Discovery Campground

Camped here three days to explore Captain Cook State Rec Area and the nearby beaches (yes, beaches in SCAK). Enjoyable small campground with updated facilities (outhouses). Spectacular views of Cook Inlet and volcanoes. Easy access to good beaches for walking and hanging out on. Rocks to climb if you're into that.

Kinda buggy (present but not terrible) in mid-June. Our site had bit more dog poop than would have liked. Generator noise from the trailers and mohos (we were tent camping).

The park is at the end of the Kenai Spur road, about 39 miles from Soldotna, Alaska. There are 53 sites and some will accommodate large motorhomes and some are small and are better for tent camping or smaller units. There is a water pump and a dumpster for trash. I had 2 and 3 bars on my [email protected] phone.

All campsites had picnic tables and fire pits. There is no host this year (2020) due to the pandemic. We stayed from Thursday to Monday and the park was never full. On Friday and Saturday it was about 2/3 full.

The devil's club is taking over so watch out if you get off the trails. There are not a lot of trails but you have access to the beach and can go miles north or walk about 20 minutes south to the mouth of Swanson River. At high tide there is very little beach (depends on tide as some are very high) so walking is more difficult.

Bring bug repellent as this is Alaska and wooded area and they will eat you alive!

Overall, not a bad place and we enjoyed our stay.

Site 7 is very nice. A path takes you right to an overlook cliff. However, everything is wildly overgrown ( welcome to Alaska ).

No dump and no water other than a hand pump.

Nice day use area on the bluff with views.

Sites are tough to get leveled and minimal sun for solar.

The beach and tides were amazing. Supposed to be a good agate beach. We’re still looking.

Verizon and ATT both worked ok.

Good road, something of oddity in Alaska. The last five miles of the thirty mile drive past Kenai gets a little rough so slow down. No host on site the first day, but the family showed up the next. Great host with a very nice family. Had a unbelievable view of the Cook Inlet with Mt Spur on the other side. We had a back in site, the most popular site, that was just a twenty yard walk to the cliff edge overlook. They have a small deck and benches with a trail coming from both directions. One takes you down a steep hill to the beach. Its steep but slow moving gets you down without getting hurt or take a short drive around to the day use parking. All day use areas in Alaska are five dollars which will get you into as many as you can visit in one day.
Cook Inlet has the second highest tides and the fastest tides in the world. While there all four of the active volcanoes came out from the clouds. Mt Spur, Mt Redoubt, Mt lliamna and Mt Augustine. We were only staying for the week end but liked it so much that we spent six days. Sad to leave.
Some bigger sites. Seen all sizes come though. Gravel, which was a little off level. Still it was the nicest campground of our entire trip.

To avoid the crowds of dip-netters (hence my reference to fisherman's back sides) in the Kenai area during the month of July we chose to drive the extra 30 miles up to Captain Cook State Rec Area, which includes Discovery Campground.

Some sites are small, but others are good for even 40' busses. Only a few back you up to the view of the water, but don't let that discourage you from staying. The further you travel around the loop of camp sites, the more secluded it gets if that is your thing.

The plants, flowers, and berries are superb this time of the year and the trails around the campground lead you right in to explore them.

The only real beef from me is all the helicopters and seaplanes that fly directly overhead, I assume bringing people and supplies to the oil rigs or Anchorage, which can be loud at times.

Verizon data was useless so we had to lean on AT&T which was good