The City of Soldotna is preparing to open Swiftwater Campground on Friday, May 29. This follows the opening of Centennial Campground on Friday, May 22.
Andrew Carmichael, Director of Soldotna Parks and Recreation, discusses how this season’s park openings are different than most years: “We’ll have the sites ready, we’ll have the majority of them ready – some will be quartered off for social distancing recommendations at the state level. We’ll have some extra procedures in-place for the cleaning and such, touch-point cleaning, for instance. We’ll try to do as best as we can to help people be comfortable coming out for the first big weekend.”
One particular change attendees will need to prepare for us that cash payments are no longer allowed: “The one big change that we’re going to have going on is to try to reduce the contact between people, not that we don’t love them, but we are going to the only ways you can pay for boat launch and all of that stuff in Centennial Campground and Swiftwater this summer will be via credit card or debit card only. So, if the booths aren’t manned, the pay stations will be there as usual. Also, within the booths, we have some procedures going on there that will limit the people’s contact and create some barriers and some distance from people so they can have as good a time as they possibly can.”
If your family is accustomed to making reservations at Swiftwater, Carmichael has advice: “The recommendation is, at this time of year, unless the campground is 100% full to pop in and we should be able to accommodate everybody that shows up without a reservation.”
Campsites located less than 25 feet from an adjacent site will be closed to camping this summer. Closed sites will be posted with a sign and marked on a map available at the campground booth. Bathrooms and outhouses will be cleaned frequently, with notices posted at each location as to the cleaning schedule.
Soldotna Parks and Recretation advises visiting their website for more information.