Soldotna, AK

Tuesday & Wednesday, July 18 & 19, 2017

It rained all night, and this morning we are moving to Soldotna. It rained most of the way.  We managed to get parked in a sprinkle.  

After setting up and having lunch and even though it is raining, we decided to take a drive to the town of Kenai (Keen-eye).

We stopped at the Eric Hansen Scout Park which had an overlook of the Kenai River near Cook Inlet.

 As we stood in the light rain we were surprised to see all these people fishing.  It was explained to us that between July 10 -31 Alaskan residents only are allowed to net fish for salmon as they are coming up the river for spawning.

The nets are very large and have long handles so they can hold them out farther from the waters edge.

We were so enthralled by this that we came back on Wednesday to watch some more.

It is still overcast and windy today. At least it is not raining at the moment. These people are net fishing from boats.

This young man had a rectangle shaped net. A local standing next to us and explained that most of the rectangled nets are home-made.

 Look how deep many of the fishermen go.  The local standing next to us said he had previously fished this way. He used to wear waders up to his chest and fish.  He said the water was very cold and he could not stay in the water long. Now he fishes from a boat.

 People from all over Alaska come here to net fish.  Many camp on the beach. We were told this is not crowded yet. The salmon are not fully in yet.  In about a week everyone will be shoulder to shoulder. Wild!

Because it still was not raining, we decided to go to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Soldotna.

This is a life-size statue of a large bull moose.  HUGE!

 These plants with berries were all around. We wondered if bears liked to eat them. There seems to be bear warnings all over this part of Alaska.

This is the Andrew Berg Cabin. He was a fisher, hunter, trapper that became the first licensed big game guide in Alaska. Andrew built this cabin when he was 61 years old in 1890. Notice the dove-tail fitting of the logs.

 This is a shot of the tundra area in the park. I'm guessing the shortness of the trees are due to permafrost.

 This is Headquarter Lake just behind the park headquarters. Below you can see the gulls in a frenzy feeding on small fish.

We saw several berries like this one.  We learned from the local ranger these are cloudberries.

 Next we took the forest loop trail through the park.  This picture is not out of focus.  These are field horsetail plants.  They are so fine and so close together it looks fuzzy.

 The trail was well maintained and pretty.  There were a few open areas and we were surprised we did not see any animals.  Not even squirrels.  It was overcast and a cool breeze blowing.

In the visitors center this map showed where the salmon spawned at their peak spawning.

 OMG this bear is huge!

 Above and below is Elwell's Fishing Cabin. The Elwells used this cabin to house fishing guests between 1939 - 1960.

Guests got a true rustic experience. 

We enjoyed getting out and hiking before the rain started again.  Just as we got to the car it started lightly raining again. We went to the grocery and picked up a few items and went home.

It rained the rest of the night and all day on Thursday, July 20.  We used Thursday as a planning day for our travels for the next couple of weeks.