Hiking Alaska: Turnagain Arm
It’s here folks! The snow is just about gone, the sun is high in the sky and WARM, and Alaskans are out and about enjoying the almost-summer atmosphere.
If you know me in even the most casual sense, you know that hiking in Alaska is a huge (HUGE) pass time and love of mine. As summers get busy with weddings and high school seniors in the studio, I tend to reserve one day a week (usually Sundays) for some adventure of my own.
This year I’ve decided to add another option to this blog. Instead of only hearing about my hikes when you pop in the studio, or friend me on Facebook (seriously, friend me, it’s way fun!). I’m going to open up this blog to entries with pictures and descriptions about the hikes I take this summer. Most of these hikes will be with my family– be it just Mike and I, me and the kids, or the entire crew. A few hikes will be solo treks. But all of them will be documented. I’m makin’ the pledge here, gang. Let’s see if I can keep it!
An important note about these hikes: I don’t plan on bringing my “good” cameras on most of my adventures. It’s easier for me to bring along a smaller and more compact camera on my hikes. A little point-and-shoot is what I tend to have on me at all times. This year it’s the Canon D10, and I’m excited to see how rugged this guy really is! (for those paying attention, I only use Nikon on my shoots that count, but Canon should do okay for the fun and games stuff… *little photo humor there, don’t hate. 
) I’ll be sure to make a note if I’m using one of my studio cameras in any images.
And on to the first hike of the year for me!
Every Mother’s Day we do a First Hike trek. This year we had planned on hitting a hike that would take us to some waterfalls (my son is an avid waterfall hunter, it’s sort of his life’s goal to find every fall with in a 500 mile radius of his position). Unfortunately we had to change plans on our way to our destination. But never fear, this IS Alaska, and finding another trail was not difficult.
We hit the Turnagain Arm trail right off of the Seward Highway, parking at McHugh Creek area. We did about three miles of this hike, not as far as we normally do, but far enough to hit some waterfalls, play in the creek, and enjoy the views.
Did I mention my son’s love of waterfalls? Because, seriously, I’ve yet to meet anyone with such an obsession passion for these things. He’s only 10 years old so his waterfall experience is pretty limited. But whenever he’s on a hike with me, we always plan an extra hour to do some off trail searching for hidden falls. He doesn’t care how small or large they are, he’s all about finding them. This hike took us off trail a bit to some relatively small and easy to spot places on the creek. He was a happy camper.
At the end of a great day.
Until next weekend! 