Around the Kenai, Alaska

As we drove towards Soldotna, quite early, well early for us, we saw our first moose, they’re much bigger than we realised, but I think they’re quite cute, although not so cute I’d like to get any closer to them.

 

We watched as they contentedly browsed through the marsh, before continuing on our way.   A side route we’d planned on driving along a good dirt road around a lake was abandoned due to a road closure.  Lucky for us as it turned out, because we later discovered that recent heavy rains had caused the road to sink in places.   Hmm..... a sunken car on a dirt road, now that would’ve taken some explaining to the car hire company!

 

We stayed on the banks of the Kenai River at the Kenai River Lodge, it’s a lovely spot, with a great Mexican restaurant just across the road.

One of the first places we visited was Captain Cook State Recreation Area.   On our way we followed a sign for Nikiski Beach, just to see what was there.   We dead ended at a beach overlook where we could see supply ships and a drilling rig quite close to the shore.  

Further along we stopped at a roadside pull-in by Stormy Lake, it was a lovely spot, but unfortunately there was rubbish everywhere, why do people do that?

When we eventually arrived at Captain Cook State Recreation Area, we followed the road to the left, past the campsite and to a parking area with benches, picnic tables

and fantastic views across the beach and Cook Inlet.   It was a good job we turned left as we later found out that driving straight on would’ve taken us into a huge muddy swamp.

Across the inlet we could see the vast, white wilderness of Lake Clark National Preserve, even though it was a sunny, warmish afternoon, just looking at all that snow and ice made us shiver.

I’m not sure what they’re drilling for in the Cook Inlet, oil or natural gas I imagine, but as we looked around we could see quite a few drilling rigs.  The tiny speck, way in the distance, in the photograph below is actually a drilling rig.

We could also see what looked like a volcano cone, we thought it might be Mount Redoubt.

We almost gave Captain Cook State Recreation Area a miss, but we’re glad we took the time to drive out there, as it’s a lovely spot with stunning views and definitely worth visiting.

Have fun, we are!