July 21st

Another long, pain-full day – ya right! We travel about 5 hours and drove about 20 miles as the crow flies but actually drove 83 miles… whew!    

It rained all day so we just took our time and did some site-seeing. We stopped at a number of turnouts to enjoy the view. We also drove through a conservation area where we saw many of animals. Watching animals in nature is fascinating.

Then we continued on to Hope. This is a very small village was founded in 1896 as a trading post and grew to its present day of five buildings. Of the five buildings on Main Street all are original and well maintained. You can see the whole town in one of the pictures. On the edge of town (the other side of the street) is Resurrection Creek where we saw people fishing for salmon… some were even caught - Salmon that is.   Didn't take too long to walk the entire village so we headed back down the road to a turnout we spotted on 6-Mile Creek where we spent the night.

Did you know? The warmest material in the world comes from the Musk ox. There is a layer of fur just under the neck called Qiviut and can be harvested each year – about 5 – 7 pounds per animal. Native knitters work at home in Eskimo villages throughout Alaska creating scarves, nachaqs (Eskimo smoke rings) and luxurious caps. Each village has it's own signature pattern derived from traditional designs.

As an added bonus, I have a quiz for today… can you identify the item in this picture?

 This picture provides a hint as to what the first picture is.

I will publish the answer in several days… if anyone wants to know that is.

Other pictures can be found at Alaska Hope - 2009

Take care and keep the loops open.