I’ll be staying at Alyeska for a week in June and I would love to do a serious day hike, preferably at high elevation. I’m willing to do several thousand feet in elevation gain. Does anyone have some recommendations? This will be my first time in Alaska so I really want to make it count. I’ll have my 10mm handy so I’m willing to get off the beaten path.

https://www.alaska.org/detail/crow-pass-trail

One of the more popular ones.


It’s only 3,000ish feet but it’s a hard 3,000 ft for mount marathon down in Seward. Might be worth the drive. Views from the top are spectacular(see my avatar).

About 100 miles north of Anchorage are open ground ATV trails used for caribou hunting.  Pretty good views and a serious hike.  This ATV trip was a good 50 miles plus.

The one I am familiar with - the monument trail - is about 1-2 miles north of Eureka Lodge, west side of highway at that huge pullout.  The old timer showing us the trail had a 10mm glock in a chest rig, and asked us permission to blast a black bear to retrieve the next day if he saw a good one.

Just plan on extreme weather from warm and dry to cold and freezing rain within an afternoon.  One of the few times I got seriously hypothermic, going through the rain in the last pic.

Caribou kept following us around looking at us from hilltops.  Curious critters, just wondering what we were up to.

that Alaska.org hiking website is pretty cool.  I wish I saw that site 10 years ago.