Soldatna, Anchor Point – Homer July 22-23, 2009
We left Seward on July 22 heading for Homer on Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula. We decided to stop overnight at Fred Myers Super Center in Soldatna. Fred Myers is an Alaskan chain of store similar to Wal-Mart. Fred Myers at some locations also allows RV’s to camp overnight without any fees. We were shocked at the number of RV’s that stayed there overnight. There must have been at least 50. We did spent about $100 shopping there. We went in for Milk!
After setting up at Fred Myers, we toured Soldatna and the city of Kenai nearby. We went to Beluga Outlook at the mouth of the Kenai River on Cook Inlet. We watched the hordes of salmon fishermen wading into the water using dip nets on both sides of the river mouth. Many were staying in tents and RVs on the beach.
We met a local Alaskan who owned a fishing boat. He came to watch the fishing scene below us. He told us that he often came here to see if the salmon were running. If he saw many salmon being caught, he would go down to his boat with his friends to try to catch their allocated amounts of salmon. We noticed that no one was catching anything. He explained to us how the fishing regulations worked and were enforced. It was fascinating. You could see the way his eyes gleamed as he talked to us about fishing that he moved up to the Kenai to fish.
From everything we observed in driving through the Upper Kenai area, this is truly a fisherman’s paradise.
In the morning, we travelled down the Sterling Highway to Anchor Point pausing to a visit an old Russain Orthodox Church. We stayed in Halibut Campground at Anchor Point right on Cook Inlet. Anchor Point is America’s most westerly highway point. The Campground was right off the ocean. We walked along the beach to a place were tractors were used to launch boats and picked them up.
Our campsite was situated in front of a small marsh surrounded by spruce trees. Two ravens were sitting on the picnic table when we arrived. That night, we heard them walking across our roof. There also was a Bald Eagle perched on top of a tree watching over us for a lot of the time we were there.
Late that afternnon, we went to Homer to see Sallie Dood Butters, who is a high school friend of Milly’s and her sister Judy Higby. Sallie is quite the Alaskan charachter. She invited us to move our camper into her side yard which we did the next day.
Tags: Anchor Point, Homer, Soldatna