Eklutna Valley has few roads compared to the rest of the Municipality of Anchorage.  In fact, there’s just one: Eklutna Lake Road.  Eklutna Lake was a popular but remote location for recreation in the 1920s and early 1930s when it was accessible only to hikers, horses, and airplanes.  A primitive road begun by Frank Reed Sr. in 1935[1] probably followed the packhorse trail established during the construction of … Continue reading ‘Narrow, unpaved and fraught with terror’: Roads, streets and driveways of Eklutna Valley

“Where do they come from and where do they go? There must be places that we do not know.” –Paul Roseland, “Cheechako” Most of us have been driven indoors at some point by a swarm of mosquitoes, or else muttered a string of curses as we slathered on an unpleasant repellent in order to stay outside.   Eklutna Valley isn’t plagued with mosquitoes like the wetter places … Continue reading Where to find Eklutna Valley’s mosquitoes in the off season

“I guess when you turn off the main road you have to be prepared to see some funny houses.” — Stephen King Which is the oldest house in Eklutna Valley?  That depends a lot on your perspective.  By “valley” do I mean only the portion of the Eklutna River drainage accessed by Eklutna Lake Road, in other words the “upper valley,” or should I include the lower … Continue reading The oldest living house in Eklutna Valley

Army installations in Eklutna Valley: When Fort Richardson just wasn’t BIG enough I’ve written a detailed account of the U.S. Army’s use of Eklutna Glacier.  The Army’s decades-long bid for Eklutna Glacier didn’t play out in a vacuum.  Abandoned and never-used military installations are scattered all across Alaska, including Eklutna Valley.   During WWII the Army was given free rein in Alaska because Japan was a clear and … Continue reading Army installations in Eklutna Valley

“Not only sands and gravels Were once more on their travels, But gulping muddy gallons Great boulders off their balance Bumped heads together dully And started down the gully.” Robert Frost, “One Step Backward Taken” Robert Frost was writing about a “universal crisis” that could be environmental or psychological.  With “one step backward taken” he compared averting a personal crisis (being swept down the gully) to … Continue reading One step backward taken: The Eklutna River returns (briefly)

When I hear the rattle of a northern red squirrel in the distance I often think it’s a bird call.  And when the wood frog chorus gets going in early spring I hear the sound of quacking ducks. I was hiking on the Eklutna Lakeside Trail in mid-May when I heard a bunch of ducks quacking towards the lake, which was just losing its ice.  Like Charlie … Continue reading Listening to the wood frogs of Eklutna Valley

“You know I’m such a fool for you You got me wrapped around your finger Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to, do you have to let it linger?” The Cranberries Sometimes, after a cold, dark winter, when Eklutna Lake’s ice starts to melt, it goes fast. For that we can thank the valley breezes. On May … Continue reading Spring forward, freeze back

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” Heraclitus   Two thousand five hundred years ago Heraclitus understood that everything in nature is in flux.  His observation could just as easily refer to the human-wrought changes in Eklutna river and lake, particularly its resident fish. On several occasions entire populations of fish have appeared … Continue reading Something fishy keeps happening in Eklutna Lake

The Battle for Eklutna Glacier had been raging for years.  There was no end in sight.  The Army wanted the glacier and surrounding area for training purposes but the state division of parks and thousands of recreationists were adamantly opposed.  Tennyson described how the embattled and outnumbered U.S. Army must have felt in his 1854 poem about the Crimean War, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” “Cannon in … Continue reading Charge of the Light Brigade: Part IV – A truce leads to a strategic withdrawal

Although the decision to issue a permit for the Army’s glacier training camp seemed imminent and Army engineers were prepared to start work on the access road in spring 1984, nothing happened.  It seems as if park officials were reluctant to engage, having calculated that the cons (largely tied to a fast-eroding budget for parks) outweighed the pros.[i]  A complicating factor was that by 1986 the glacier … Continue reading Charge of the Light Brigade: Part III – “Forward, the Light Brigade”