Mom in the Mtns

Hi everyone!  We just got back from an awesome weekend trip down to Seward, Alaska and I’m pretty tired but excited to recap our latest adventure!  If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll remember that I lived in Seward last summer from April to September.  I consider it one of the most beautiful places on earth!  It sits in a fjord surrounded by mountains and glaciers, and there are so many options for hiking, kayaking, and day cruises.  It’s the best place to spend a few days when you want to get out of Anchorage.  Since the weather in Anchorage was supposed to be super rainy and it was just supposed to be cloudy in Seward, we decided to head down there on Friday night.

Driving along Turnagain Arm

The drive down was gorgeous as usual, and I was so excited to be making our way down there for the first time since September!  We had plans to stay with some of our friends in their awesome house right outside of town, and we spent the first night catching up.  Saturday morning we slept in, and woke up to find that there were low clouds hanging over Seward.  We were really looking forward to hiking something that we hadn’t done last year, and despite the clouds we decided to try to hike the Lost Lake Trail.  This trail is almost 16 miles in length and has an elevation gain of 2100 ft.  It’s also the location of a trail race in August that sells out in about 15 minutes every year!  We’ve always wanted to do the entire point-to-point trail from Primrose to Seward, and since we had our friends’ car in addition to ours it meant we could park one car at either end and actually hike from one end to the other.  We started out around noon at the Primrose campground and were surprised to see that it was sunny out there!  The hike up was a long gradual incline and most of it was at a level that didn’t even get me out of breath, although there were quite a few steep sections.  The tree coverage kept us out of the sun and also provided us with so many pretty forest views.  Once we got up above the tree line our views got even better!

 About 1/3 of the trail was along the ridge, and I couldn’t get enough of the mountain views.  And once the lake came into view I was dying!  It was seriously one of the most gorgeous views I’ve ever seen on a hike!

     The rolling hills on the tundra were so beautiful and seemed to go on forever.  And there were lots of tiny lakes around every corner

   Despite the fact that we were starting to get tired, we kept up a pretty good pace and soon we were heading back down to the other side.  This side was pretty socked in with clouds and there wasn’t much to see, but once we were back down in the trees it didn’t matter anyways.  The trail gradually descended a few final miles until we hit the Lost Lake parking lot a little after 5:00 pm.  My husband and I were so excited to have finally checked such a big hike off of our must-do list, and we were also excited that we had officially hiked our longest distance ever in one day!  We celebrated with a soak in our friends’ hot tub, salmon mac and cheese, and a Dance Moms marathon.  Although the hike was very long and tiring at times, we honestly felt that Lost Lake was much easier than the Mount Marathon trail and we’d recommend it to anyone who is looking for a day hike or wants to do a slower backpacking trip with great camping at the top.  We definitely plan on doing it again and taking more time to actually explore closer to the lake next time.

On Sunday we spent the day visiting our old coworkers (and my favorite coffee place!) in the harbor before heading back to Anchorage.  I seriously miss it there so much and I can’t wait to go back a few more times this summer and fall – hopefully when it’s a bit more sunny!

 What did you do this weekend?  What was your longest/most scenic hike ever?