Hope, Alaska- Salmon and People Running!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

It rained during the night at Summit Lake, but by the time we left in the morning it stopped for the drive to Hope. The Hope turn-off is a 18 mile detour off the Seward Highway before leaving the Kenai Peninsula. It brings you to the end of the road on Turnigan Arm across the water from the Bird Creek Campground we stayed in a week ago just after we left Anchorage. The road follows Six Mile Creek until reaching the Arm and then allows a few views of Turnigan Arm and the Chugach Mountains across the water on the way to Hope.

Turnagain Arm with low tide mud flats

When we approached Hope, there were people running alongside the road, the main streets, all two of them, were blocked off, booths set up and cars parked along the main road. We discovered later that the annual Wagon Wheel-Run was taking place. We continued along the road past the private campground we were considering staying in. The road was blocked. Coming across more cars parked along the road, we found dozens of people fishing for pink salmon in Resurrection Creek. At the end of the road was the National Forest campground Porcupine, and we found the last site with a waterfront view, so we took it. We finally found the black flies, and had to drag out the bug spray!

Fishing for the pink salmon run in Resurrection Creek

Our Camp

After lunch we walked the mile into Hope. We watched the people fishing along the creek and then walked through the few gravel streets in town. Hope was originally a gold rush town that had its own gold rush the year before the Klondike Rush. It was almost a ghost town when we lived in Anchorage, but has been rediscovered, and seems to have some fulltime residents and weekend people. The old log cabins have been restored and a nice museum set up with buildings moved to the site from one of the original mine sites up Resurrection Creek.

High Tide view

Mid tide

Fish cleaning station

Downtown Hope

General store, bar, restaurant, hotel, RV park

Most of the pinks were 2 - 3 pounds

There is a new library with a gift shop, used bookstore, and a coffee stand to help support it. We also found the United Methodist Church's retreat center. The old Hope church was in disrepair when we lived here, but was being used by the Anchorage churches for weekend retreats, even though it only had a fireplace for heat and an old outhouse. Since we left, volunteer work teams from the Lower 48 came in and restored it and today it is rented out to groups to use. We passed a bunch of vintage cars whose owners were having a cook-out there. It was great to see how nice it looked with a big covered deck on it, and a septic field in back, a sign of indoor plumbing! A big deal here. When I pastored the Girdwood church, we didn't even have an outhouse. You had to hike up the hill to the ski lodge before or after church! The little boys just went out onto the porch during the service...

Methodist Retreat Center

Library

Old fixed up cabin

Hope Mine Museum

Antique horse-drawn road grader

Mine schoolhouse

Old truck had Hawaii bumper sticker over door!

Inside bunkhouse kitchen

Alaska state flag- North Star and Big Dipper

Local home - note exercise bikes on roof

Tomorrow we retrace our steps back into Anchorage before heading north. Time to stop for groceries, stay free for the night in the Cabela's lot, and start heading toward Denali. Currently it's not raining. Hope it holds off!