Anchorage Light Speed Planet Walk

What a great thing to stumble upon. We rented bikes and made it as far as Uranus along the coastal trail.

I love astronomy and the outdoors, so the Planet Walk is quite the treat, as well as educational. The Sun to Earth are in the downtown core, while the planets beyond the asteriod belt are along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. If you wanted a good workout, bike the entire trail all the way to Kincaid Park, where Pluto sits. The informative boards are in great condition and feature little tidbits that you can talk about with inquisitive young ones. Highly recommended!

W00T! I stayed between Earth and Mars!
Yeah, I love this type of thing. The planet walk is a scale model of the solar system. The Sun is at 5^th and G, and the estimated walking time to each planet is the same as the average time for light to reach that planet. Earth is about eight minutes away (1 AU), a little over 40 minutes to reach Jupiter (around 5.2 AU) down the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, all the way to about 320 minutes to reach Pluto (around 39.5 AU). Yes, this was built when Pluto was considered a planet officially.
The Sun is tiled, half-​exposed on a pedestal. I see the potential for neat winter-​ish art projects, but I likely underestimate the insane coldness of an Alaskan winter.
I only made it to Jupiter on foot, but there are plenty of bike rentals around for the full interplanetary tour. Jupiter is located down the trail at a beautiful lagoon area with an observation deck illustrated with salmon… I was there too early in the year, but I’m guessing salmon swim into the lagoon. That’d be neat. The salmon of Jupiter. Almost sounds like a Dr. Who episode except delicious. (No fishing around that lagoon, though.)