Hope Alaska

We were told multiple times that we should visit Hope Alaska, more of a local’s secret than a tourist destination.

The old gold rush town lies at the north side of the Kenai Peninsula, on the south shore of Turnagain Arm, (Anchorage is north of the Turnagain Arm) near the mouth of Resurrection Creek. It’s a super laid-back charming town and you can camp right on the edge of town overlooking the Turnagain Arm.

We found some nice hiking trails and a couple shops that actually had interesting stuff to peruse and buy. Though we missed the live music that they apparently have each summer weekend.

It does have a small airstrip nearby, as many Alaska towns do, but I didn’t fly there. I left my plane at the dirt airstrip of Coopers Landing (Quartz Creek) and drove in the van with Bets to Hope, then got back into the plane on the way back to Seward so we could use it for flight-seeing. Betsy and I brought electric scooters up to Alaska this time, and they came in handy at Hope to go out to the hiking / running trails each morning.

By the way if you are looking for world class whitewater, the famous Sixmile Creek is not far from Hope and there are many outfitters offering easy or hard whitewater.