~Thursday, August 4, 2022~
Day 781 (Travel Day)
Day 45 of Alaska Trip
A moving day to Cooper Landing with a little reversal in the schedule. Because we couldn’t get into the campground we wanted on the dates we wanted in Hope, we’re first staying in Cooper Landing, then heading to Hope which will add another few hours of backtracking to the schedule overall. But sometimes, when you’re at the mercy of campground availability, it forces you to change the route a little bit.
Getting to Hidden Lake Campground, in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, required a new highway for us….the Sterling Highway which was pretty smooth, but with a little road construction along the way. We passed a number of fly fishermen patiently waiting on their catch of the day of salmon. Evidently Russian River is supposed to be the premier river for salmon fishing.
How we got the best campsite at Hidden Lake, we’ll never know. We arrived around 3:00 p.m. after driving through the small town of Cooper Landing, known for their kayaking and river rafting opportunities. Since Hidden Lake is a lake campground, why not go for the top….the lake loop. There were only
6 sites there, 6 more in the Ridge Loop and about 25 more on the first loop. Once again, it was all in the timing. There it was, the perfect sized campground that we could fit Billie Jean and Hank, on the lakeside. And only $10/night. While Jeff went to check out the firewood scene from the camp host and toured the other loops, he came across a few signs noting a sow and her 2 cubs had been spotted in the campground just a few days ago and to stay bear aware. Will do! Evidently we had not only the best loop but the best site in the entire place. Someone’s looking out for us, I swear. Even Sadie couldn’t get over the superbness of her new “home”. I guess I didn’t time last night’s bath too well did I?