We follow the shores of the Turnagain Arm in Alaska
Anchorage is almost
surrounded by water of the Prince William Sound on the east and Cook Inlet on
the southwest. The city sits on
Turnagain Arm at the northern end of Cook Inlet. We continued to follow Highway #1 to take us
down the Kenai Peninsula.
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| Waters of Cook Inlet |
The Cook Inlet is 290
km (180 mi) long and lies to the west of the Kenai Peninsula offering some
great views on this sunny day. James Cook was not the first explorer but he
was looking for the Northwest Passage on his first attempt in 1778. George Vancouver, who had served under
Captain Cook named the inlet after him in 1794.
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| Portage Glacier |
The Portage Glacier is
included in Chugah National Forest. It
was named in 1898 because it was part of the portage route used between Prince
William Sound and Turnagain Arm in those days.
The glacier filled the entire valley hundreds of years ago. Although all
separated now, there were five other glaciers all connected to one another in
those times, as well.
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| Placer River Overflow |
We are following the
Turnagain Arm on this part of Highway 1.
This was named by William Bligh of HMS Bounty fame. He’d served on Cook’s third and final voyage
seeking the Northwest Passage who once again learned that the river’s mouth
would not take them where they needed to go so they had to ‘turn again’, therefore the name for the Turnagain River and Arm.
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| Turnagain Pass |
We were now on the
Kenai Peninsula but turned off Highway 1 to find our way to the small hamlet of
Hope, Alaska for our next overnight stay.
This drive was about 25 km (15 mi) along the southern side of the
Turnagain Arm.
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| Cabins in Hope, Alaska |
The small village of
Hope has a population of under 200 now but at one time was a thriving community
of 3000 people. Years before Anchorage
was founded, news of the Six Mile Creek gold rush in 1895 brought thousands of
people and it became one of Alaska’s first gold rushes. In 1898, the word of Yukon’s Klondike Gold
Rush caused most of them to leave, leaving only 23 people in Hope. Some original buildings still remain today.
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| Seaview RV park |
Welcome to the Seaview
RV park at Hope, Alaska. It is situated
at the end of the road and we considered ourselves lucky there were empty spots
with all the fishing we’d seen along the way.
The view was great,
the price was right and they were right next door to the Seaview Café.
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| Fishing on Resurrection Creek |
Resurrection Creek is
one of the tributaries of Turnagain Arm and the RV park at Hope sits at the
mouth of this creek. We took our chairs and afternoon refreshments down there
to watch the crowd. There were families
enjoying the water and fishermen there to fish some sockeye. It took only moments for a fish to grab the
hook, it looked so easy, it didn’t look like sport fishing as we know it.
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| Seaview Cafe in Hope, Alaska |
The café offers a pub
and cafe where we sat out on the deck between the two for dinner. We had the best halibut burger, ever! The menu was a good one and prices were good,
too. We spent the rest of the evening
sitting outside the RV enjoying the view till the sun went down.
