Today, the town is home to 1,200 people, a number that swells to 3,000 during the winter as Nordic and alpine skiers, dog mushers and snowshoers head to the ski resort. The chair lifts at the ski resort operate year-round to take visitors to the top of Mt. Alyeska, offering sweeping vistas of Turnagain Arm and Glacier Valley. Local hotels and bed and breakfast accommodations offer great rooms and dining. For a taste of the old Gold Rush, don't miss the old historic mine site on Crow Creek. Eight of the area's original buildings have been restored and are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Visitors can tour the area and pan for gold.
At Mile 2.3, you will pass by the abandoned site of the old mining community of Sunrise where a large paved turnout offers great vistas of Sixmile Creek valley. The seaside town of Hope lies 18 miles from the highway on the south side of Turnagain Arm. Today, the town has only 200 full-time residents, but in its Gold Rush heyday, more than 3,000 miners inhabited its shores. The log museum is across from the Hope Post Office on the Hope Loop Road and houses exhibits from the Cook Inlet Gold Rush of 1895-98. The museum is open from Memorial Day to Labor Day every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.