Chugach State Park - Glaciers, Trains and Hikes! Part One

Day 64 - July 4   Happy 4th of July!  We are heading to Eklutkna Campground in the Chugach State Park which is outside of Wasilla.  Made a stop at Fred Meyer's for a grocery stock up. This park is great, and it's what we enjoy. Beautiful scenery. The sites and road are all paved and lots of privacy between sites. Sure - no hookups, but not a bother for us.  The lake here is beautiful and today being a holiday, it has lots of kayaks. Doubt we will launch ours as it's a long hike to the shore. The lake is a water supply for Anchorage and it is looking low.  We did celebrate the 4th with hotdogs and banana pudding!  There was a bear incident 2 days ago in the park, so we are on the lookout. Fresh bear scat on the trail!

Day 65 - July 5  Ron and I are going to stay here another night. Donna and Greg are anxious to get to Anchorage as they have kids and grandkids coming up for a visit.  We will get back with them when we get to Seward next week. So off we go to catch up on some hiking.  One trail close by is Thunderbird Falls. I didn't think the falls were that big and spectacular but there were lots of folks on the trail.

Thunderbird Falls

We drove a few more miles down the road to Eagle River State Park. It's really nice and is in town. Since we have already stocked up for a week or so, we decided we will find our next spot south of Anchorage.  All of these campgrounds we are visiting are within the Chugach State Park. It's a pretty big area.  We also made a stop at the St. John Orthodox Cathedral - so very pretty!

St. John Orthodox Cathedral

The inside

We enjoyed a good happy hour with an awesome view of the Lake Eklunta back at camp. The skies are clear so the view is a snow capped mountain with a view of the Eklutna Glacier.  This lake is about 7 miles long and a mile wide. It is used to generate hydro-electric power and is also a drinking water source for Anchorage.

Day 66 - July 6 is moving campsite day. Decided to land at Bird Creek Campground in the Chugach Forest.  It's nice, but is beside the Seward Highway and man oh man is there a lot of traffic on this road.  We are right on Turnagain Arm which helps to keep us cool.  Fishing starts here at Bird Creek next week, so again, we are too early.  They have an awesome trail here so enjoyed a hike and then a bike ride along Turnagain. We can sure tell that we have been rather lazy!  Going to change that!  We watched the ride come in. Very impressive. Now we're ending the day in jackets around our campfire. Summer in Alaska!  (But our kiddos are complaining about the heat at home!)

One view of Turnagain Arm

Beluga Point on Turnagain Arm

Tide is coming in!

You might can see some white buildings across the way - that's the town of Hope.

Bird Creek

Great trails here. This is overlooking Bird Creek.

Bird Creek

Day 67 - July 7  Our plan today is to take a drive and explore our area.  Girdwood is a few miles down the road. Their annual Forest Festival starts today. Felt like we were going back in time to the late 60's and 70's. Many old hand painted signs that eluded just to songs from that era. So....didn't stop, especially because it was $10 to park and then a long walk.  Drove up by the Alyeska Ski Resort and continued on the road to Crow Creek Mine.  You can mine/pan for gold all day for $20. Not our thing. Or you can walk around and look at old mining stuff for $15. We've seen enough already. So we turned around. Went down to the Portage Valley Highway to check out possible campsites to move to. Going to try for Williwaw - a beautiful forest service campground right under Middle Glacier.  Did laundry back in Anchorage. Gregureks drove out for steak night.

Another view of Turnagain Arm with glaciers across the way.

A little history

Picture of Turnagain Arm with the tide out.

View from Williwaw campground

A lake along the Portage highway.

Day 68 - July 8  Got moving early so we could hopefully find a good campsite since it's Saturday and yesterday the campground was already full when we took a drive by.  Scored a great pull through site. Again, these types of campgrounds do not have hookups, but they have all just been exceptional. Room here for big rigs, too. It's drizzling and a very cool 55 degrees. Decided to go driving. The Portage/Whittier Glacier Access road has some of the best scenery we've had in a long time. The Begich, Boggs Visitor Center is totally awesome! This is a US Forestry Service place and it is top notch! They charge a fee for the exhibits and movie, but it is free if you have the National Parks Pass. It sits on Portage Lake and we spotted a few icebergs in it.

Such a pretty iceberg blue

Looking a little scary there!

Leaving there we decided to go check out the town of Whittier.  It's pretty cool to drive through a one-way 2.5 mile tunnel - the Anton Anderson Memorial tunnel - built for both car and train traffic. So - since it's one way, you may have to wait in line for a while.  It's $13 round trip. Whittier is a pretty town in the mist, busy harbor. It is the gateway to Prince William Sound. We should have spent more time exploring, but the weather wasn't the best. Got back to the trailer, put stew on to cook and took a hike in the drizzle. It was too pretty not to.

Whittier Harbor

Exiting the tunnel

Chugach - to be continued......