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The Yaghanen Room
Meaning "Good Land", referring to the Kenai Peninsula. For a thousand years the Peninsula has attracted attention due to its exceptional wildlife and abundant resources. This bedroom has a private bathroom and is located on the house's lower level that accesses the patio, campfire area and stairway to our excellent salmon and trout fishing.
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Our Yaghanen Room level offers a spacious living room lounge, pictured at right, with beautiful slate flooring providing the opportunity to relax at the end of the day while viewing the splendor of the Kenai River right outside. Native handcrafts and Alaska theme pictures adorn the walls providing a genuine Alaskan atmosphere.
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This living room lounge also features a mini wet kitchenette with running water and sink, microwave oven, under counter refrigerator, toaster and dishes (we take care of the washing and drying). Its an ideal place for keeping your favorite libations ice cold or putting together some snacks for fishing down at the river. And its just a couple steps away from the covered patio where the gas barbecue grill resides so its really convenient for putting together all the components for your personalized lunch or dinner feed if you chose to. Because our guest numbers consist of only two bedrooms everyone has the freedom of enjoying the entire house and amenities. No herd mentality here!
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 The covered patio outside is furnished with benches for sitting and watching the river below or just swapping stories about the one that got away. There is also a gas barbecue grill on this deck where many of our guests have cooked up fresh caught salmon filets that were just hours from the ocean. We have plenty of dishes and silverware so you can get as extravagant as you wish.
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The Ts'eldatnu Room
Meaning "Trickles Down Creek" and is the origin of the English word Soldotna, where this small creek attracted settlement along the Kenai River. This accomodation is located on the mid-level of our house and has its own private bath. This level is also your formal dining area which provides a commanding view from the spacious deck overlooking the Kenai River.
Each of our bedrooms have a King size bed and one full size extra long single bed. This arrangement can be changed to three full size extra long single beds if the guests require such accommodations in one or both rooms.
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The Ts'eldatnau Room level of the house is our mid-level where our kitchen and dining facilities are present. This level has a beautiful wooden patio deck that overlooks the mighty Kenai River in all its splendor. While dining you may frequently see bald eagles glide by the window at eye level while they survey the river for any morsels of food to take back to their young. Most of the year we provide the choice of continental breakfast for those on the go or a full breakfast cooked up hot by Chef George.
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The Ts'eldatnau Room level of the house leads outside to our expansive upper patio deck overlooking a milelong stretch of the Kenai River below. From here you can watch Bald Eagles soar by at eye to eye level and monitor the fishermen crowding the Centennial Campground boat ramp lot for signs of incoming sockeye and silver salmon. When you see "fish on" across the river and anglers lined up at the fish cleaning table that's definitely your cue to head down the stairs to the fishing walkway and get your line in the water.
The deck is the perfect place to kick back in a lounge chair and relax with a good book, take in a bit of our magical Midnight Sun or relax after a day's outing. With guided and unguided fishing, rafting, clamming, beach combing, sightseeing, shopping, wildlife viewing, visiting museums, etc. you'll appreciate having a comfortable and casual place to kick up your feet and reflect upon the day's events and those to come.
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The mid-level also contains our Great Room adjacent to the dining area and kitchen. Relax at the end of your day in the comfort of genuine leather sofas in the lounge area of this magnificent room with ceiling high windows overlooking the upper deck while Bald Eagles soar by scanning the river below.
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The Great Room is adorned with Alaskan native handicrafts and artwork that gives a special ambience to Holly House.
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The river view from the upper deck provides a great opportunity to watch anglers on the opposite side of the river. When the fish are running strong you will see lots of action over there. Then its time to grab your rod and capitalize on Holly House's 265 feet of private river frontage where you can fish in comfort and at your leisure.
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 Our outdoor decked fire pit is a great way to end the day sitting around the campfire, relaxing with your hosts and other guests and sharing the day's experiences. Many guests will stop by the market and pick up the fixings for grilling some steaks, making a salad and enjoying a bottle of wine, or cooking up some very fresh salmon fillets they just caught only hours earlier. There is nothing that can compare to outdoor grilled sockeye salmon around a friendly campfire.
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 Our 265 feet of private Kenai River shoreline consists of natural riverbank and elevated grating fishing walkways. Both sections can be fished by our guests. The landing is equipped with a fish cleaning table and running water, landing nets, benches to relax on, and tables to prepare your gear and keep your cameras handy for getting those great vacation shots of your catch. Sockeye, silvers, kings and pink salmon as well as rainbow trout and Dolly Varden are all available at some point throughout the summer and fall fishing season. For kings you'll need some stout gear to handle fish from 20 to 50 pounds. The other salmon species can be taken on medium weight rods, reels and 20 lb. test lines.
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King Salmon are what the Kenai River is world famous for. The world record of 97 lbs. 4 oz. was caught in this river and someday that record will probably be beat. King season begins in May and runs to July 31st. During that time king salmon are frequently seen just 30 feet out from our fishing dock rolling on the surface as they migrate upstream through the area. They are within easy casting range BUT are formidable opponents which require very stout rods and reels and a minimum of 30 lb. test lines and a lot of luck to land the largest ones that could reach 70 pounds.
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The Kenai River has nearly 400 fishing guides on the river and a majority of our guests opt for going out at least once with a professional charter to increase their chances of catching the biggest fish of their lives. There are a number of guides we can recommend from our personal experience and the many decades we have known them. They are very dedicated to seeing that their anglers have the maximum opportunity to catch a Kenai king salmon and some can even pick you up right from our fishing dock in the morning.
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When the sockeye (red) salmon are running up the Kenai River as many as 100,000 salmon will pass by in a single day! Our sockeye run typically averages 750,000 to ONE MILLION fish a year. During years when Fish & Game forecasts indicate a bumper crop of fish, they may liberalize the daily limit and change it from three fish per day to SIX reds per day. The fish are running very near the shore so you only need to fish about ten feet out from our bank. There are a number of fish processors in Soldotna who can prepare your fish in many ways. Vacuum packaging and flash freezing is the usual way our guests prefer their fish. You can take your fish home in fish boxes as luggage on the plane or have it FedEx Overnight shipped to you after you get home.
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 Wildlife in and around the city of Soldotna abound. Bald eagles are everywhere, quite often soaring past our windows or perching in the trees next to the upper patio deck watching the river for their next meal. Moose are year 'round residents of the town and wander at will with little attention to the ongoings of the human residents of each yard they pass through. A remarkable herd of protected woodlands caribou roam the Kenai/Soldotna area all summer long and when they are spotted along the roadside its a photographer's dream come true.
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