Deep Creek Beach

 The beaches along Cook Inlet have a lot of coal which comes from the cliffs. This picture across Deep Creek shows coal that has fallen from the cliffs. Some of these pieces are 15' long. We put a few smaller pieces on the campfire and they were still warm the next afternoon. Some locals collect the coal and use it for heat during the winter. It has lots of smoke and is not very clean burning.

This is a fish weir on Deep Creek. At this location they capture and retain previously released King salmon, wild Kings and all others are released. The captured fish are used to raise more Kings and are distributed to a number of hatcheries on the Kenai Peninsula. This is the third year with very low King salmon runs and all fishing for them is banned. The reason(s) for the low runs are unknown but the theories are: They've been eaten, over fishing, low water (the creek is about half it's normal height, they are just not ready and the water is to warm.

Another popular idea is that they are byproduct of the commercial fishing with nets. Many don't believe that they are thrown back into the ocean but rather offloaded into smaller boats as a large King could be worth $1,000. That way the large boats are not over quota when checked.

We saw at one time 6 eagles. What beautiful birds as they soar and play. There are meadows and creeks nearby but at this time they are not hunting. There are likely nests nearby. It's totally amazing how much distance they can travel on the wind with no flaps of the wings. As they approach each other one will do a 180 degree flip in the blink of a eye and then on back to level flight. Something man will never duplicate with our aluminum tubes boring through the sky!

Commercial fishing: There are quite a few commercial fishing charters in the Ninilchik area and they launch here at Deep Creek Beach. The boats are 25' or longer with 6 or more fisherman and are towed as oversized vehicles. They unhitch the boat above the beach climb into the boat via ladders and the tractor operator launches the boat and takes it and out for $55. This picture was taken at low tide. Notice the white marker buoy that marks the rock - There is about a 28' tide at this location and the commercial tractor operator has 4 tractors. They handled about 80 boats one day. Launching comes in waves - fish are on let's go - we're done pull us out. They hang a yellow sign on each trailer, the captain calls in to be taken out and the boat is driven up on the trailer and a second person tightens the strap and up the beach they go - quite a show! These pictures are of a launch at low tide.

The beach is very shallow and the tires which are almost submerged are 5' in diameter. At high tide the beach curves up and the tractor doesn't get in the water. Very few private boats use this service but come to a launch area near the campground. One guy failed to latch the boat to the trailer and it slid off as he drove up the beach - he was not a happy boater. Another ran his boat up on the beach with a loud crunch of aluminum on rocks. He was completely out of the water. Backed the trailer down and winched the boat up on the trailer. This was a very large and heavy aluminum boat that was probably 28' long.