Good times in Cooper Landing

So, to anyone considering a trip to Alaska, I highly recommend some time in Cooper Landing . . . It's one-stop shopping for so many classic Alaskan activities. Centered in the Kenai Mountains at Kenai Lake and the head of the Kenai River, with the Russian River confluence forming the southern border, it's the home of much hiking, biking, floating, and animal watching (bears!).

Hiking above Kenai Lake

Hanging by the lake - roadside "nature mcnugget" :-)

One of many bike trails takes you to Russian River Falls where you can watch the sundry of the famous Russian River reds come upstream . . . I'm not a huge fishing/fish fan, but you've got to admit it's pretty impressive to watch these creatures swim upstream. The trail actually goes for 12 miles of singletrack, but the falls are only 3 miles from the trailhead.

The falls We also had the chance to float the Kenai River and fish for trout and dolly varden . . . floating the Kenai is a super great experience, especially on the upper river where there's no developments and no motors! Other people chose the more combat style red fishing . . . classic Kenai :-)
Cooper Landing is also a super fun place to hang out - after a day of recreation, there's tons of great frontcountry campgrounds, tons of places to crash up a trail in the backcountry (lots of National Forest cabins too!), and some great places to grab a burger :-)

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Alaska Do's and Don'ts

I reckon their aren't a ton of 'don'ts' in the great north but it always goes with 'do's'. Leaving in a couple weeks and want to hear from what people have done. It's going to be a fishing/hike around trip centered around a couple days in Denali park and then a place called Lake Marie.

Any clothing, food, places, etc. scuttle would be great. I'm stoked to try out my new Solio Hybrid 1000 since the sun is up for quite a while there. Heard there was a possibility of rafting some class 4? Not sure if I want to go live my Kevin Bacon dream in freezing cold rapids, but hey...prove me wrong.

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