A Day at Independence Mine State Historical Park

Independence Mine

For another day trip from Anchorage, we visited Independence Mine State Historical Park located just over an hour’s drive northeast of Anchorage.  The mine opened in the early 1900’s after Robert Lee Hatcher discovered and staked the first gold lode claim nearby.

The Independence Mine was once two mines.  The Alaska Free Gold Mine and Independence Mine merged in 1938 and were named Alaska-Pacific Consolidated Mining Company (APC).  APC became the largest gold producer in the Willow Creek Mining District with claims that covered over 1,350 acres. Continue reading “A Day at Independence Mine State Historical Park” →

A Day Hike to Crow Pass

Crow Pass and Eagle River Traverse was supposed to be our next 26-mile backpacking trip in Alaska.  The rain forecast, however, precluded us from completing this as our gear was still soaked from our Resurrection Pass backpacking trip for the last four days and it was supposed to continue for the next three.  We needed time to dry out our stuff which wasn’t in the plan, so we made a new one.

Instead of backpacking and crossing the river, we took a day hike up to the pass to view the nearby glacier.  I think a day hike turned out to be a better option as I later found out from my fishing guide that he thought the river might have been too dangerous to cross with all the rain.  The trip was planned in August which we knew was the rainy season to give the river time to drop from all the snow melt, but it has been an overly rainy/windy season for Alaska this year. Continue reading “A Day Hike to Crow Pass” →