Diamond Creek to Bishop's Beach Hike

I know I've blogged about this hike before, but other times I think I meant to blog about it but didn't get around to it.  We usually do this hike once or twice a year.  It wasn't even on our radar today.  We were going to go to the rope tow, maybe crust skiing (we heard conditions are right!), maybe biking.  But as we drove to church and noticed the super-low tide, we checked the tide book and quickly convinced ourselves to do the Diamond Creek to Bishop's Beach 8-mile hike on this gloriously brilliant day.

Last March we did this hike and there was 3 feet of snow on the 1 mile of road to the trailhead.  Today was better than that, with ruts showing it has even been driven already this spring--probably because there has been a logging operation in the area since last fall.  Today you're going to get a photo blog entry.

Not too much snow on the road section to the trailhead of Diamond Creek.

The first section of trail is nice--it is on more stable land and mudslides haven't wiped it out.

I love this rock formation on the way down the Diamond Creek Trail.

The muddy trail means hopping from dry-ish spot to dry-ish spot as it makes it's way along the edge of a steep ravine down to Diamond Creek.  A wrong slip could mean a bad fall in places!

I just love this view of the Kenai Mtn. Range from the bottom of the Diamond Creek Trail, looking towards Homer.

The next challenge was crossing Diamond Creek.  Today the logs were icy and slick, adding to the challenge.

Coming across vehicles stuck in the mud on the beach is not unusual.  Today a Good Samaritan hiker was helping this young man get his vehicle unstuck from the mud (jack it up, put rocks under tires).  A few minutes after I took this picture he sped by us on the beach.

Here we are, back at Bishop's Beach entrance, 2 1/2 hours later.

And a little treat--a video I made about halfway through the hike.  The wind was blowing pretty hard so I think that is the background noise you hear.