July 18, 2012 - Anchorage: Coastal Trail (YRE)

We met up with a group from Walking Adventures International to do the Coastal Trail walk on a gorgeous sunny day. 

We started downtown at the Alaska Public Lands Information Center.  The route took us past the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, Town Square Park, City Hall, the Wyland mural, the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, and the Federal Building. 

From this point, the route is not that interesting  for the next 2k as you head south toward the park strip and then continue down A Street past the Chester Creek Sports Complex to the Chester Creek Trail.

The Chester Creek Trail is a very pleasant paved trail that follows Chester Creek past Valley of the Moon Park to Westchester Lagoon.   Upon reaching Westchester Lagoon, the trail emerges from the trees and runs along the lagoon toward a playground, ending at the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.

Sleeping Lady

The Coastal Trail is a busy paved trail used by walkers, runners, cyclists, rollerbladers and others.  It follows the Anchorage coastline from Kincaid Park to downtown, offering splendid views across Cook Inlet of  Mt. Susitna ( the "Sleeping Lady") and the Tordrillo Range behind it.    

 

An Alaska Railroad train passed close by during this portion of our walk.

Gardens at the Oscar Anderson House

At Elderberry Park, we passed the Oscar Anderson House Museum.  This house, built in 1915, was the first wood-frame house in Anchorage.

Some of the group from WAI

At the end of the Coastal Trail, the route continues down the hill to the Alaska Railroad Station, Ship Creek, and the Ulu Factory. An ulu is a type of knife traditionally used by Eskimo women.

A couple of suggestions:

1) A one half block detour from the Performing Arts Center takes you to the "Sun" at the beginning of the "Anchorage Lightspeed Planet Walk."  (http://anchorageplanetwalk.org/index.html).  This is a very cool exhibit. The Anchorage Light Speed Planet Walk is a scale model of our solar system. Taking the walk, you experience the relative size of the planets and their distance from the Sun. The scale was chosen so that a leisurely walking pace mimics the speed of light. On this scale, each step equals the distance light travels in one second (300,000 kilometers or 186,000 miles).  You will be able to see Mars in Elderberry Park and Jupiter on the Coastal Trail at Westchester Lagoon on the Coastal Trail Walk. If you do the Kincaid Park walk, you will see Pluto.  Mercury, Venus and Earth are not far from the Coastal Trail Walk route (and perhaps are included in the Route for the Anchorage Historical Walk). 

2) I would rather walk down G Street from downtown, passing the Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop.  The current routing down A Street exposes walkers to a lot of traffic and the occasional group of homeless individuals loitering along the way.  The G Street route could cut over to E Street at 15th and follow E Street to the Chester Creek Trail.

Walk Documentation: B-

Walk Route: B-