Hope And Turnagain Arms To Anchorage: USA / Canada 2018

Leaving Soldotna early we headed north to Hope, just on the north coast of the Kenai Peninsula. Arriving early was certainly the right decision, it soon started to get busy. It’s a strange old, picturesque and trendy little town.

We had a brief wander but having been stalked by wasps wherever we went we headed off to a lay-by on the road outside of town overlooking Turnagain Arm, beautiful.

Our plan from here was to head to Girdwood and then to Anchorage for our final night. However, we didn’t realise it was the Annual Girdwood Forest Fair and were greeted with queues of traffic from the main road up to the town of  Girdwood and also back up the road to Anchorage. Luckily for us the queue was only south from Anchorage to Girdwood so we decided to skip Girdwood altogether and head on north up the the Seward Highway – Girdwood has been added to our list for next time!

 

We called off at many of the mile point lookouts as the weather was so beautiful, including Bird Creek, Windy Corner and Beluga Point. Then headed to mile post 117 and Potters Marsh.

 

This is a nice area just outside of Anchorage with lots of boardwalks raised above the marsh giving lovely views. We were delighted to see a moose grazing in the marsh, a real treat on our last day.

From here we headed into Anchorage for a brief wander around the Saturday Market, where we enjoyed another delicious chocolate dipped ice-cream!

Then, it was down to Ship Creek to look for salmon – no salmon and no fisherman. Our final call was a stop into Walmart to pick up some much loved Milk Duds!

We’d booked a motel close to the airport for tonight due to the very early flight. We stayed at the Puffin Inn Motel, having booked early we got our room for only $75. It was basic but clean with parking, breakfast and friendly staff. The added benefit is that it is just across the road from Lake Spenard and Lake Hood where there are lots of float planes allowing for a lovely evening stroll before we left Alaska.

On a side note – we’d purchased bear spray before leaving Anchorage a the start of our trip and of course we’d returned to Anchorage with it unused. Now, our dilemma was – what do we do with a canister of bear spray before an international flight? A quick enquiry at the motel reception discovered that they’re happy to take canisters to put behind the desk for future guests to take!

That completes our road trip of Alaska and into the Yukon, Canada. We were left with one treat – the flight from Anchorage – the weather forecast was for clear skies so we were looking forward to some lovely views….click here to read more.