Soldotna & the city of Kenai

2019 July 6

by Greg & Lyn

After leaving Seward, we drove across the Kenai Peninsula, headed toward Homer. About halfway were the twin cities of Soldotna and Kenai (the city).

We’ve seen these signs many times in many places. But this is the first place we actually experienced the meaning behind the sign.

The Kenai river is a beautiful place filled with fly fishing, rafters and kayakers. The brochure from the visitors center calls it “the playground of Alaska.” We could certainly see why.

The first signs of smoke or haze off in the distance.

We were told that just a day or so before we drove through, the road was closed and traffic had to detour off on a gravel spur. The fire crews had set a fire break about 4 miles from the road but the fire jumped across it. Fortunately another break set about 2 miles from the road held. The area is mostly wilderness and hasn’t burned since 1947. We talked to one of the fire crew and she told us they plan to let it burn itself out. All they are doing is protecting the gas line and the few structures in the wilderness area. When we went through, the fire was up to about 70,000 acres.

Not your normal highway sign. The locals say that moose are more of a concern than bears. They are typically more aggressive and are described as “dumb.” We don’t think so. Locals told us that moose tend to hang around populated areas when they have babies. The prevailing theory is that the moose know that bears avoid populated areas but really like to attack baby moose. The moose have figured out it they can keep their young safe from bear by hanging around people. Seems pretty smart to us!

This fish walk (just a boardwalk along the river) had warning signs all over it. An aggressive momma moose had charged a couple people that morning.

Most of the riverfront in town is private property. A couple of these fish walks have been built to provide fishing access.

Road construction is everywhere. We found out that being a flagger is a fairly common summer job. You too can stand in the dust or rain, fighting off a swarm of mosquitos for $50/hour plus benefits.

Another uniquely Alaskan road sign.

We watched this group load up several inflatables getting ready to head off into the fog. With the very limited visibility, we were hoping they had several GPS receivers.

At anything except high tide, it’s impossible to launch boats at the ramp since the angle of the ramp is too shallow. There’s a contractor with several large trailers that will launch your boat for you for $55/round trip.