Alaska – Kenai – State 18 of 49 on our RV Adventure

If you are a first-time reader, welcome to Lora and Erics RV Adventure Blog. You can read about us at http://www.LoraandEricsRVAdventure.com. We started in December 2017 with a goal to complete 49 states before heading home to North Carolina.

Due to limited access to internet service and Verizon Hotspot in Canada and Alaska we will be adding photos as we can. In the mean time we will continue to provide our RV adventure at each phase of our RV adventure in text.

Today we are traveling to Kenai, AK. Our original plan was to visit Seward, then Kenai, Homer, and Anchorage. We are unable to secure a reservation in Seward or Homer for July 14th.

We are able to find a campground in Kenai, so we are heading to Diamond M Ranch Resort.

The travel time from Mt. View RV Park in Palmer, AK to Diamond M Ranch Resort, Kenai, AK is 3 h 41 min 198 miles via AK-1 South.

The drive is uneventful going into Anchorage. The route winds through the valley for about 15 miles before merging onto a 2-lane highway. Before reaching the highway, we do spot a moose crossing the road. Lora can capture half of the moose going into the woods.

We stop at a Walmart in Anchorage it gets some items. While I am inside Lora films someone who decided to park in front of us. Lora not having driven with the camper attached thinks they are too close. They were fine where they were.

The drive from Anchorage to Kenai is beautiful. From Anchorage to Portage, known as Seward Highway, follows Turnagain Arm waterway. The scenery is one of the best drives we have experienced. Information about Anchorage mentions there are 60 glaciers within 50 miles of the city. I capture a few glaciers along our drive.

From Portage the road continues South West into the Kenai Peninsula. The road winds through the valley through Copper Landing and the top of Kenai Lake which feeds the Kenai River.

The region is known for its world class Salmon Fishing. The rivers color is amazing to see. The clarity of the water is amazing. There are fishing and rafting charters all along the rivers edge up to Soldotna. As usual we are see Moose warnings, but none in site.

We reach Diamond M Ranch Resort around 4:00 pm. The ranch is a 3-generation family farm, lodge, and RV resort. Their suites are modeled after historic Gold Rush era buildings. The farm contains lamas, goats, and horses. The RV Park is separated into 3 sections. The sites are spacious. Some are setup in a coral format with a center firepit, so groups can face each other. The back in sites at wide enough to share with another camper if you are traveling in pairs. The cost varies by season. We learn we are in dip netting season for Alaskan residents. The cost per night is $95.00 per night and a 5-night minimum.

We setup our site and I take Bella B for a walk down to the river. Along the way we stop by goats. It is amazing how well Bella B responds to the goats. She does not even bark.

99999 We work our way through the gate into the barn area. There are a few horses and a colt in the field.

Past the Barn we cross another gate and into a narrow path, down a gully, and into the woods. The path is very narrow. I keep talking with Bella B to make noise incase there are bears. We walk all the way to the river, take a few pictures and start our trek back.

The remainder of the evening we stayed put.

Sunday is Matt’s birthday. Lora calls Matt and wishes him a happy birthday. We get washed up and make our plans. I find Captain Cook State Recreation Area. The park is 30 miles away.

We drive into Kenai and make a left at the Visitors Center. The road leads down to an overlook. We stop at the overlook and view the dip netters fishing in the river.

From the overlook we stop at a early Russian Orthodox Church build in early 1900’s.

After visiting the Old Village of Kenai we start our trek to Captain Cook Recreation Area. The route is nice and scenic along the coast of Cook Inlet. We turn off the main road toward cost near the Andeavor-Kenai Refinery. The road goes down to the beach which is laden with stones. There is a dry-docked oil ridge platform on the left.

The beach is known for search agate stones. Not knowing what agate stone looks like we ask two guys walking on the beach. We both search for agate stone that we can paint and leave our website.

The mountain across Cook Inlet are amazing. There are several oil rigs out in the inlet.

After a short time agate hunting we get back on the road to Captain Cook Recreation Area. So far, we have seen no wildlife. We enter Captain Cook Recreation Area. It contains a few side roads with access to the local lakes. We drive to the end of the road where there are several trucks and off-road vehicles. We figure we cannot proceed on the gravel road without a 4-wheeler or track vehicle. Some of the people look like dip netters going salmon fishing.

We turn around and start our drive back. I am able to find an alternate route in hopes of seeing something in the wild. We stop along the way to get a few pictures of the mountains across Cook Inlet.

Back in Kenai without no wildlife sightings, we decide to hit Walmart to get paint and glitter for our new rocks.

The Kenai booklet mentions there is a good chance to see wildlife behind Walmart if we take the gravel road. The gravel road goes on for 5 miles before it turned onto another gravel road. The gravel road run along the local airport before going deep into large open plains. We see nothing, so we turn around after going on the second road for a few miles longer.

We get back to Walmart and turn onto the main road toward our campground. As soon as we make our right we spot a line of cars ahead stopped for a mother moose and baby walking across the road. We pull off into a parking lot and watch the mama moose and baby stool through the parking lot and across another cross street.

We head back to the camper satisfied for seeing a moose, dissatisfied we drove for a few hours and all we needed to do is stay in town to see wildlife.

Are relaxing a bit, Lora and I decide to walk around the farm and RV park. We walk over to the sheep, then walk over to the large iron gate leading into the dry camp and grassing field. The lamas, goats, and horses are free to roam with the campers staying out in the field. It appears most of the people dry camping are Alaskans dip netting.

We walk Bella B to each of the animals. She is doing so well with all of them.

We walk to the rear of the field into the barn area. From there we walk along the road to the fish cleaning station. One of the family owners is there cleaning up the fish cleaning station. The owner is feeding the chickens with filleted salmon. It just does not look good to see the chickens eating fish.

A truck pulls up with 2 fishermen. They caught 2 salmon in the river with dip nets. They mention the salmon run is very slow so far. Last year they got 60 in the same 4 hours’ time.

Lora films the guy cleaning the fish and posts the video on Facebook.

We walk over to the office area and climb the viewing deck in hopes to see any caribou in the field. None.

Our 2nd full day is as nice as the first with respect to the weather. There is a high-pressure system over Alaska that is staying in place for the remainder of the week, so we will be in the mid 60°s to low 70°s during day, and high 40°s to low 50°s.

Today we head east to Cooper Landing, AK. There is a Wildlife Refuge loop road that our Visitors Booklet explains may have chances to view wildlife. Google Maps has our whole quest under 60 miles one way.

We reach Skilak Lake Rd., which is the western entrance to Skilak Wildlife Recreation Area. The road is a washboard gravel surface. We drive slowly on the road. We drive down each lake or campground entrance to see if there is anything of interest.

The drive was uneventful. After we reached Highway 1 we turned right toward Cooper Landing. We want to visit the local museum. The Visitor Booklet explains they have a full skeleton of a road killed brown bear.

We stop at a turn off to get pictures of the Kenai River and fishermen wading in the water.

We reach the Visitor Center and Museum. The builds are all small and free admission. The site was the location of the original Post Office for Cooper Valley. The Post Office has some nice displays of things past.

The Visitor Center is only a building with brochures.

The last building is the main museum, there is a single volunteer hosting the site. He is relaxing in a lounge chair ready to answer any questions. The skeleton is large. The road killed bear was found nearby and a local person decided to clean up the bear and skeleton for future display.

After visiting the museum, we stopped a couple of times for river pictures, before heading back to the campground.

We spent the remainder of the evening at the campground. I go to bed early. Lora walks Bella B out in the farm field before going off to bed.

Day 3 is a relax day. We have no plans to travel anywhere. We decide to make a beef stew in the crock pot. We sort through the pantry and make a list of the items we need to make out dinner.

I drive toward Safeway. On the way I spot an eagle in the field with a baby by its side. All I have is my phone. The mountains in the background are also amazing.

I make it to Safeway and pickup our items.

Upon getting back we mix our ingredients and place the crock pot outside to cook. We reorganize the cabinets.

After Lora washes up I take her back to see the bald eagles. Unfortunately, we did not see the mama eagle, but do see the smaller eagle in the grass. We drive down to a second viewing platform with no luck in seeing anything.

The remainder of the evening is uneventful. We build a fire in the fire pit.

On our last full day at Diamond M Ranch Resort, we are heading to Homer, AK. We have driven Hwy 1 from Tok, AK to Soldotna, AK. Today we will complete the Highway where it ends in Homer. The views of the snow-covered mountains across Cook Inlet are the best we have experienced. Most of the way down we get perfect picture moments, but unable to stop.

We pull into the wayside Visitor Center at the outskirts of Homer. The stopover has a beautifully manicured flower garden and small building with Homer information fliers. I spot 2 bald eagles flying above my head.

Lora and I take flower pictures while I keep looking to see if the eagles will come back. Homer bends inward so the snow-capped mountains we were seeing are now partially in view. There are now views to our south. When we get to the end of the road, we will be at our closest to Japan.

We stop at Bishop Beach in Homer and walk for a bit looking for stones before moving further into Homer.

The city is small and narrow. We get closer to the tip where the road comes to an end. We stop at a City run Campground and get pricing for future reference.

Down near the end of the road is the heart of activity. There are campgrounds interlaced with parking areas. The shops and restaurant are built up on stilts to avoid storm waters. Views are amazing to see. There is so much activity going on in this crowded little section of land and water.

We stop for lunch at Fresh Catch Café on Homer Spit Rd. I order my first entrée with salmon and halibut. The fettucine is out of this world. The salmon and halibut chunks were plentiful and tasty. Lora in her normal safe fashion orders a cheese burger and fries. For her the bun is like rubber, thus ruins her burger meal. She cuts half the burger for takeout, but later throws it out.

We leave the restaurant and drive the last several feet to the end of the Road. In decent fashion there is a turn about named ‘End of the Road’. We take our pictures and off we go heading back north.

As we drive back through Homer we spot multiple bald eagles soaring by the road side. They get fewer and fewer as we get past the next city Anchor Point. We talk with Connie, Amanda’s grandma on the phone for a while as we drive. It is nice to talk and catch up on the happening of everyone back home.

We get back at a decent time to walk Bella B in the field on last time with the goats. The Lamas are not in sight.

Once again we finish our day, ready to move to Anchorage in the morning for 3 nights. We will be staying at Golden Nugget RV Park in Anchorage. The weather is expected to be good for out stay. Maybe a chance of a shower on Saturday.

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