Hope, Alaska

Good morning, my friends. It was one of our longer days of driving yesterday. We had gray skies almost all day long with very brief sunbreaks. Somehow I was expecting more when we reached Hope, but it is what it is. I have lots to tell you about our drive yesterday, so let's just get right to it.

Right away after pulling out of the campground, we crossed over Kashwitna Lake. 

Here's what our Milepost says about it. Denali was not visible.

We passed through the little town of Houston, Alaska. 

Here's what our Milepost tells us about Houston.

The day brought more views of mountains surrounding us on all sides. Straight ahead was the Kenai Range.

We crossed over the Little Susitna River.

Here's what our Milepost tells us about the salmon runs here.

Moving on, we came to the split in the highway where the Glenn Highway becomes the Seward Highway.

There was a quilt shop here. We tried to visit, but they're closed on Sundays. No surprise. We'll be coming back this way next week sometime, and we'll try again.

There was a Walmart nearby. This is what our Milepost had to say about the Walmart.

We crossed over the Matanuska River. This is the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Memorial Bridge.

There's the river.

Shortly thereafter, we passed through the city of Anchorage. We were on a veritable freeway!

We could see the airport off to the left.

After passing through Anchorage, we decided to stop off at this scenic viewpoint. The big draw was the restrooms, but it was still well worth the stop for the scenery.

Looking out, we were looking at Turnagain Arm and the Cook Inlet. Most of what appears in the image below is mudflat. The water doesn't begin until about 1/3 from the top of the image. We were warned time and again not to walk out on the mudflats. Parts of it are like quicksand, and folks have lost their lives getting stuck. The tide comes in fast and high, and folks get stuck and inundated by the tide before they can be rescued. So, my friends, just don't do it. Okay?

The Milepost told us some interesting information about the mudflats and the tides here. It's worth a read below. I'd never before heard of a "bore tide." Please note the warning in red at the bottom.

Looking south, this is what we saw. Folks hopped the fence to get out nearer the water despite signs prohibiting it. Also, they walked along the railroad tracks and posed for pictures there despite warning signs to stay off the tracks. Sometimes (often) I worry about the future of humanity.

Here's a little information about this point.

And I thought this sign about the dragonflies was interesting. Apparently, dragonflies will eat mosquitos.

Dragonflies are seen favorably enough that some students launched a successful effort to have them named as the Alaska state insect.

Looking farther to the left, it looked like this.

There was another type of lupine growing there. I've seen at least three different kinds of lupine in Alaska.

Here's one more shot of the surrounding area.

From there, we passed through Girdwood. When I planned the trip originally, I had us spending a couple of nights in Girdwood. I've now added those nights to our Anchorage stop, and we'll make a day trip to Girdwood.

We stopped at another viewpoint here...Beluga Point. It's sometimes possible to see Beluga whales here, but we did not see any while we were there. If you've never seen a Beluga whale, you should get thee to an aquarium near you to see them. They are positively enchanting. Here's a picture of one I found in the public domain.

(Image credit: "Beluga Whale" by Jason Pier in DC is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.)

This next section of the highway was interesting.

In this next picture, you can see the dead spruce trees in a line just below the middle of the image:

Eventually, we could see the sun shining a spotlight on the mountain of interest below:

Here's what our Milepost tell us:

Straight ahead, we had a good view of the Spencer Glacier.

From there, we crossed over onto the Kenai Peninsula. We'll be spending the next week or so here.

Shortly after that, we saw the sign welcoming us to Hope.

Here's what our Milepost tells us about Hope.

It was at the end of the approximately 20-mile Hope Highway. Turning off the highway to the right, we were welcomed by this sign.

I was expecting a larger place. As it turns out, Hope is like Tin Cup, Colorado. It's practically a ghost town, but people are still living there. We walked the short distance up and down Main Street. Along the way we passed the George Coon Cabin.

Here's what the plaque out front reads:

A little farther was the Social Hall.

Here's some information about that. Indeed, there was an agenda for a meeting that happened on May 29th.

We were also warned once again about the danger of walking on the mudflats.

I've broken this next sign into two pieces to make it easier to read.

We took a walk out toward the water. Along the way, we passed by the rapid-flowing Six Mile Creek.

It drains into Turnagain Arm. Here's how it looks facing the other direction.

Looking farther to the right, it looked like this.

Turning around and looking back at Hope, it looked like this:

From there, I could zoom in on this barn.

Here's a little more history about Hope.

And here, at The World's Greatest Gift Shop (it says so on the sign in the background), this gave me a chuckle. I'm assuming Johnny Bones owns the gift shop.

Okay, and so that's all I have to tell you about yesterday's journey. Today we'll head farther southwest on the Seward Highway to the town of Seward. We have some fun activities planned there. Our first stop will be at a laundromat. I haven't been able to do laundry for a while, and we've run out of the essentials. After that, we'll be free to explore the area. 

On Wednesday, we've booked a cruise to visit Kenai Fjords National Park. You can read the details about the cruise right here. Rain is in the forecast for all four days of our stay, but we're hoping we've picked a good weather window on Wednesday morning. The cruise will happen no matter the weather. Fingers crossed. You'll want to pack your rain gear for this. In my experience, packing rain gear is good insurance against rain. We'd planned to hold off on any cruises until we reach Valdez, but this one is probably going to give us the best way to see the national park. This will be our only trip to Alaska, and so we'll splurge this time around. 

So, it's time to get going. We need to button things up and be on our way. Today's drive will be short at 77 miles. We're waiting until check-out time to leave Hope, but we'll probably still arrive early in Seward. No worries. Every place we've been we've been allowed to check in early. Nevertheless, our drive will be leisurely, and we'll probably stop at a few places to enjoy the scenery and to kill time.