Featured Destination Story

Russian River Falls

Cooper Landing, AK

The draw of this landscape is not just the falls, but what happens at the falls when the salmon start running. Located on the Russian River near Cooper Landing, the Russian River Falls is a steep cascade stair-stepping into level pools, giving opportunities for salmon to rest on their way to spawning grounds. The Russian River is teaming with thousands of green-headed, red-bodied sockeye salmon during the two major summer runs between mid-June and late July.

Hike out and observe the massive runs power their way upstream through the powerful current and onto their ancestral spawning grounds. But humans are not the only creatures interested in the run. It also allows bears to take those salmon while standing in the shallow pools of the falls.