My husband and I plan to travel to Alaska this summer. We will be gone around three months total. We have the beginning of the trip planned but are wondering where and how long to stay when we are on the Kenai Penninsula. Should we stay a few days in Kenai then go to Soldotna and then on to Homer? Or would it be better to pick a location and then do day trips to other places? We want to do some salmon fishing in the rivers and maybe some halibut fising. We were thinking of staying around two weeks in this area, but we are not sure if that is too much time, or not enough.
We were there in 2009 but didn't do any fishing. If it were me, I would spend a few days in Seward (the boat tour from there is great). There is also good fishing there, as there is throught the Kenai. The rest of your stay will be dictated by where you plan on fishing. The Russian River and Salmon is in the northern portion while many like the halibut fishing in Homer. The Kenai is large and I wouldn't recommend just one base of operations - the distances are just too great. Two weeks sounds about right but be flexible and if you find you are having a great time in one spot extend your time there. If you are going to be in Seward for July 4th, get reservations for that. Go to the blog in our signature and click on the 2009 Alaska trip if you would like to see where we stayed, etc.
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I agree with accsys - definitely check out Seward.
I wasn't a fan of Homer, Alaska. It was loud, crowded and windy.
Cooper Landing was a great area - bears, moose, fishing.
Also liked Ninilchik - great views of the volcanoes, fishing, clamming, etc.
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Don't know if you want to stay with hookups or not. These are all dry camping. They also had first pick on site location. Hope you don't want to stay in commercial RV parks and miss Alaska.
On the way, Willawaw Creek USFS, Portage Lake and Glacier, tunnel entrance to Whittier and Prince William Sound, glacier cruse.
Quartz Creek, US Forest Service campground on Lake Kenai, dry camping, has a dump and water station, close to Cooper Landing and the Russian river.
Bings Landing, state campground, dry camping. When the reds are running on the Kenai one of the best river fishing locations.
Johnson Lake, state campground, dry camping.
Deep Creek state cg at Ninilchik.
Commercial cg in Homer.
Go to the city of Kenai or Soldotna to shop.
In my profile there is a pic of my DW at Bings Landing hooked up with a big salmon.
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Places to consider:
Seward for Exit Glacier, boat tours, SeaLife display.
Cooper Landing for fishing.
Soldotna for fishing and local things and shopping.
Clam Gulch, Deep Creek, Ninilchick, Anchor River for being right on the inlet. Also to watch the tractor launch and recovery of the Halibut charter boats.
Homer for the scenery and the fishing.
Whittier is also worthy of a visit, if only to drive through the rail tunnel.
As well, Valdez is a nice stop, at the south end of the Richardson Highway. It isn't on the peninsula, but it offers great salmon fishing and amazing scenery.
For us, the Kenai was much too busy. An impatient driver in a pickup truck coming towards us almost front-ended us at 60 mph on our way in and on the way out we passed an accident scene where the motorcyclist died and another was injured seriously. The combination of locals in a hurry and RV tourists who aren't makes it an interesting drive.
* This post was
edited 05/07/12 12:12pm by sue.t *
We love the Kenai (of course we love most of AK). I think it is a beautiful place and there are some absolute musts (per us). We don't fish so this may mean our priorities are different from others.
sue.t is right about the traffic and we avoid driving down or back on the busy weekends or when the salmon are running (thou it is fun to watch combat fishing).
Seward City Campground is great. You can't beat the view and there are excellent boat day trips to Kenai NP. Personally we lay in wait for a front row spot and then stay until supplies run low or tanks fill up. You get to watch people and boat traffic all day long and often a sea otter drifts by. Exit Glacier is good for a side trip.
Homer especially on the Spit is one of our favorite places. It can be hectic especially on the weekends but if you stay at the Homer Spit Campground, you can walk to the places on the spit and check out the fish haul every evening. Hopefully there will still be eagles around since the demise of the Eagle Lady. There are drives out from town with fantastic views and we have gone and seen only a couple of other vehicles (this is best done in your tow vehicle). Don't miss the lookoff just before you descend to Homer. The flowers are gorgeous and the views great.
We have stayed at several different campgrounds around and south of Soldotna. Nothing as magical as Seward or Homer but still nice and closer to river fishing.
Don't forget there are day, overnight and longer trips over Cook Inlet to Katmai (if you can stand making reservations way way in advance) or to Lake Clark NP (less well known) with grazing brown bear. We did a day trip in '06 and plan to do an overnighter with friends this year.
Diann
P.S. The tunnel is a treat and so is the ferry to Valdez. We also love Valdez but be prepared 'cause it rains alot there. Another hidden (to us) gem was Childs Glacier out of Cordova (take the ferry from Valdez). There is a wonderful campground (can't remember who runs it BLM?) and absolutely fantastic glacier watching from the shore of Copper River.
P.P.S. Oh, well, I tend to run on and gave you more than you asked for. So I'll stop!
This is a little off topic, but since someone suggested we be flexible I wondered if it is neccessary to get campground reservations. We need hookups because we travel with our black lab and don't want to leave him without A/C. There are many campgrounds in the milepost and most seem to have good reviews but pictures indicate that they are in the sun.
nytravelgirl wrote: This is a little off topic, but since someone suggested we be flexible I wondered if it is neccessary to get campground reservations. We need hookups because we travel with our black lab and don't want to leave him without A/C. There are many campgrounds in the milepost and most seem to have good reviews but pictures indicate that they are in the sun.
If you spend some time in the interior it might get hot enough for a/c but most of the time around Homer the dog will be a good foot warmer.
We always travel with a dog (now it is a very spoiled GSP)and most of the time she goes with us in the toad but on occasion we do leave her in the motor home. As mentioned A/C is seldom required BUT there are other needs for hook ups (at your site or not) including dumping and taking on fresh water. We need to run our generator to charge batteries (within posted hours, etc. etc.) and to use convection oven.
Having said all that, we seldom make reservations. For special days (4th of July, local holiday, meeting up with friends) we may reserve a couple of weeks in advance; otherwise we take pot luck. Our policy is to stop mid afternoon unless we are willing to camp in box store parking lot. The latter comes in handy when going from point A to point B and you are not much interested in what's between.
There are some fabulous provincial and state parks in western Canada and Alaska that would be a shame to miss. One of our very favorites is at Muncho Lake in BC (I used to always say Strawberry Flats but I gotta quit that or it's gonna be full when we arrive - LOL).
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