Kenai, AK

We left Seward early Thursday (July 3rd) and moved about a hundred miles over to the town of Kenai on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula. The drive on AK Hwy 1 took us through the community of Cooper Landing and the towns of Sterling and Soldotna. We checked into an RV park that is right where the Kenai River empties into the Cook Inlet. All the waterfront sites were taken, so we don’t have any view of the water from our campsite.

Here’s a picture of the mouth of the Kenai River and also one of the historic sites in Kenai - the Russian Orthodox Church.





On Friday we spent most of the day riding in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. There is a 19 mile gravel road that follows along the north side of Skilak Lake with access roads to the water and campgrounds all along the way. There were also plenty of side roads off to other lakes and campgrounds. We checked them all out. The scenery is awesome as usual.



There wasn’t a great abundance of birds and wildlife to see, but we did see two “life” birds, a Surf Scoter and some Pacific Loons. Here is a picture of the Pacific Loons.



We also saw our first Snowshoe Hare and another moose. Check out the size of the feet on this rabbit.





Saturday was a rainy day for the most part and we rode some more of the back roads, but it was mostly unproductive. Did see our first Caribou, but he was lying down and really too far away to get any good pictures. Here is one of the better ones.



Today (Sunday July 6th) after church we rode north on the Kenai Peninsula to the end of the road at Captain Cook State Recreation Area - about 25 miles from the town of Kenai. On one of the side roads down to Stormy Lake we saw another “life” bird - a Spruce Grouse with a bunch of chicks. The chicks were all hiding in the grass except for one ambitious little guy that flew up into a Spruce Tree (well, what kind do you think he would fly into?)

Here’s a picture of Momma Spruce Grouse and also one of the little guy in the tree.





Tomorrow is moving day again - further south on the Kenai Peninsula to Homer.