My Alaska Wilderness

                                                 My Alaska

So far this semester I have talked a lot about my life in Alaska and what I think about when the term "wilderness" comes to mind. So this week I wanted to go a different route. I want to share with you some of my favorite ways to enjoy the Alaskan wilderness. My favorite ways to interact with the Alaskan wilderness is through fishing, camping, hiking, biking, and snowboarding. My motto is to always try to enjoy this amazing land.

Fishing

The single-most awesome activity to do in Alaska! There are so many fish you could literally fish all day everyday (as long as you obey the set limits, ADFG.alaska.gov). The salmon fishing season draws the most tourists from the lower 48. This is because we have fish running all summer, and in the land of the midnight sun, you can fish almost all night if you want to. Alaska’s fish calendar looks (for the most part) like this:

 

 

The current record for King salmon is 97.25 pounds taken on the Kenai River. King fishing is always fun, fun, fun. My husband and the family have spent many hours king fishing at Willow Creek in Willow, Alaska. My second favorite salmon is the red salmon. I think these fish are the tastiest to eat. I like to take my family dip netting at China Poot Creek, across the bay from Homer, Alaska. Here a family of four can take up to 24 salmon per day, and this is usually enough to feed us fresh, delicious Alaskan salmon all winter long. Yum!! The salmon literally jump right into your net as they attempt to swim upstream to spawn. 

Dipnetting at China Poot Creek, Alaska

Camping

I love camping! This is one of my favorite ways to spend time in the outdoors. Of course if it is raining, camping can be less than fun and more like a nightmare. On a camping trip to Kenai last year, it rained for five day straight. We were so wet, our tent became a lake. Water was coming in everywhere. It was not very much fun. So, while I would not recommend camping in Alaska in the rain, ant other time is wonderful! My favorite campgrounds are: Willow Creek Campground (great sites next to or near the creek), The campground inside Denali National Park is wonderful and you can hike into the park. The scenery is to die for and you never leave without seeing some type of wildlife. I also love the Porcupine Campground in Hope, Alaska. It has great views and nice privacy! 

Hiking 

The Palmer, Alaska Butte trail is one of my favorites by far. It takes about a half hour to climb the steep trail and it is quite strenuous, especially for kids, but when you get to the top the view is amazing! We like to take a picnic and a book and just relax at the top for a few hours before going home. We hike this trail over and over in the summer. 

A horse takes a break atop the Butte in Palmer Alaska

I also like to hike around the Alyeska resort. Here you can stay in the hotel if you want and hike up the mountain all day and relax at the restaurant at night. The views are wonderful and showcase the area magnificently.

My favorite trail in the Hatcher Pass area is the Reed Lake trail. It literally goes up and over the top of a mountain. It has really tough spots. My poor dog couldn’t walk for three days after we first hiked the trail. I would not recommend taking pets on this trail but it is always a great hike. This link shows a short video of the scenery on the trail.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMNuv1FnpAI.

Snowboarding/Cross Country Skiing/Biking

               Right away I want to say snowboarding is one of my all-time favorite pastimes. It is an expensive hobby so I don’t get to go as much as I would like to, but when I do, Alyeska is the place to be. I posted a link to a short video because it shows the run where the tram ends that scares the poopy out of me when it’ foggy. Sometimes you can literally see a cloud when you look down here and it’s so scary to ski off into oblivion. But once you get around that first turn and you realize you’re not going to die, things get pretty great. I love heading up to Alyeska for the weekend. My family gets a room at the hotel and we ski all weekend. Lots of fun!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlRPa48g6kw.

When I’m not snowboarding, or can’t afford to, I always love to cross country ski. We have a few great trials right around my home in Palmer. Colony High School has nice groomed trails, but if you want to take your pets the Crevasse Moraine Trails are nice too. Miles and miles of trails here, not groomed but real good skiing. These trails are also great for mountain biking. Watch out for downed trees though! In Anchorage, my favorite trail system by far is the Kincaid Park trail system. These trails are regularly groomed (because the University ski team practices here) and so nice. Views, views, views! 

                                           Kincaid Park Skiing Views