the missing mile

Anchorage's most famous trail is about to get longer.

Crews are building a new mile of paved trail downtown. It finally links the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail to the Ship Creek Trail. That gap by Elderberry Park has been there for years.

When it's done, you'll have one continuous fourteen mile path right along Cook Inlet. It also stretches our local Moose Loop out to about thirty-two miles. So you can run, bike, or push a stroller from downtown without stopping.

The price tag is around fifteen and a half million dollars for that single mile. State, local, and federal money is splitting the bill. It's a lot for one mile, but downtown trail land doesn't come cheap.

They're also adding a little plaza down by the small boat launch on Ship Creek. It'll carry the original Alaska Native name for the creek. A nice nod to who was here first.

Heads up though, it won't be finished until 2027. So this summer it's an active work zone, not a finished path. But this is the link that finally ties our whole trail system together.