead of walking their dogs, these 4-H kids were walking their goats and sheep.

We also spent a day at Cooper Landing which is on the Sterling Highway about mid-peninsula. We are staying at the Princess Cooper Landing Lodge RV Park. There is a beautiful lodge where we had breakfast. This is one of the lodges that Princess Cruise passengers can stay at when they sign up for a cruise-land tour. Russ took a hike out to some falls on the Russian River where he had been told the fish were jumping and bears were eating.  He saw the fish, but no bears. We also saw about 40 sheep up on the mountain that is across the river from our campground.

We drove out to Hope, a goldrush settlement on Turnagain Arm (established about 1897.) It has several of the original buildings which are in reasonable shape.  The town is very quiet, not much going on there nowadays, although you can try your luck at panning for gold. Russ and I have not done any panning (I did it at Knott’s Berry Farm several times in my youth – not that exciting.)

The Social Hall where some socializing was actually going on.

A view of Turnagain Arm on the road out of Hope.

Of all the places we have visited in Alaska (so far), I have to say that the Kenai Peninsula comes closest to what I imagined Alaska to be. I will be sorry to be leaving it tomorrow, but I feel fortunate that we were able to spend two weeks touring the area. And we are starting to see fall color appear.  The fireweed has almost bloomed out, the Queen Anne’s lace has gone to seed, and the birch tree leaves are starting to turn.  It should be an extra beautiful next few weeks!