Small-town Alaska: Hope

This is my very first entry participating in the Small Town Sunday blog challenge (see Wendy's Small Town post for details).



My pictures are of a very small Alaskan town (in fact, it's population is a mere 137 souls), and it has the wonderful name of Hope, Alaska.











The town of Hope was founded in 1896 when gold was discovered at Resurrection Creek. It is located on the Kenai peninsula side of the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet, more or less right across from Girdwood (home of the Alyeska Ski Resort). The 1964 earthquake destroyed much of the area.




Here's Main Street: Cafe and Social Hall.









We camped at Hope over Memorial Day weekend: the National Forest campground is located on a bluff, which overlooks the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. This inlet has amazing tides (daily difference of some 30 feet) -- take a closer look at high tide vs. low tide by double-clicking on the photos.


Kids had fun skateboarding at the campground (yes, their mean parents insist on helmets). We took a nice hike on the Gull Rock Trail, where Youngest climbed a downed spruce (this area was heavily hit by the spruce bark beetle outbreak in the late 1990's).

After 2 nights at Hope, we headed South to Homer -- pictures to follow soon.