State Parks and National Parks

Anchor River State Recreation Area offers prime fishing country for king and steelhead salmon and Dolly Varden trout.

King salmon are fished during their run in late May and early June. Other salmon are also taken from the river during this time, and again in the season running July through December.

The river empties into Cook Inlet from the Kenai Peninsula and, according to legend, its name was coined after Captain Cook lost an anchor near the river mouth.

The park, located near Anchor Point at Mile 157 Sterling Highway, has five campgrounds with a total of 101 tent sites. At road's end, touted as the farthest west you can go on a state highway, is a spectacular water view. Anglers settle in at any one of several fishing holes along the river.

The peninsula was once the home of the Athabascan, a tribe of hunters and gatherers whose peaceful existence was disrupted by the arrival of Russian fur traders around 1785. The Russians forced the Athabascans to hunt for them by taking women and children hostage until fur quotas were met.

In the early 1900s, homesteaders began arriving, and made their living farming, fishing and hunting. Many of their descendents still live in the Kenai area.

The park is not staffed in winter, but public use is permitted.