Postcard from Salmonfest
By Aaron Thomas
Photo by Aaron Thomas
Mount Denali sits in the background during sunset.
Can a 27 year-old Subaru make it 1,000 miles from Fairbanks to Ninilchik and back? That was what I set out to test when I left Fairbanks for Salmonfest. With a week's worth of food and gear, I left on a bright and sunny afternoon the day before the festival.
The Parks Highway in summer was as beautiful as ever, the tallest peaks of the Alaska Range just barely poking through the clouds that hid most of the mountains.
After eight and a half hours of driving with my car humming along, I camped out at Peterson lake off the Sterling Highway to get some rest before the first day. It was pretty late in the day and the air had a chill by the time I was cooking up some dinner over a two burner coleman stove.
In the morning I woke up to sunrise over the snow-capped Kenai Mountains reflected over Lake Peterson. After breaking down my campsite, I drove the final stretch of the road to Ninilchik. After driving the Seward Highway and the first half of the Sterling Highway surrounded by mountains, the flatness of western side of the Kenai Peninsula is a stark contrast.
Photo by Aaron Thomas
The Revivalists captivate the Arches Amphitheater.
When I arrived at the festival campground, the crowds were already in the thousands. The festival attracts over 8,000 attendees a year—temporarily making it one of the largest cities in the state of Alaska. Cars lined the sides of every street near the entrance and the surrounding campgrounds were packed full of tents and RVs.
Salmonfest began as an effort to raise awareness for the conservation of salmon, particularly in Bristol Bay. Since 2011 they have put on the festival and partnered with various non-profits such as Inletkeeper, United Tribes of Bristol Bay, and Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, to raise funding and awareness for the conservation of one of Alaska’s most treasured resources.
With three days of live music, dozens of food trucks, and booths from numerous artists and local businesses, and art projects for children in the Small Fry Activity Area, Salmonfest has something for everyone. Over the years they have brought in notable artists from all across the country, such as The Devil Makes Three, Jason Mraz, Old Crow Medicine Show, and numerous others. This year The Revivalists, Ellie King, Sierra Hull, The Dip, and The Allman Betts Band were the headliners.
Photo by Aaron Thomas
Crowds gather as Sierra Hull plays.
I met up with some friends in the campground who had just gotten back from fishing on a boat in Bristol Bay and I listened to their tales of the season. Afterwards, we began meandering through all the various vendors and stages. Ellie King, a blues and country inspired songwriter, performed at the main stage.
With cold weather in the back of everyone’s mind as the fall approaches, many made the most of the sunny weather by wearing their summer outfits one last time. People watched the stage from hammocks, lawnchairs, blankets, and from the floor as King’s bluesy tones filled the air.
When I woke up the second day sometime around noon, it had begun to drizzle. I met up with my friends in the campground again after I had some breakfast and discussed what artists we wanted to see for the day.
We made our way back down to the Ninilchik Fairgrounds from the hill our campsites were on. The rain had stopped but the skies were still overcast.
The Revivalists played that night, a New Orleans roots rock band that gained notoriety from their 2016 single “Wish I Knew You”. Hundreds of people gathered on the dance floor with hundreds more in the stands behind.
The music from various bands ran until 2:00 a.m., and the afterparty went on into the early morning. We made it back to the campground just as the sun began to rise.
On the third day, the crowds were a bit lighter for most of the day as some started to leave for home or were exhausted from the first two days. Sierra Hull played in the afternoon, covering Simon and Garfunkel along with many of her bluegrass-inspired originals.
I left around 5 p.m. that day hoping to make it to Trapper Creek, but my exhaustion won and I spent the night in Anchorage to rest up for the drive.
On the way back to Fairbanks, I met up with a few friends to backpack Kesugi Ridge in Denali State Park. They brought my dog Bindi down from Fairbanks, who accompanied us throughout the 16 mile segment we hiked on the winding mountain trail.
As we climbed higher on the ridge, we stopped to pick blueberries and look back at the glacier-cut valley that lay between us and the Alaska Range. We passed a few hikers, but we mostly had the trail to ourselves.
Photo by Aaron Thomas
Our rock poker table and my dog Bindi.
After the first day of hiking, we camped at a saddle on the ridge near a creek and played poker with rocks as chips and a boulder for our table as we watched the sun set over Denali.
Dinner that night was interrupted as my dog Bindi began chasing a marmot and we had to sprint across the tundra and hop the creek to stop her before a tragedy occurred.
The next day, the weather was near perfect as we backpacked across the tundra under blue skies. After a cold plunge in an alpine lake, we made camp and set up our gravity filter to refill our water bottles.
The mosquitos that night were intent on making us miserable after leaving us alone the first day. We ate our dinner with headnets on, only lifting them up to take the next bite of our freeze-dried meals as swarms engulfed the whole campsite.
On the third day of the trip, we headed back down into the treeline. At this point, the GPS map we had loaded on Alltrails had failed us and we came to a fork in the road with no clear choice. We decided on the steepest trail that went straight down the mountain and stumbled on wet leaves and roots until we found the main trail again. We hiked the remainder of the trail across bogs and groves of birch and aspen trees.
After we made it to the trailhead, we divided up our gear and headed back home. The drive back to Fairbanks after a trip like this is always the most difficult part — exhasted and heavily caffeinated after sleeping out of a car or tent for a week. It occurred to me how fast this summer had gone by. It felt as if only yesterday there was still melting snow on the ground as the first trees greened up after a long winter. I made the most of it as I headed back home after one last summer adventure, with the next semester of college in mind.