After our epic time in Homer, we wanted to try one more place on the Kenai Peninsula, the town of Kenai which is on the Cook Inlet. It was a short 82 mile drive northward.
There was an Elks Lodge in town that we could have stayed with, but instead we opted for this field-turned-into-campground right on the shores of the Cook Inlet.
It’s not fishing season in this area yet, so the campground was nice and quiet.
We decided to pull into the campsite so our windshield gave us a view of the water. That meant the power pedestal was completely opposite from where the outlet is on our RV is. No problem, we have an extension cord that came with the RV. Should I mention that we have never used said extension cord before? You know what is coming….
We plugged in the extension cord and got NOTHING! We know the power pedestal was good, we tested it before we pulled into the spot. So out came the tools: volt/ohm meter, screw drivers, contact cleaner, battery terminal cleaner, liquid electrical tape, side cutters. Yeah, we carry it all. James took the plug apart and discovered it was 1) wired incorrectly and 2) one of the contacts wasn’t wired up at all. After 30 minutes of debugging and fixing, our extension cord was working. Thank goodness James has a useful skill set.
It was time to explore the area.
We stopped at the local visitor’s center. This mess is a log that was submerged in a popular fishing area that was notorious for snagging fishing lures. One day a fisherman decided he had had enough. He and a buddy managed to snag the log with a bigger “hook” and hauled it up into the boat. Problem solved! That’s a lot of lures snagged on it! Kenai is where we first encountered mosquitos and got our first Alaskan mosquito bites. Alaska has a reputation for an excess of mosquitos in the summer, but we’ve had it pretty good so far. At one of our stops, we saw this replica of a mosquito. James said “Look…the model is full sized!” Hah!
One of the guide books pointed us to a local road if we wanted to see some wildlife. Let’s go!
What have we here? A moose with only one antler! Moose antlers grow in the spring and are shed in the fall. This picture was taken in late June, so I’m at a loss to explain why this guy only has one antler. Theoretically, he should be growing two at this point.People are really good about alerting oncoming cars to wildlife, they’ll flash their lights. This was moose number 2. All in all, we saw 5 moose on this single road.
We asked at the visitor’s center where the fishing was hot. Not that we wanted to fish, we just wanted to watch. We were sent to this state recreation area. It was salmon spawning season!
Most fisherman were doing the tight line style of fishing that we talked about in the Homer blog.The guy on the far shore was using a traditional rod and lure method that most of us consider to be “fishing.”But all the luck seemed to be with the guys on the distant shore. We saw this guy on the right catch two salmon while we were there. The guy on the left is holding a net to scoop up the caught fish with.Oh yeah, it was raining too. Do NOT come to Alaska without a raincoat.Along one of the sandy beaches, I spotted these little flowers. My Seek app tells me they are Seaside Peas. The green leaves do indeed look like pea plants.
The real fishing season in Kenai starts on July 10 when dip-netting season kicks off.
We were told that on July 10th, this beach would be wall to wall people.
What is dip-netting season? It’s open only to Alaska residents and it’s an easy way to catch lots and lots of salmon. People take their dip nets to the inlets of rivers that spawning salmon are trying to swim up. These huge nets are dragged through the water, either on the shore (put your waders on) or from a boat. The salmon are so plentiful, you can just scoop the fish out of the water.
We were in the area two weeks too soon for all that excitement. Heck, we would not have gotten this campsite during dip-netting season. But we were curious as to how dip-netting worked. I found this video on YouTube and this link will show you the gentleman getting a fish in his net. Watch for 30 seconds to see how it’s done from a boat. https://youtu.be/ZS_uJRwfV8s?si=a34R0VQy0CEg7OmC&t=85
Speaking of boats, we were parked right next to the Port of Kenai Boat Launch. High tide was around 5:00 in the evening, and we would see an influx of boats being put in the water. We suspect they are getting ready for when salmon season does opens.On our last night in Kenai, the skies finally cleared and we could see the mountains on the other side of Cook Inlet.
Kenai wasn’t as exciting and scenic as Homer, but we still enjoyed our time there. We really didn’t realize how big a deal salmon fishing in Alaska is, both for the casual fisherman and the commercial fisheries. Our time on the Kenai Peninsula was truly an education. And for those wondering if we are going to bring a freezer full of salmon back to New Mexico with us, the answer would be “No.” I don’t care for salmon and James thinks its “OK.” I tried it up here in Alaska, super fresh, and all I could say was “Meh.” I guess I’m more of a shell fish kind of person! However, James has discovered he loves halibut and has eaten so much of it, I’m thinking he should be sporting gills now!
Children of friends of mine worked the salmon industry after their college graduations – one on a boat and two at the docks in the factory buildings, cleaning salmon – not my idea of great fun, but all 3 loved the opportunity to be in Alaska. (Sad postscript – the son on the boat lost his captain when their boat sank and he had to be rescued!)
Children of friends of mine worked the salmon industry after their college graduations – one on a boat and two at the docks in the factory buildings, cleaning salmon – not my idea of great fun, but all 3 loved the opportunity to be in Alaska. (Sad postscript – the son on the boat lost his captain when their boat sank and he had to be rescued!)
Wow!!!!!