June 30, Tony Knowles Coastal Trail

The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail is an eleven mile paved trail from down town Anchorage to Kincaid Park.  The scenic trail follows the coast line through forests and meadows and part of the trail skirts the very busy Anchorage International Airport.  The trail is just one of the many green belts and trails in the city.  There are over 180 parks/green belts in Anchorage.  Wow!! The Coastal trail ends at Kincaid Park which is a popular cross country ski area in the winter.  The park is a honey comb of cross country ski trail in the winter and a wonderful place to walk or mountain bike in the summer.  

We checked the weather and it looked favorable for a bike ride.  The weather man said once the fog burned off it would be cloudy with only a chance of rain.  So we headed out shortly after lunch to check out the famous trail.  

                                 Anchorage as seen from the trail

There are many access points to the trail and we chose to catch it from Earth Quake Park around the 2 mile mark.  Earth Quake Park has several information plaques about the 1964 earthquake and resulting tsunamis.  Although Anchorage was hit pretty hard by the 1964 earthquake and tsunami, Seward and Portage, south of Anchorage fared even worse.  

                                              Earthquake Park

Our ride totaled nearly 20 miles and was fairly flat.  Although the trail follows the coast line for almost the whole length of the trail, the views are limited due to the heavy tree and brush growth.  

                                        Wow!  Blue sky.  Haven't seen this for a while!!

                        Although there was some blue sky, the clouds are still hiding Denali which can been seen from Anchorage on a clear day.  

I'm looking forward to exploring some of the other parks and trails in the Anchorage area..weather pending.  The forecast is for more clouds and rain over the next few days.  Ugh!