On to the next locale!

We left Homer and headed north - back on the same road we came in to Homer. There are only a handful of major highways in Alaska and to reach some places you have to fly to or go by boat. We are staying in Cooper Landing. To get here we traveled Alaska route 1 through towns with names of Anchor Point, Ninilchik, Clam Gulch and Soldotna. We are back in the Chugach National Forest. This is the first campground that is not on the water but in the woods. It's a very beautiful place within hiking distance to the Kenai River. Cooper Landing was named for Joseph Cooper, a miner who discovered gold there in 1884. However, Peter Doroshin, a Russian engineer, had found gold prospects as far back as 1848 when the territory was still part of Russian America. Besides the town being named after Joseph Cooper, there is also Cooper Lake and Cooper Creek. The first school was started in 1929. Cooper Landing is about 70 square miles with the majority being land. We talked with one of the locals who said their snow varies from just a foot to as much as 6 feet. After setting up camp we hiked down to the river.

We are a little over a week in to our travels and have gone about 450 miles. It doesn't seem like a lot but we have seen a lot of the Kenai Peninsula and are heading north to go east then back south.Read more