Nearly 11 miles out East End Road, a brown sign announces the Eveline State Recreation Area. I first knew this as cross-country ski trails in the winter and I thought the trails were too boggy to walk in the summer so had never gone there to try hiking until last fall. I needed to run out that way for an errand today so packed a lunch, grabbed my kids and one of their friends and headed up.
There are 2 picnic tables a short walk from the trailhead parking area. As I was sitting there with the kids eating, I was amazed by how many different flowers were blooming. Lupine, wild geraniums, fireweed, pushki, monkshood and more competed in a wild profusion of color, making it a beautiful alpine meadow vista.
The trail was quite overgrown with grass, as many trails in Alaska are by this time of year. In some places it felt like we were walking through a tunnel of grass; it was well over my head! There is the Alpine Loop Trail, which is maybe a mile loop and quite easy. The Glacier View Loop is even shorter and sticks to the higher ground. The single track trail was hard packed--no sign of any of the boggy-ness I'd imagined. It is well marked with signs to keep you on track. Views of Portlock and Dixon Glaciers (seen in the picture below) are plentiful from either trail.
I was impressed with how busy the trails were today. There were 4 other cars in the parking lot when we left. While it doesn't have the quantity of hiking that I normally like, it is a nice family hike and picnic area for those with young kids and a change of pace when we want to have a leisurely get-away.
The most confusing part of this place is how to pronounce it. It was named after a lady named Eveline (her husband donated the land to the state), so is it ev-a-lean or is it eve-line or ev-line? I have heard people refer to it all ways, but I don't know which one is right!
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