Attractions

• Birding

  Birders will find Captain Cook State Recreation Area an excellent destination with possible sightings including bald eagles, sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans, arctic and common loons, golden-eye ducks, mergansers, thrushes, warblers, and jays.

• Canoeing

  Captain Cook State Recreation Area just north of Nikiski is the west end of the Swanson River canoe route. The Swanson River system links more than 40 lakes and 46 miles of river in the northern lowlands of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge with a one-way trip being an 80-mile paddle from Swan Lake Road to Cook Inlet. For a much shorter outing canoers will spend an afternoon paddling the park's Stormy Lake.

• Nikiski Family Fun in the Midnight

  Celebrating the longest day of the year, the Nikiski Family Fun in the Midnight Sun festival begins with foot races and continues with variety of contests such as three-legged races, egg and water balloon tosses and a obstacle course. In between there are carnival games, food and music to round out the day-long festival.

• Nikiski Pool

  Nikiski is blessed with an excellent indoor pool and recreation area. The Nikiski Pool is a dome-shaped building that features a large pool heated to 84 degrees with 136-foot-long waterslide, splash area, hot tubs and a visitor observation area. Outside there are picnic facilities and a playground.

• Sportfishing

  In Captain Cook State Recreation Area anglers head to Swanson River to catch rainbow trout and silver salmon during late summer spawning runs. In Stormy Lake they cast for rainbows and arctic char and then return in the winter to ice fishing through the lake's frozen surface.