Cook Inlet

We camped at Ninilchik View campground Tuesday night.  It was on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet and across the inlet some of the mountains of the Alaska range. Mt. Redoubt has been active several times in recent years.


Mount Redoubt

 The campground also looked down upon the valley where the town of Ninilchik is located and the Ninilchik River empties into the sea.

Ninilchik, note the Russian Orthodox church on the hill. 

 A local coffee vendor told us that in the 1800's Russia shipped a group of retirees and settled them in this location so the government wouldn't have to pay their pensions.  Well, much of the population is still Russian  fishermen.  The harbor is so small that the fishing boats tie up to each other, no individual slips.  And the water rises and falls with the tides - at very low tides boats may rest on their keels and can only leave the harbor at high tide. 



Ninilchik Harbor

 We walked on the beach; first time we saw small colored rocks along with the grey.  But the colored ones were only visible when the tide was out. We also watched people digging clams. Today commerical salmon fishing opened so there were lots of boats in the inlet.

 A path through the meadow in our campground had dandelions and wild geraniums knee high, and then on the bluff I found ones that grew thigh high. 

Dandelion

Helen