July 11, 2010
We spent the week visiting campgrounds on the Kenai Peninsula. We did have time for a couple of good hikes and some clamming at Deep Creek.
Lost Lake Trail
We think tht the Lost Lake Trail from Primrose Landing Campground is one of the Kenai's nicest hiking trails. It's a well maintained trail that gradually climbs through spruce to the high country and Lost Lake. The distance to Lost Lake is about seven miles, the altitude gain is about 1,600 feet.
It's possible to continue on past Lost Lake and descend again to the highway near Seward. The Lost Lake Breath of Life Trail Run in late August does this, the distance is close to 16 miles one way.
We did this in July, of course, and you'll see in the pictures that the snow at higher altitudes would make doing the whole trail difficult until sometime in August.
Terri Exploring Abandoned Miner's Cabin
View of Kenai Lake
Lost Lake
Melting Snow Along Ridge Above Long Lake
Russian River Falls Trail
The Russian River Falls Trail is another beautiful hike. The 2.5 miles from Russian River Campground to the falls is so nice that it's designated as handicap accessible.
From the falls we descended to the river and followed it back to the campgound. The river trail is really a rough fisherman's trail and requires some wading so rubber boots make it much easier.
A brown bear and cub were fishing in the river and stopped our progress for a while. We let her see us in the distance and eventually she and the cub retreated to the far bank and into the trees so we could pass.
Mike Ready to Go
Russian Falls
Bald Eagle Above Falls
Russian River
Brown Bear in River
Brown Bear Cub
Fishing the Russian
Another Fly Fishing Technique
Chasing Razor Clams at Deep Creek
Cook Inlet has some of the best razor clam beds in the country. We were lucky enough to arrive at Deep Creek on a clamming weekend when the tide went waaay out!
Deep Creek is also a launching location for charter boats heading out for halibut. The operation is interesting to watch, they use logging skidders to go far out on the flats to launch and retrive the boats.
One result of the halibut fishing is large numbers of halibut carcases scattered along the beach. This attracts some of the largest numbers of Bald Eagles you'll find anywhere in Alaska.
Clamming Can Be A Group Activity
Or A Solitary One
Eagle on Beach
Dressed for Global Warming
More Eagles
Launching a Halibut Boat at Deep Creek
Wildlife Sightings For The Week
Moose 6
Brown Bears 2
Bald Eagles - At least 200 of them, probably more.
More photos have been added to our Wildlife Sightings pages.
