Anchorage - Hiking to Flattop Mountain - Alaska - USA

Today is our last day in Anchorage. On the schedule is the climb to Flap Top Mountain. We drive to a parking area and during the drive we encounter a moose with her calve. The mother crosses the road without looking for cars. The calve is less self assured and looks to see if we are really stopping.

After we leave the moose behind us we arrive at the parking area. It’s fairly early, so there are few cars. Our climb stats of good. The track goes uphill fairly steep, but with our goal in sight we continue rapidly. The track is in good condition, but the higher we get the worse the track becomes. And it wouldn’t be Americans, if they hadn’t built steps! Actually they should forbid to build steps. The steps are full of sand, which them dangerously slippery and also the steps are to big for me and to small for Marko. Fortunately the steps are not very long and soon we reach a level section. From that point the hike becomes more difficult. The trail consists of rocks and the last section is so steep you have to use both your hands and feet. Luckily there is a sign at the bottom of this section warning that from here on it’s a dangerous hike. But unfortunately we still meet people on sneakers and even a guy with a baby on his chest. We don’t want to think about what will happen if he slips. I have enough problems with my backpack to get to the top.
Once at the top we understand why the mountain is called Flat Top Mountain. It’s really flat at the top. We enjoy the nice view of Anchorage and have our lunch.

After lunch we head back down, the first section is very exciting for me. (Walking down is much more scary than up according to Sandra).

When we get down to the parking area there are several fire trucks and they’re heading up with a quad. We can’t tell if it’s an exercise or someone has fallen of the mountain or needs help getting down.
Because we haven’t seen a brown bear we stop at the zoo. A terrible zoo with too small residences for the animals and a lot of stressed animals. We saw a brown bear, but with a heavy hart we leave the zoo. This zoo doesn’t think enough about the animals welfare.
We head back to our B&B and pack our bags for tomorrow.