Soldotna Alaska, is a small town, population of about 4,000, located along the Sterling highway in the northwest section of the Kenai Peninsula. Shortly after flowing through Soldotna, the Kenai River flows into Cook Inlet. We arrived shortly after our check-in time at the Klondike RV Park & Cottages. After getting settled into our site we headed out to check out the town.
We did some grocery shopping. It was very weird to see fast food joints such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Arby’s. Other than driving through Anchorage to get to the Kenai Peninsula, the last place we ran into chain fast food restaurants was Whitehorse, Yukon Territory a month ago. Soldotna has a good sized Safeway and a large Fred Meyers. The Fred Meyers has groceries, household items, clothing, sporting goods, and automotive. Fred Meyer’s food selection was the best we have encountered on this trip. The prices were more reasonable than the other grocery stores we have shopped at. There is a Sportsman’s Warehouse, automotive stores, and a hardware store.
We took a day trip to the town of Kenai, population about 6,000, located about 9 miles away. There is a Safeway, Three Bears Grocery store and Home Depot and a Walmart in Kenai. We combined a trip to the Captain Cook State Recreation area with our visit to Kenai.
Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center
We toured the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge’s Visitor Center that is located in Soldotna. The facility opened in 2015 and is state of the art. They have excellent interactive displays about the wildlife in the refuge. There is a short film about the area shown on a loop throughout the day. They had mounts of many of the area animals, including a very large brown bear, a lynx and a dall sheep.
Large brown bear mount
Lynx
Dall Sheep
After touring the visitor center we walked the trails that leave from the parking area. We made a loop by combining the Lynx Trail, Keen Eye Nature Trail and Centennial Trail which totaled about 3.5 miles with some slight elevation changes. In the woods, we ran into some thick mosquitoes. Be prepared with some bug dope.
Boreal forest of the Centennial Trail in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge
The Moose is Loose Bakery is the best we’ve found this trip!
Our favorite find in Soldotna was The Moose is Loose Bakery, the best bakery we have found since leaving home a month and a half ago. They have two big display cases, one with doughnuts and one with primarily cookies. They also make cakes and numerous types of breads and rolls. They have lots of moose items for sale: clothing, magnets, ornaments, cups, etc..
The donut display case
Cookies
They had two unusual bakery items. The first was a danish donut, which looked like a large danish with no filling that had been deep fried. The other is their “roadkill cinnamon roll” which is as flat as a pancake. I decided to try one of the roadkill cinnamon rolls. It was very well flavored with its cinnamon amount, not overpowering. The outside is slightly crisp and the inside is softer. I enjoyed it.
Roadkill cinnamon roll
I also got one of the halibut cookies to try. The halibut cookie is a frosted sugar cookie. They also had sockeye “red” salmon cookies.
Halibut sugar cookie
Mike tried several doughnuts, both yeast and cake. He said they made the best chocolate cake donut he has ever eaten. We recommend stopping here for anyone who enjoys baked treats.
We had a lunch at Pizza Boys, where they offered a slice (1/4 of a large pizza) and a can of soda for $4.75 for a lunch special. The pizza was alright. I tried the cheese pizza. It was not very flavorful. It needed more sauce for the amount of cheese. Mike got the Hawaiian. He said the pineapples were very tasty. This was the only place we ate out. It was rated #4 in Soldotna. The top rated place was Sushi Exchange, which offered drive through sushi. The reviews talked about non-sushi items as being great. We were a little concerned at the drive through part.
