Today I am not in a mood for a catchy title :)

Hatcher Pass, Alaska
Yeah, its a rather bland title. Today I am not in a mood for a catchy title :) However, the story is quite catchy I promise. Recently I went for another weekend trip to Alaska, yeah, I know, its been too many times! Yes, this was a fishing trip too, but I will write about that, if I feel like on a later post. Here however, I thought I visit Hatcher Pass, which is about an hour north of Wasilla, AK, where I was staying. There was two reasons for me to visit Hatcher Pass, first, I was getting a bit tired to swamp and low flat areas of Alaska, where there is a lot of mountains around, and second, I wanted to see an old gold mining settlement up into the mountains. Yeah, Hatcher Pass and Independance Mine site has both.

Independance Mine at Hatcher Pass at far distance
Going There
Its not hard, the road is paved 98% of the way. The last 2 miles or so is dirt road but nicely graded and any regular car can easily do it. The road follows the Little Sushitna River (where I have fished recently) to its headwaters towards the Mint Glacier. The area is spectacular as you can see above and below. It is now a popular hiking/camping/backpacking destination with several trails going towards the headwaters of many smaller tributaties of Little Su (as it is fondly called over there.