Flattop

The "Alaska Moores" at peak 2

Yesterday, Frank, Galileo and I hiked up Flattop mountain. It's a beautiful but somewhat challenging climb about 10 mins. from our house, overlooking the city. Here are some pictures from the day:

We started off by climbing up over blueberry hill-- this is one of the many places in Anchorage where people go to pick wild berries in the late summer/fall. You see people all over these hills with big buckets to hold berries.

Up close shot of fireweed

One passer said these are called crowberries

Frank and puppy on blueberry hill

Frank and Puppy on top of Blueberry Hill

Here's a closeup of some fireweed:



Looking out over the city from Blueberry Hill

Right after the first difficult section to peak 2, you come along a set of rail ties where almost everyone stops and catches their breath. We're going to the top there in the picture...

Picture of flattop from the halfway point (peak 2)

Here's some pictures off the trail at about the same point:
Off the flattop trail


Pretty alpine flowers

At the Top:

Galileo is a trooper. He travelled very close to the top with us, but we weren't quite able to get him all the way up to the top. He is so much faster than us going downhill!


Frank and Galileo skidding down the mountain


Puppy doesn't have any troubles climbing mountains


Galileo going downhill


Puppy waiting patiently for us to catch our breath...

What we wound up doing is taking turns going to the top. It's kind of a scramble to get to the top but they have these orange dots to help you pick the best route.

I went first...

Marker at Flattop

View from the top


Then Frank went up to the top...


Frank scrambling for the summit....


Frank at the "top" of flattop

Here's a picture from the top back down towards the parking lot...

This is where we came from...

I've got to tell you, it was a relief coming down, despite how beautiful it was at the top! Here's a view of Anchorage from Blueberry hill...

Fireweed and view of South Anchorage