Exploring the Anchorage Mudflats

I love the coast. I grew up exploring foaming tide pools and running barefooted on the beach in Northern California. We left California and moved to Florida when I was 6. In Florida, we lived a mile from the beach and spent a lot of time playing in the crashing waves and looking for turtles laying their eggs at night.

We moved from Florida when I was 9 and spent the next 16 years away from the ocean. 3 years in Mississippi then 13 years in the bush Alaskan town of Bethel. The Kuskokwim river flowed by and there were plenty of lakes in Bethel, but it wasn’t the same as being by the ocean.

We moved to Anchorage in 2012, I loved that just a 10-minute drive from our South Anchorage home brought us to amazing views of the Turnigan Arm. At the same time, it’s a bit frustrating knowing that there is so much coastline around Anchorage that is either inaccessible or muddy.

I was thrilled when I found the trail to the beach at Kincaid a few years ago, and even more excited when I realized I could access the beach 5 min from my house on the New Seward Hwy if I only jumped a fence and crossed the railroad.

Well, the last time I tried to watch a pretty sunset from the beach Woodsen was in Dutch Harbor and I was 7 months pregnant. I quickly found that getting over the fence from the parking lot side was a lot easier than the reverse. I found myself attempting to hurl my pregnant body over a fence, that I shouldn’t have been climbing in the first place. Fortunately, I didn’t get high centered, but I’m sure the few people sitting in their cars got a good laugh out of my ridiculousness.

I haven’t been back.

Last week my friend Heidi showed me a trail that doesn’t require any fence hopping and despite the fact that you have to walk through someones backyard, its a completely legal public access to the beach. Hooray! The trail is off Coral road in Ocean View and can be found easily by looking at the satellite view on AnchorageLive.com.

Once you are down on the flats there isn’t a marked trail and you definitely need mud boots, but the grass is short and the trees are thin so its easy to make your own way.

I really wanted to get to the water’s edge, but the ground hadn’t completely frozen and after my boot got stuck in the thick mud around the creek bed I decided that wasn’t such a good idea. Anchorage’s mud is known for being deadly and any child growing up in the area has heard tales of people stuck in the mud getting ripped in half during rescue attempts. Unfortunately, there is some truth to the tales so caution is definitely recommended.

No one got stuck in the mud and we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset with an unobstructed view. Another great adventure close to home.