Kenai Peninsula, AK

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Wednesday August 8, 2007 Early in the morning we walked along the Russian River to the Kenai River. (the path is part of the park and you can fish anywhere along it).to see the fishermen. It was cool and the air was fresh. The river sparkled with the sun. It was a beautiful area. During the height of the salmon season and fishermen are lined up shoulder to shoulder at the junction of the rivers. It’s called “combat fishing”. But, this morning there weren’t that many fishermen and they didn’t seem to be catching anything. One man we talked with said it was the worst season he’d seen in the 6 years he’s fished the area.
We debated about staying another night and decided to move on. We really enjoyed this area; the campground was nice and it was very pretty. We traveled on down the road and because it was such a clear day we started to see glimpse of the volcanoes that are on the other side of Cook Inlet. We took advantage of the clear skies and stopped at the coastal towns of Soldotna and Kenai to see if we could get a better view.
At Kenai we went to the beach (they actually have sand on their beach, most beaches in Alaska are gravel or silt) to see the volcanoes. We got some fairly good views. Then Frank decided to use the scope and look for birds. We went to several places bird watching, but didn’t have much luck.
We spent the night at a campground in Kasilof (there is a lot of Russian influence in the area).

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Photos

Combat Fishing on the Kenai and Russian Rivers
The fishermen lineup shoulder to shoulder to fish. This is a small number compared to the peak of the season.

The Sand Beach at Kenai
The wind was chilly, but there were kids playing in the water.