It might seem like we’re on a permanent holiday but we’re really not. We’ve taken odd days here and there to give us some long weekends, but this is our first full week’s holiday of the year. And we were excited to be spending it in Alaska.
First up: Hope AK. We hoped it was going to be good and it was. Hope is a quintessential gold rush era small town (maybe even city), which in the UK would be considered a village or a hamlet. And like in the UK, it has a pub. The iconic Seaview Cafe and Bar, no less. We first came here in 2012 and the place hasn’t changed a bit, from the decor to the sole barman. It’s timelessness is part of its charm.
The main street – the only thing that seems to change is the cars parked oppositeAnd next door to the Seaview Cafe & Bar is the RV check in officeAnd next door on the other side is the RV parkThe barman was quite taken with our baby. He thought we were traveling in a flying saucer.Well it’s certainly different from the sea of white RVs. It’s tiny but it’s there – spot the BaseCamp!Another aerial shot for you to get your bearings. Marshes, mud flats and a river in the foreground, the campground and the tiny hamlet of Hope center backAt the end of Alaska salmon season, this is what you getIf you can avoid the dead fish, there’s a nice little walk just steps from the BaseCampThe moose thought so tooDown to the river she goesGot this moose tracking lark down to a T
Our hike through the forest up to Hope Point shall forever be known as The Fungi Walk. I have never seen such diversity of mushrooms and toadstools in the wild before. Including the Super Mario Super Mushroom, which looked like it belonged on a pixie field trip.
Classic fairytale stuffAh but there’s moreYep, still moreAnd they kept on comingImagine how many mushroom pics you’d have to scroll through if I didn’t do collages!Got a sneak preview of the view about half way upThis was my viewWhich opened up to this above the tree line. Could have done with a few less clouds over the Chugach Mountains but that there water is Turnagain Arm (so named by Captain Cook)And the views kept getting betterRain clouds scattered their contents like dust. Luckily not onto us.Loving the autumn colors here
After all that hiking, it was about time we hit up the Seaview Bar.
You can see how perfectly old school it is inside the bar. Oh, and check out the view from the window, I spy a spaceship!And who should we bump into inside but our buddy JP from The Boardroom co-working office, fresh from a rafting tripLive music on the patio between the cafe and the bar made for a fun eveningAfter a few more scoops, we relocated from the bar to the campfireAwesome as it was, I couldn’t keep up with the boysEarly night for me
The next day: a drizzly morning, a cozy BaseCamp, and a long drive from Canada finally caught up on us. Ah, maybe last night’s beers had something to do with it too.
It’s raining, time to move onGood idea! Actually I don’t think we did have pancakes – those Top of the World blueberries were long gone. But we did have a lazy morning.Until next time, Hope!