Photos: Summer is here early and Alaskans can’t get enough

Anchorage has had cloudless days, temperatures have been in the 70s and people are eager to soak it all in.

By Emily Mesner
Updated: June 5, 2022 Published: June 4, 2022

Hyori Gal, left, and Yuna Gal play with their grandmother, Roma Samson as she tries to finish her yoga class at the Delaney Park Strip near downtown Anchorage on Wednesday, June 1, 2022. Yoga in the Park, which started June 1, is organized by The Alaska Club and held in the summer every Wednesday from 6-7 p.m. through Aug. 3. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

For a lot of people, it’s been an easy choice to get outside lately as cloudless days, higher temperatures and ample sunshine sweep through Anchorage. Squash a few of those pesky mosquitoes and some would say you have the perfect combination.

Summer events are kicking off, too, like the Spenard Jazz Fest and Anchorage Summer Arts in the Park, a free series that runs on weekends in June and July and highlights regional and local performers.

As of June 4, there have been nine consecutive days with a high temperature of 70 degrees or more in Anchorage, and other parts of the state, from Fairbanks to Haines, have seen temperatures above 80 degrees.

[Stretch of warm, sunny and dry weather across much of Alaska arrives unusually early this season]

This warm weather arrived unusually early in the season, but people are making the most of it by swimming, hammocking and sunbathing. Moose calves and goslings are getting their bearings and flowers are blooming.

Check out our photos of summer living around Anchorage.

Kennethell Acoman, left, and Emily Moore, front right, sit on an inflatable duck as they swim with Moore’s siblings, Henry and Charlotte Moore, behind, at Goose Lake in Anchorage on Friday, June 3, 2022. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

A tree in bloom lines I Street near downtown Anchorage with pink flowers on Friday, June 3, 2022. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Sam Brown holds Myna James on her shoulders as they dance to music on the lawn of the Anchorage Museum during the 15th annual Spenard Jazz Fest in downtown Anchorage on Friday, June 3, 2022. Friday’s festival events kicked off Anchorage Summer Arts in the Park, a free outdoor performance series. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Geese swim with their goslings at Potter Marsh in Anchorage on Friday, June 3, 2022. Anchorage’s Hillside neighborhood and peaks in the Chugah Mountain Range are behind. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Goslings look to find their parent as they feed at Potter Marsh in Anchorage on Friday, June 3, 2022. Canada geese mate for life and incubation by the female lasts 25-30 days, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

People stop along a boardwalk at Potter Marsh in Anchorage to view moose on Friday, June 3, 2022. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Cristina Day holds her nine-month-old daughter, Saphaira Day, while they swim at Goose Lake in Anchorage on Friday, June 3, 2022. The family outing was Saphaira’s first time touching sand and being in a lake. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Iona Sotelo looks up at Kate Sidro as they talk while laying in their hammocks at the Delaney Park Strip in Anchorage on Thursday, June 2, 2022. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Drummer James Daggett performs with the band Hard Candy during the 15th annual Spenard Jazz Fest in downtown Anchorage on Friday, June 3, 2022. Friday’s festival events kicked off Anchorage Summer Arts in the Park, a free outdoor performance series, and was held on the Anchorage Museum lawn. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

A woman uses a fan to block the sun from her face as she listens to a performance during the 15th annual Spenard Jazz Fest in downtown Anchorage on Friday, June 3, 2022. Friday’s festival events kicked off Anchorage Summer Arts in the Park, a free outdoor performance series, and was held on the Anchorage Museum lawn. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Jaylah Riggins rests in an inflatable raft in Anchorage’s Goose Lake as temperatures remain in the 70s on Friday, June 3, 2022. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Sunlight catches a fern leaf and forget-me-nots as they rest in a garden outside a home near downtown Anchorage on Wednesday, June 1, 2022. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

A boat travels north along the Cook Inlet around midnight on Friday, June 3, 2022 shortly after sunset in Anchorage. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Emily Mesner

Emily Mesner is a multimedia journalist for the Anchorage Daily News. She previously worked for the National Park Service at Denali National Park and Preserve and the Western Arctic National Parklands in Kotzebue, at the Cordova Times and at the Jackson Citizen Patriot in Jackson, Michigan.