Day 33: The Russian River.

The wildfires in mainland Alaska continued to send walls of smoke that made the incredible drive back from Homer a bit hazy. We could still appreciate the nice landscape and explore some of the viewpoints along the route – yet – it was a missed opportunity. Of a particular interest
was a 1-mile drive to a traditional smokehouse (Tustumena Smokehouse) – where locals and fishers bring their fish or hunters bring their game for processing and smoking.
The Russian River campground is fantastic, with great sites and services. The salmons have started to get into the river (though not in masses yet)
and some internet reports in AllTrails reported sighting of Grizzly bears and cubs fishing next to the Russian waterfall trail this morning.
Expectations were high. The trail is a traditional forest trail, not very challenging, and not very interesting. The waterfall gave us an excellent opportunity to see some big salmon trying their luck jumping against the stream. No Bears were sighted.
The more excellent trail in that place is the Fisherman’s trail that strolls along the Russian River just next to the big campsite. It is a highly well-maintained environmental broadwalk that enables a close view of the water, easy access for anglers, and a good opportunity to spot their action.

We finished the day with a 5-star dinner: Ruti experimented with an RV version of her great Pizza (over the cast iron griddle). Later, we grilled a fresh caught, never frozen, Halibut that was given to us by one of the anglers in Homer, and we finished with Salmon-Burger from the smokehouse.