Gull Rock is a nice day hike out of Hope which, on a clear day, presents some of the best view of the Cook Inlet and great wildlife spotting opportunities. Check recent trail reports given it can be quite overgrown.

The trail leaves from Hope, a small gold rush town with a current population of ~80 which sits across the Turnagain Arm from Anchorage. Next time we come back, we'll try to check out some live music at the Dirty Skillet (seasonal).

The trail traces a ridge high above the Turnagain Arm for its duration. For most of the ~5 miles out to the rock, the trail is surrounded by thick vegetation including the infamous thorny devil's club. Periodically, there are view points as you pass by inlets which present great opportunities to see wildlife in the mud flats below. We saw two black bears scavenging for sea life and then feasting on the summer berries further inland. We also saw grouses including a few babies and numerous Steller's jays. Perhaps we had bad luck, but we found the trail to be highly overgrown. Given it was later in the day and we were ready to camp and eat, this was a bit frustrating and definitely affected our enjoyment a bit although we can only blame ourselves for not budgeting enough time.

As we were planning to camp on the trail, we set out rather late in the day. Due to the vegetation, we didn't see anywhere to camp for the first few miles and began to get discouraged. Finally about 3 miles in we found a decent spot with nice views looking out over the arm. If you plan to camp, we would recommend continuing on to Gull Rock itself where there looked to be at least a few really beautiful albeit somewhat exposed sites which would be ideal in good conditions to camp in.

The rock itself is spectacular on a clear day. It's not too large but protrudes enough into the water to allow for 360 degree views as you walk around the cliffs on each side. After a weekend filled with rain and fog, we woke up early and made it the rock on a glorious morning with near perfect visibility. We saw Mount Foraker to the North, the Aleutian Range above Lake Clark National Park accross the inlet to the West and up the Turnagain Arm to the east we even saw the famous bore tide. Living up to its name, there are also plenty of gulls and other birds that call the rock home.

Overall this hike is a great way to check out the southern side of the arm. On a clear day and with decent trail conditions it would be an exceptional option. If poor visibility and recent trip reports of suggest the trail is overgrown perhaps another option requiring a bit less driving to get to makes more sense.