A Mountain View nonprofit hopes to spruce up Ship Creek Trail with the help of the Anchorage Park Foundation.

Monday, the Mountain View Community Council voted to support the Anchorage Community Land Trust’s application for an APF Challenge Grant — money that would go toward installing a new trailhead sign, mile markers every half-mile along the trail, informational signs about salmon and streams and wayfinding signs to help trail users navigate the Ship Creek industrial area.

The two-and-a-half mile trail runs from Tyson Elementary School to the Alaska Railroad Depot, past the Ship Creek dam and fish hatchery. Compared to other Anchorage bike paths, the Mountain View trailhead isn’t easy to find. In places, the path is lined with litter and campsites.

Improving the trail has been a community priority for years. The Ship Creek Development Plan, approved by the Anchorage Assembly in 2014, gave architects the go-ahead to begin designing a connection between the Ship Creek Trail and the popular Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, which also ends in the Ship Creek area. ACLT Community Development Manager Radhika Krishna said the land trust is working with Tyson, the Alaska Railroad — which owns the land — and the hatchery, which sits nearby.

“If there’s a way to get them connected to the Ship Creek Trail, that would be really nice,” she said.

The Ship Creek trailhead at Tyson Elementary School