Showing posts with label Alaska Lakes. Show all posts

Chugach State Park, Alaska

November 7, 2018

Happy Wednesday friends! I hope you are having a wonderful week! Today I am excited to share with y'all one of a few final posts from our amazing road trip throughout Alaska that we did last summer! As I said in my last Alaska post, it is honestly hard for me to believe that this series of posts is coming to an end next week as this trip was such an amazing and beautiful experience that it has been so delightful to recap and share about on the blog! As I finish up the posts from our time I hope that it has been an inspiration and an encouragement to dream, plan, and take a trip to this area of the world! Later next week I have a very fun and special announcement so stay tuned later on next week as I conclude these Alaska Road Trip posts!

Today I am excited to share pictures from a bit of exploring that I did at Eklutna Lake. After I dropped my traveling companion off at the airport on Monday evening of our trip I stayed in Alaska a few more days to do some more exploring and research for my blog commitments. Originally I had planned on doing a bit more hiking on those days, but I found that I was honestly to tired from the prior days to do some strenuous hiking due to my health so I decided that I would spend the days exploring Anchorage and places near Anchorage.

But Tuesday morning was stunning and as I looked outside my hotel room from Anchorage and knew that those mountains were calling and I did have to go. *smiles*

In my research before the trip I kept coming across the beautiful pictures from Eklutna Lake (often times reading it was one of the most beautiful places to see) so I decided to head over there on Tuesday morning. Originally I was going to do the Thunderbird Falls trail (which I hope to do in the future!) but decided that I would make things simple and just explore around Eklutna Lake.

It was the perfect amount of driving (it took under an hour to get there!) and I first spent time driving along the Eklutna River, before deciding to head down to Eklutna Lake Campground area and walk around.

Tucked into the woods that is near the northern area of the lake, the campground offers access to the lake and beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. There are trails surrounding this area so if you were looking to hike you could do so, or choose to explore the beach, play in the water (it was chilly but refreshing *smiles*), picnic, kayak, or just walk along the beach and appreciate the beauty.

I chose to walk along the easy trail along the lake and then explore and walk along the beach. It was absolutely beautiful and relaxing y'all.

After parking my car I first chose to walk to the right and slowly meandered along the lake. It was stunning from every angle and it was just lovely.

After hitting the end of the beach area I headed "inside" and walked the trail back to my starting point.

It was quiet and after a very busy week I enjoyed the peace of just walking these trails in this area.

After arriving at my original starting spot, I decided to keep walking and headed about a mile more "north" of where I started (so to the left).

Eventually I decided to head back out on the beach area and it was beautiful and fun to see Eklutna Lake from this angle also.

The great thing about that trail was that it was really never more than a few feet from the lake, so anytime you wanted to you could honestly just decide to go back out to the beach area. The trail in this area is really flat and there were a couple of people who passed me bike riding which you could also easily do.

The lake is beautiful and is fed my snowmelt and glacial streams. Interestingly, the lake contributes more than 30 million gallons of water a year to Anchorage for drinking. It also is a contributed in producing 3% of the region's electricity!

In this area there is a ton do y'all if you were looking for something close to Anchorage and wanted to see the beauty but not do something strenuous.

Getting to Eklutna Lake campground is very easy (just exit the Glenn Highway at mile 26.5 at Eklutna and drive approximately 10 miles to the campground area).

An interesting note to add about this area: if you were wanting to explore a bit about the history in the area that you could visit the nearby Eklutna Historical Park, which is an area where the Russian Orthodox and Athabascan cultures blend together.

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading about this beautiful place today! Happy Wednesday friends! I hope y'all have a wonderful day!

PS- If you are curious about the specific details of the road trip that we took throughout Alaska or if you are planning a similar road trip (or just want to see and dream about visiting the beauty!) I hope the information below is helpful. You can read all of the posts from the trip by clicking on the links below:

Anchorage: // Anchorage Travel Guide//

Chugach Mountains (Alaska 1-South Drive): // Scenic Seward Highway Drive (Turnagain Arm Drive)//

// Along the Matanuska River on Alaska 1- South// A Beautiful Lake Adventure near Chickaloon//

// A Cloudy and Beautiful Drive on Alaska 1-South to Anchorage//

Chugach Mountains: // Eklutna Lake//

Cooper Landing (Kenai Peninsula): // Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge Nature Trail//

// Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge//

Denali Area: // Denali Highway Video// One Last Adventure on the Denali Highway//

// Denali Highway - Part 2// Denali Highway - Part 1 // The Drive to Cantwell//

// Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge //

General Alaska:// 5 Things You Must Know Before Driving in Alaska//

// Best Alaskan Books to Purchase for Your Road Trip//