Hiking Flattop

Yesterday we hiked Flattop Mountain after church. It's the most popular day hike around here because it's so close to Anchorage but offers world-class mountain views. The climb itself is short (it took us about an hour) but a good workout with some scrambling over rocky sections at the end. At the top there's a great view of all of Anchorage with mountains and ocean surrounding it. On a good day (like yesterday) you can see Denali. Once on top, the mountains keep going and going in all directions. It's tempting to keep climbing the next ridge and I think Krestia would have gone all day unless we stopped him. I can't blame him, the mountains are so incredible here. We hiked with the pastor of our church up here (Prince of Peace Mennonite Church), John David, and Benjamin, a church friend who is a volunteer with AmeriCorps. It was a gorgeous summery day, 70 degrees which is cause for celebration in Anchorage!

Here's some pictures from the hike:

A view of Anchorage from the top of the mountain

Krestia goes exploring

John David (with the hat) and Benjamin take in the view

These are the mountains behind Flattop...we could have kept going and going....