Crow Creek Mine and Girdwood, AK
To
day was scary! We followed the Crow Creek Mine Road to the top of the mountain. Only Crow Creek Mine Road turned and we didn't. Imagine this - one way traffic because the road narrowed pulling a 30 feet trailer behind you - over wooden bridges and no guard rails. Whoo-ee. I was sitting on the edge of the seat and at one point yelling at Ken not to stop in the middle of the b
ridge we were crossing. If he wanted a better view he could park on the other side, get out and walk to the middle of the bridge. I was not a happy camper with this road trip we were taking. Finally we get to the end and thank goodness there is a parking lot large enough for us to turn this unit around. It was beautiful, but harrowing.
day was scary! We followed the Crow Creek Mine Road to the top of the mountain. Only Crow Creek Mine Road turned and we didn't. Imagine this - one way traffic because the road narrowed pulling a 30 feet trailer behind you - over wooden bridges and no guard rails. Whoo-ee. I was sitting on the edge of the seat and at one point yelling at Ken not to stop in the middle of the b
ridge we were crossing. If he wanted a better view he could park on the other side, get out and walk to the middle of the bridge. I was not a happy camper with this road trip we were taking. Finally we get to the end and thank goodness there is a parking lot large enough for us to turn this unit around. It was beautiful, but harrowing.
Finally we get turned around, get out to take a few pictures and head back down the hill to where we should have turned. The camping area at Crow Creek Mine is not marked in any way - pick a spot and set up is the thing to do. No hook ups, no place to get water, but there were Jiffy Jons on the mining property. They do have modern washrooms, but they aren't hooked up yet. Crow Creek Mine, established in 1896, was at one time the most productive gold mine in Alaska. Th
e gold started to lessen in frequency and the mine closed down - as did most of t
he gold mines. It is now a historic site with most of the buildings still standing and for $15 a day, you can rent all of the equipment you need to do some recreational gold panning - and instructions come with that. If you are paying $5 a night to camp and have your own gold pan and equipment, the fee for camping covers the panning, too. John, Ken and I went for a walk through the mining camp and then down to the stream to watch them pan for gold. Later that day all four of us went down to try our hand at it. Gold panning is fun, but it is hard work and after 3 hours I was done. No gold just sore arms from all the swirling, shaking and moving. The next day Ken and I went on a sightseeing ride up to Girdwood and the Alyes
ka Resort. There is a 60 person tram car that you can take to the top of Alyeska Mountain but we opted to stay on firm groun
d. There are 7 glaciers that surround this area and we did see some but not all of them. Girdwood has a population of 1,794 and is a typical tourist town and there are several hiking trails in the area - two of which we did. One was the Athabascan Environmental Physics trail that 
winds behind the high school. This little trail was about 3/4 mile long, up little hills, over tree roots, streams and rocks and although it was short, it tired me out as I'm not used to climbing over stuff to get anywhere. Then the next day the four of us decide t
o take the trail to the hand tram which travels in part along the Iditarod Trail that runs from Seward to Nome. This used to be the mail route but now is just a hiking trail unti
l you get to Anchorage where it becomes a race route. This trail was much more strenuous than the one the day before. When we got to the hand tram, I took one look at that small basket swinging over the gorge and decided I would wait for the 3 of them to go over and come back. It was a
nice day, sunny and just a little bit on the chilly side and it was a chance to enjoy the peace and quiet of the wilderness. They were gone about a half hour as they hiked another 1/4 mile to the gorge overlook. Thankfully there were no bears in the area so I didn't become bear bait while I waited. Then there was the mile and a quarter hike back to the campground. Most of which was uphill - should have known that what we traveled down while we were on the way to the tram was going to be going up.
ka Resort. There is a 60 person tram car that you can take to the top of Alyeska Mountain but we opted to stay on firm groun
d. There are 7 glaciers that surround this area and we did see some but not all of them. Girdwood has a population of 1,794 and is a typical tourist town and there are several hiking trails in the area - two of which we did. One was the Athabascan Environmental Physics trail that 
winds behind the high school. This little trail was about 3/4 mile long, up little hills, over tree roots, streams and rocks and although it was short, it tired me out as I'm not used to climbing over stuff to get anywhere. Then the next day the four of us decide t
o take the trail to the hand tram which travels in part along the Iditarod Trail that runs from Seward to Nome. This used to be the mail route but now is just a hiking trail unti
l you get to Anchorage where it becomes a race route. This trail was much more strenuous than the one the day before. When we got to the hand tram, I took one look at that small basket swinging over the gorge and decided I would wait for the 3 of them to go over and come back. It was a
nice day, sunny and just a little bit on the chilly side and it was a chance to enjoy the peace and quiet of the wilderness. They were gone about a half hour as they hiked another 1/4 mile to the gorge overlook. Thankfully there were no bears in the area so I didn't become bear bait while I waited. Then there was the mile and a quarter hike back to the campground. Most of which was uphill - should have known that what we traveled down while we were on the way to the tram was going to be going up.The best part of being in this camping area was the night they had a reception for 260 people. The day before they set up huge tents and the next day they set up the tables, chairs, bar and food. Then the buses started coming in. Now this area isn't hardly big enough for RV's to turn around in let alone big tour buses, but they did it. They let the passengers depart then went about the task of turning around so they were all backed in and ready to leave once they boarded. There was a great band that played for about 3 hours, so although we didn't get to partake of the refreshments we did get to enjoy the entertainment - and the bus maneuvers.
We plan on heading to Hope when we leave here which is another little mining town on the Turnagain Arm. From there we will most likely make our way to Soldotna.
Here are a few pictures of the flowers at the mine - mostly wildflowers with a few "tame" flowers - all beautiful.
We went back to see the "Big" bore tide - with the low tide below sea level, the bore tide is supposed to be at its biggest. The first night we went to look, it wasn't any better than the first time, in fact, it wasn't spectacular at all. But the second time it was again very fascinating and awesome.
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