Sterling Highway

Locat­ed at the inter­sec­tion of the Seward and Ster­ling high­ways at Mile­post 37. This area hosts a myr­i­ad of ani­mals, birds, fish, and unique plants. Com­mon loons, bald eagles, and arc­tic terns share the area with a vari­ety of song­birds and shore­birds like the north­ern water thrush, gold­en-crowned spar­row, and the greater yel­lowlegs. Beavers, riv­er otters, muskrats, and salmon ply the cold, clear waters of Tern Lake. Moose, Dall sheep, and…  ...more

Get a taste of the Alaskan wilder­ness as you hunt for gold with expert gold min­ers. Those short on time can enjoy road­side gold pan­ning. Have 2 or more hours? Get into the wilder­ness to remote min­ing camps to learn how to dredge and pan for gold. Keep the gold you find! All adven­tures begin at Prospec­tor John’s base­camp store in Coop­er Land­ing, just 90 miles from Anchorage.

This 86-room lodge not only has end­less views over a vast val­ley, but it also sits on the banks of the Kenai Riv­er, which teems with fish. With vault­ed ceil­ings made of nat­u­ral­ly fin­ished wood, cozy sit­ting areas with wood-burn­ing stoves and pri­vate porch­es, it’s easy to feel like the whole place is yours. The area is famous for its fish­ing, but you also have easy access to Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park, a wild land filled with glac­i­ers, marine  ...more

This wildlife sweet spot is worth a vis­it. The Russ­ian Lakes Trail begins off the access road to the Russ­ian Riv­er Camp­ground in Coop­er Land­ing, at mile­post 52 of the Ster­ling High­way. Get off-the-beat­en path, hike two miles to the falls and enjoy the imme­di­ate reward of spec­tac­u­lar salmon viewing. 

This 18-mile-long loop grav­el road is the pre­mier wildlife-view­ing area on the Kenai Penin­su­la, and you’ll get spec­tac­u­lar views of lakes and glac­i­ers. Don’t for­get to stop and explore all the nature and wildlife around you! 

This 18-mile-long loop grav­el road is the pre­mier wildlife-view­ing area on the Kenai Penin­su­la, and you’ll get spec­tac­u­lar views of lakes and glac­i­ers. Don’t for­get to stop and explore all the nature and wildlife around you! 

If you have your own canoe or kayak, stop for a pad­dle on Ski­lak Lake, locat­ed in the Kenai Nation­al Wildlife Refuge. For a quick hike with good views, go down Ski­lak Lake Road, past Hid­den Lake camp­ground, to Ski­lak Lake Look­out Trail. Get a glimpse of Ski­lak Glac­i­er and look out over the lake. You can be up and back in 1−1.5 hours. Up for some­thing longer? Here are two good day hikes: Depend­ing on time, tack­le the Sky­line Trail. Right…  ...more

This lit­tle town 10 miles north­east of Sol­dot­na shares its name with the high­way that cuts through the Kenai Penin­su­la. Iron­i­cal­ly, one of the best rea­sons to pull over here is to steer a dif­fer­ent kind of vehi­cle: a canoe. The Swan Lake Canoe Route starts 12 miles down Swan Lake Rd and offers a 17-mile float into town on the Moose Riv­er and over 60 miles of lakes and short portages, great for every­thing from day trips to week-long…  ...more

As the sis­ter city of Kenai, the town of Sol­dot­na is in many ways the heart of the Kenai Penin­su­la. As proof of its fish­ing mec­ca sta­tus, the 97-lb world record salmon was caught here; you’ll find more ele­vat­ed fish­ing plat­forms here than any­where else, which helps pro­tect the waters for fish and anglers to come. One hun­dred forty miles from Anchor­age, Sol­dot­na offers pret­ty much any activ­i­ty that fits with the Kenai’s ​“play­ground” vibe,…  ...more

At the Sol­dot­na dump you can some­times see sev­er­al hun­dred eagles at once. 

The town of Kasilof (pro­nounced kuh-SEE-loff) has a lot of the great activ­i­ties that oth­er Kenai Penin­su­la towns do — fish­ing, camp­ing and wildlife view­ing. But this tiny town 15 miles south of Sol­dot­na, on the Ster­ling High­way, is also a vibrant dog sled­ding com­mu­ni­ty — while here you can vis­it the ken­nel of Dean Osmar, an Idi­tar­od cham­pi­on, and take a ride behind cham­pi­on dogs. The best fish­ing is at the Kasilof Riv­er and John­son Lake — both…  ...more

The Alas­ka Depart­ment of Fish & Game oper­ate the Crooked Creek hatch­ery, adult salmon may be viewed mov­ing up the stream and fish­way into the hatch­ery race­ways; king salmon in late June and ear­ly July and coho salmon in late August and Sep­tem­ber. Each salmon is iden­ti­fied and count­ed as it swims through the chute using an under­wa­ter video camera.

Sounds Wild: Porky Babies­Porcu­pines are not often seen along the main paved roads of the Kenai Penin­su­la. You have to get off on the grav­el side roads that pass through their habi­tat. Tus­tu­me­na Lake road trav­els through the Kenai Wildlife Refuge and ends at the Kasilof Riv­er camp­ground. This road is great for view­ing var­i­ous birds includ­ing spruce grouse, thrush­es and chick­adees. Moose are found along this road and if you are real­ly lucky, a…  ...more

the recre­ation area pro­vides pic­nic sites, shel­ters, camp­sites, water and toi­lets. There are excel­lent views of Cook Inlet, the Aleut­ian Moun­tain Range and its three tallest peaks: Mount Iliamna, Mount Redoubt and Mount Spur. There are 125 camp­sites, and the RV size lim­it is 35′. Note: The Depart­ment of Fish & Game has closed clam­ming at Clam Gulch for the last sev­er­al years. Please check the cur­rent sta­tus before harvesting.   ...more

Stop at the Scenic View RV Park for a breath­tak­ing view of four vol­ca­noes. Mt. Iliamna, Mt. Redoubt, Mt. Augus­tine and Mt. Spurr. These smol­der­ing moun­tains are part of the pacif­ic ​“ring of fire” with Mt. Redoubt erupt­ing as recent­ly as March 2009. Look for the inter­pre­tive sign to learn more about Alas­ka volcanoes. 

Russ­ian fur traders col­o­nized this fish­ing vil­lage in 1820. Steeped in the his­to­ry of ear­ly Russ­ian Amer­i­ca, it offers an old-world set­ting with its Russ­ian Ortho­dox Church on the hill, quaint fish­er­men’s cot­tages and log homes. Infor­ma­tion signs tell the his­to­ry of Ninilchik and walk­ing tour maps are avail­able at local busi­ness­es. A trail leads to the church and ceme­tery on the hill. The road con­tin­ues to the beach where camp­sites are available.  ...more

Many events are held here through­out the year, the largest being the Kenai Penin­su­la Fair held annu­al­ly the 3^rd week­end in August. Locals call this the biggest lit­tle fair in Alas­ka. The fes­tiv­i­ties include a rodeo, parade, live­stock com­pe­ti­tion, horse show and exhibits rang­ing from arts and crafts to produce.

King salmon enter Deep Creek dur­ing late May and ear­ly June and con­tin­ue to spawn into ear­ly July. Watch for their dark red bod­ies in the rif­fles and deep­er holes. A very lim­it­ed fish­ing sea­son is pro­vid­ed dur­ing the ear­ly sum­mer for kings and steelheads.

This tiny town along the Ster­ling High­way may be known as ​“North America’s Most West­er­ly High­way Point,” but it has anoth­er, less­er pub­li­cized claim to fame: this is where locals love to come fish. In the spring, it’s king salmon, fol­lowed by Dol­ly Var­den and sil­ver salmon in the sum­mer; in the fall, you can catch steel­head until freeze-up. Non-anglers here will enjoy beach­comb­ing, brows­ing the art stu­dios and gift shops, watch­ing a…  ...more

Wit­ness giant trac­tors tow­ing the Kenai Penin­su­la’s fleet out to water’s edge and launch­ing them into the tide on their quest for fish. You can camp here, scout for wildlife, fish for steel­head, and enjoy some of the best puf­fin view­ing on the Kenai.

Vis­i­tors dri­ving down to Homer (south west from Anchor­age) find a per­fect pull out rest stop on the right side of the high­way on the hill above town. From this van­tage, they get a pre­view of the plea­sures to come. Fish­ing boats’ win­dows twin­kle out in Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay, the Spit stretch­es half way across Kachemak Bay, and the snowy moun­tains on far side of the bay, embrac­ing Kachemak Bay State Park, plus of course the the town itself.  ...more

The Homer Spit is a long, nar­row fin­ger of land jut­ting 4.5 miles into Kachemak Bay. Dot­ted with busi­ness­es, the area caters to vis­i­tors and pro­vides numer­ous recre­ation oppor­tu­ni­ties, from fish­ing and beach­comb­ing to shop­ping and boating.