I am sure that there are more hidden, or untouched, or beautiful hikes in Alaska. This hike happens to be about 10 minutes from our house. We are checking these off as often as we can. Once again, we got out of the house late so we were looking for a short hike. This one is only about 3 miles each way. Seemed like no problem.Right at the trailhead, there is a beautiful waterfall. We followed the creek uphill. And farther uphill. Up, up, up. After about 3/4 of a mile, I was doubting this decision.

At the lower elevations, there were trees. Some were even green still. Fall sure does come early here.Sorry, not sorry about my panorama addiction.

Eventually, we broke out of the trees and could see some blue skies.

As we looked back we could see Turnagain Arm (Wiki: Upon reaching the head of Cook Inlet, Bligh was of the opinion that both Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm were the mouths of rivers and not the opening to the Northwest Passage. Under Cook’s orders Bligh organized a party to travel up Knik Arm, which quickly returned to report Knik Arm indeed led only to a river.

Afterwards a second party was dispatched up Turnagain Arm and it too returned to report only a river lay ahead. As a result of this frustration the second body of water was given the disingenuous name “Turn Again”. Early maps label Turnagain Arm as the “Turnagain River”.) Turnagain Arm eventually disappeared behind us.

As we gained elevation, the temperatures dropped. It became very obvious that even on this nice day, it wasn’t getting too warm. Luckily we were hot from walking uphill constantly.We saw snow ahead, but didn’t know how much. We knew we were headed towards a lake.Turns out that it was quite a bit of snow for 3100 feet in elevation.The lake, however, was not what we expected!