TWO PEAS AND THE POD: 💯DAYS in AK💚MOST WESTERLY HIGHWAY POINT💚

SUNDAY

ALASKAN STOP #25

HALIBUT CAMPGROUND

in the ANCHOR RIVER STATE RECREATION AREA

Halibut Campground in the Anchor River State Recreation Area is at North America's Most Westerly Highway Point. How do I know this? There is a sign just outside of the campground entrance telling me so, plus I looked at it on Google Maps.

Halibut Campground's website informed me that there are 30 campsites here. What it didn't mention is that half of those sites are tent only sites. Our plan to leave Walmart early enough to arrive here well before check out time became all the more important when we learned this little bit of important information.

So at 9:00AM we did our first drive through of the campground looking for empty sites. At the second RV site we passed a kind gentleman flagged me down and asked if I was looking for a site. When I replied, ❝YES❞ he informed me he would be leaving today and asked if I would like his site. I again replied, ❝YES❞ and gave him a chair and orange cone to place in the driveway after he left. After doing this we drove around the rest of the campground loop and found no empty sites or anyone packing down as if they were leaving today. It was stil only 9:00 AM and check out time is noon, but I would expect to see some kind of activity if they were leaving. To the best of my knowledge only three sites left today and we were fortunate enough to get one of them.

I then left out of the campground and parked across the street from the end of the campground loop so I would see them as soon as they departed. After getting ROVER and THE POD in position on the side of the road I walked back into the campground to thank him once again.

I learned his name is Matt, he lives in Anchorage, and that he has been coming to this campground during salmon season for the last fifteen years. He mentioned that for the last five years he was unable to secure a site in this campground and had to camp somewhere less desirable. This year he had obtained his campsite the same way we did, by arriving very early and locating someone who would be leaving shortly.

His flagging me down was just his way of paying it forward for his good fortune six days ago when he arrived. Once again, thank you Matt and I'll try to do the same when it's our turn to leave this beautiful location.

There are four other state park campgrounds located along the last mile and a half of the road leading into here, but this one is at the end of the road, where it meets with the Cook Inlet. While none of the RV sites have a direct view of the water, it's only a short walk through the woods before you get an unobstructed view of the five volcanos located inside of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve on the opposite bank of Cook Inlet, some 40+ miles away.

Campsite #11 at Halibut Campground in Anchor River State Recreation Area.

Matt was even kind enough to prepare us a campfire with his left over fire wood.
If we don't burn it I'm sure the next occupant will.

If all goes as planned we'll only be here for one night before moving to our next campsite just 15-miles away. It too is a First-Come-First-Serve campground and we plan on spending a complete week there, so it's important to get a good site. Early tomorrow morning I'll drive over and try to locate someone leaving and ask them to allow me to hold the site by placing my chair and orange cone in their driveway when they leave.

Wish me luck!

Since we may only have one night here we need to get out and check out what's happening down at the beach. We knew what to expect, but were still in awe as to what we saw.

This is the way you launch and retrieve your boat from the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska if you want to cruise around in the Cook Inlet sightseeing or fishing.

After watching this process over and over again, back to back to back, for nearly an hour my first thought was, "Man, I wouldn't want the job of jumping into the icy cold water to hook the boat to the trailer. I'd want to drive the tractor instead."

My next thought was, even in my younger years, would I have been tough enough to do that job, day in and day out?

Well I've got a surprise for you, I know I was! The person doing that job happens to be a very agile, athletic, attractive young Alaskan teenage GIRL! That's right, I said GIRL! Bet you didn't see that coming!