RV ALASKA - On to the Kenai Peninsula!

In September of 2004, Alan and I celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary with our second Alaska land tour and cruise with Princess.  Kyra was five, Ryan was ten, and we all had a wonderful time on that trip.  One of our overnight stops on the land tour portion of the trip was the Kenai Princess Lodge in Cooper Landing.  For our current expedition, I considered Cooper Landing a good base camp for exploring the central part of the Kenai Peninsula.  When I began researching campgrounds in the area, I was stunned to learn that Princess also operated an RV Park adjacent to the lodge we had stayed at 20 years ago.

The Kenai Princess RV Park had good reviews online, but the only website link I could find was to the Lodge.  Eventually, I discovered a phone number for the RV Park and called to see if we might be able to get in following our stay in Valdez.  Yes, indeed!  They did have room for us, and our cost would be only $50.00 per night for full hookups.  Not only was the daily rate really reasonable (actually, downright cheap considering the prices we’ve seen elsewhere up here for much less than full hookups), but, if we wanted to stay a full week, the cost would drop to only $41.50 per night.  Plus, there was an onsite laundromat, and RV park guests had access to the restaurant and bar at the lodge.  Wait, a Princess property in Alaska at an incredibly low price?  What’s with that?  It didn’t sound at all like Princess, and Alan and I figured there was a story there somewhere.

As it turned out, almost 50% of the campsites were used for staff housing.  (Alan and I had suspected as much when we noticed some of our neighbors keeping very regular schedules and we found the cost per load in the laundry room only $2.50.)  We had taken a look at the cabins in the RV park and decided they were definitely not Princess-like.  What’s with that?! The cabins are housing for supervisors. The RV Park adjacent to the lodge property had been a church camp prior to its purchase by Princess and its addition to the stable of Princess properties solved a staff housing problem for the Princess Kenai Lodge.

As for the lodge itself, it was a hoot to explore the property, trying to remember which cabin the four of us had stayed in during our 2004 visit.  (We couldn’t, and now we plan to pull up our vacation photos as soon as we get home to see if they’ll jog our memories.)  When we saw the shuffleboard courts, we cracked up, remembering how much fun Ryan and Kyra had playing during our stay.  The fact that cornhole targets were now set up on the shuffleboard courts was probably a sign of the times.  Do kids these days even know what shuffleboard is?  Ending up at the Kenai Princess RV Park was a trip down memory lane for us – and a delightful trip it was.

We left Valdez on July 10^th, and traveled back up through Keystone Canyon past all those amazing waterfalls.  We stopped at Worthington Glacier and the Visitor Center for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, before landing (again) at the Matanuska River Park in Palmer.  Because the road system is so limited in Alaska, and the Palmer-Wasilla area is centrally located, Palmer proved to be a good spot to layover as we were transitioning from one area to another.

We really like little Matanuska River Park (run by the Mat-Su Borough Parks Department), but the section with the longest campsites is way too tight.  When we arrived this time, the fifth wheel in the site next to us was hugging the line on our side.  Poor Alan!  Backing the trailer into our narrow site was like threading a needle.  Once settled, if we weren’t careful when we stepped out our back door, we would have walked right into our neighbor’s slide.  As luck would have it, on our other side was a lovely young family who also owned an Outdoors RV travel trailer.  (I don’t want to say ORVs up here are like pigeons in New York City, but Alan and I have been thrilled to see so many of them in western Canada and Alaska.)  Still, no matter how nice the neighbors, Alan and I decided then and there that we weren’t going to stay at the park again unless we could get site 1 or site 26.  Both sites were at the end of a row and wider than any of the others.

We arrived at the Kenai Princess RV Park late in the afternoon on July 11^th, and settled in for a week of exploring the Kenai Peninsula.  It felt kinda sorta like we were staying with an old friend.

Date(s) – July 10^th – July 11^th

Total Miles Traveled to Date – 9,940

Wildlife Sightings to Date – We saw absolutely no wildlife over the course of these two days, so our count remains at: 22 eagles (including 2 fledglings); 4 swans, 3 Steller sea lions, 12 harbor seals, 1 sea otter, 1 cow moose; 1 grizzly sow with 2 cubs; 1 back end of a grizzly bear, 6 black bears; 1 snowshoe hare; 3 rabbits (including one very fast bunny that just managed to cross the road safely); several small herds of bison with at least 2 dozen young calves; 9 deer (2 of them bucks with their racks covered in velvet); 9 mountain goats (including 3 tiny and adorable kids); 23 bighorn sheep; 62 elk (including 7 calves that hadn’t yet lost their spots and a number of bull elk with full racks covered in velvet); several small herds of pronghorn antelope (including 2 mamas with 3 newborn fawns between them); 3 great blue herons; dozens of American white pelicans; at least a half dozen families of adult geese with goslings; and several dozen ducks (with lots of little ducklings).

Highlight(s) – The waterfalls of Keystone Canyon (again), our quick visit to Worthington Glacier and our stop at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Visitor Center in Copper Center were all highlights of the day.  Wrangell-St. Elias is our country’s largest National Park, but it’s rather remote and inaccessible unless you’re interested in backcountry activities.  So, the Visitor Center was as far as we went, but I did get my National Parks Passport stamped.  As far as I’m concerned, if the Passport gets stamped, I was there, and that particular Park can be checked off my list.  We did have a great conversation with a young interpretive Park Ranger while we were wandering through the exhibits.  We didn’t ask him about his career aspirations, but I can’t help but wonder how he feels about being assigned to such an out-of-the-way Park that gets relatively few visitors compared to many of its more famous relatives.  In case you're wondering just how big our largest National Park is . . . Wrangell-St. Elias covers 13.2 million acres and, according to the National Park Service, is the same size as Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and the country of Switzerland combined. 

The best highlight of the day was our drive along Turnagain Arm on our way to the Kenai Peninsula.  We had traveled this route via Princess buses on our two prior trips with the cruise line.  (One cruise had departed from Whittier and one from Seward; both required transportation from Anchorage to the ports.)  The views along Turnagain Arm are spectacular and Alan and I enjoyed the drive immensely – especially because, this time around, we were in our own vehicle and could stop at the viewpoints whenever we wanted and stay for as long as we liked.  Depending on which version you read and believe, Turnagain Arm was named by either British explorer James Cook or his sailing master, William Bligh, in 1778 when they didn’t find the fabled Northwest Passage and were forced to “turn again.”  It’s one of only two places in North America where bore tides occur.  (The other is in the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada.)  A bore tide is a strong incoming tide that forms a wave of water as it meets water exiting a narrow river or bay, and surfers have been known to ride the wave that occurs in Turnagain Arm.  Yup, surfing in Alaska.  Who knew?!

Lowlight(s) – Y’all know how much we love a gorgeous view out our big back window.  Well, for our entire week at the Kenai Princess RV Park, our “gorgeous” view was of the wooden fence that separated the Princess property from the privately owned property behind it.  With all of the magnificent vistas we’ve been seeing, I know I shouldn’t be whining about it.  Still . . .

Campground(s) – The Kenai Princess RV Park fit our needs, if not our wants, to a T. Our 7 night stay cost a total of $298.00 with tax, so it was an inexpensive stop for an RV park with full hookups.  Plus, we got our laundry done onsite, and its location was ideal for exploring the middle and western portion of the Kenai Peninsula.  The sites were tight, but at least we had a strip of grass to call our own – even if our picnic table was just a few feet from our neighbor’s sewer line.  (Eeeww!)  I know you’re getting tired of hearing me say the sites are tight; in my defense, we’ve been spoiled by the spaciousness and/or privacy of most of the public campsites we favor.  It continues to make us uncomfortable to have fellow campers right on top of us.  So, the Kenai Princess RV Park had its advantages and disadvantages (that fence!), but it was fun to retrace our steps from 20 years ago and have breakfast one morning in the lodge just like we did back then.

Devastating News – The town of Jasper in Alberta, Canada, was closed, and approximately 25,000 residents and visitors in the town and in Jasper National Park were evacuated this week due to two raging wildfires.  The fires did impact the town severely, and the fires are not yet contained.  In addition to the local fire-fighting teams, firefighters from literally all over the world are arriving to help.  Parks Canada hasn’t yet released information on the actual amount of damage, but news articles and photos from the front lines are heartbreaking.  Alan and I loved Jasper and enjoyed our time there tremendously.  Our hearts are heavy, and our prayers go out to the thousands of residents who are now dealing with a tragedy of epic proportions.

Special Message(s) – A heartfelt thank you to those of you who have checked in with us when the radio silence has been a bit too lengthy or you’ve heard about the wildfires and road closures that might be affecting our travels.  All is well, and we’ll soon be stationary for 10 days.  I’m falling behind on blog posts - fingers crossed that I’ll be able to catch up.

Pic(s) of the Day

No sunshine, but still a gorgeous view as we headed north out of Valdez!

The Worthington Glacier

The mountains of Wrangell-St. Elias, as seen from the Visitor Center in Copper Center

Turnagain Arm

Kenai Princess RV Park - How about that fence?!

Can't complain about the setting though!

Up Next – During our week at the Kenai Princess RV Park in Cooper Landing, we did catch up on laundry and camp chores, but we spent much of our time just exploring the central and western parts of the Kenai Peninsula.  The number of state facilities on the Peninsula is impressive – campgrounds, fishing access, back roads to hidden lakes – and many of them are incredibly scenic.  Then, of course, there are the salmon.  Have you heard of combat fishing?  Well, this is where it happens.