Best Hiking Destinations in Alaska with Lisa Maloney

Alaska hiking guidebook author Lisa Maloney sits down with Jennie to share her five favorite hiking destinations in Alaska and favorite hikes in each of them.

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Transcript

 Welcome to the Alaska Uncovered Podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co-host and full-time husband, Jay, and I bring you accurate, helpful, and entertaining information about Alaska Travel and life in Alaska.



 Today we're talking about hiking in Alaska, which is just an amazing topic. Before we get into this interview with Lisa Maloney, I wanted to make sure you know that the Patreon Planning Club Weekly. Q and a ask me anything with me is gonna continue all summer. So even though I've wrapped up travel planning for this spring, you can still do it by asking me questions there and having me answer every Thursday.

Plus we love and need the support of our Patreon members, so join them today at the link in the show notes or just go to patreon.com/alaska uncovered. Thank you, Patreon members. And enjoy this episode with Lisa.

My guest today is Lisa Maloney. Lisa is the author of Four Guidebooks about Alaska, including hiking South Central Alaska and the Moon Guide to Alaska. And Lisa is also a rad human who knows everything about hiking in Alaska that there is to know. So Lisa. Welcome to Alaska Uncovered. Thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me, Ginny. I am excited to be here. 

I'm excited to have you here too. So, by the way, listeners, if you are really a person with a lot of attention to detail and you know, or remember that I am also writing a guidebook right now, and they're like, wait a minute. So Lisa wrote the Moon Guide to Alaska, the first four editions.

The book that I am writing is the Moon Guide to Alaska Cruise Ports, and it's the first edition, so it's not the same book, uh, for the, like one person who will notice that.

Oh, all right. So Lisa, today we are talking about a really awesome topic, which is five amazing destinations in Alaska for hikers. And I'm so pumped to talk to you about this. But before we get into that, can you just introduce yourself to everybody? Tell us how you got to Alaska and how you got into this work in the first place.

Uh, sure. So I was dragged kicking and screaming to Alaska at the age of eight or nine. Uh, the story I like to tell about that, which is, I don't know whether to say sadly or not true, is that, uh, I was in a family if we came to Alaska, it was considered an overseas duty port. Yes. Mm-hmm. And so we would get to choose where we went after that.

And because of that, knowing nothing else except that Alaska had mountains and snow, we all decided that yes, indeed we're going to Alaska. I was an upset eight or 9-year-old because I was really in my horse era at that point. 

Oh, 

I know. And I thought, surely there'd be no horses in Alaska because the mountains would be too slippery and snowy.

And my mother promised me that there would be, and it, it turns out there are, but. Mm-hmm. What I really fell in love with, instead of the few horses that people go to, a lot of trouble to have mm-hmm. Safely up here. 

Yes. 

Is I fell in love with the outdoors and I would not call the rest of my family, particularly outdoorsy.

Some of them are incredibly non outdoorsy, so to them I was the weird child who all I wanted to do was go sit out in the green belt near our house and play with mud and sticks. I, it was also my whittling era because yeah, I had, that's a amazing, had a sibling and scouts and so I, I had this little pocket knife and there no stick was safe from my little pocket knife and I had no concept of actually making anything.

But I, boy, I made some pointy sticks with that little That's awesome. 

That, that's very relatable. 'cause I was an outdoorsy kid and a not outdoorsy family, but one, one side of my family is outdoorsy, so I was just kind of set off with them. 

Ah, interesting. 

Yeah. 

So since I didn't have that outdoorsy side of the family up here, because as I'm sure you've experienced, and maybe you even talk about moving up to Alaska can be a fairly isolating experience if you don't have other roots here.

Yeah. So. Aside from my older sibling who very grudgingly was made to basically stand moose guard over me while I was playing with sticks and dirt, so I wouldn't So great stop. Um, it was a source of some friction between us, as you can probably imagine, because Sounds like it. Yeah. Yeah. She wanted to be inside.

I wanted to be outside and, and tug of war ensued. But, uh, aside from that, I gradually, while I did go outside with friends, I also spent quite a lot of my formative time outside by myself.

Or whether it meant once I was old enough to get myself to trailheads and to, to find some of the Easter eggs that were kind of all that existed back then to tell you where to go hiking because there was one. Wonderful Guidebook. 55 Ways to the Wilderness in South Central Alaska. Yes. 

That book has come up on this podcast before.

Yes. And so I have been picking up used editions of that lately because of, of course there's a wealth of information out there, but it's honestly really exciting to pick up the old tattered editions and look back and go, oh yeah, this is what got me out there. Yeah. But that got me out hiking, and then it's kind of a long story, but I'll just say that a near miss with a math degree got me into writing.

Instead, people kept asking what I would do with a math degree. I told them I writing 

travel, writing of course, and outdoor writing. Obviously that's what everyone does with a math degree 

of course. And so everybody, including me, was confused to hear that coming outta my mouth. I finally realized I had been saying it, so I'd better, better put up or shut up and at least give it a try.

I got incredibly lucky with an editor at one of the local newspapers here who gave me a shot, and as I was racking my brain to decide to. To pitch to her. I was thinking about what is it that I know well that not everybody does, and so it might be useful to other people to read and hear about it. And that turned into a hiking column every week That lasted for years, turned into my first guidebook deal, and the rest has just sort of, uh, it's, I won't say it's been downhill, it's been uphill for sure, but it's been a climb

just like you climb up a mountain, I, I have a perpetual case of, oh, what will I see if we take this next step? 

What if we do this? Yeah. 

Yeah. 

That's awesome. Since I'm writing a guidebook now, it's always really good to hear about someone who it worked out for. 

I'm so excited 

that you, because as you know, you know, there's a lot of like, oh, okay, I hope this is a good idea.

I guess we'll see. It's terrifying, 

isn't it? Yes. 

You're, 

yeah. 

. Well, because like when you record a podcast, you can change it. When you write something on the internet, you can edit it later, but this is gonna be like in print with like words that I'm stuck with forever.

That's a scary part for me. 

People will still walk up to you years later, and it will be the old book that they have in their hand. 

Mm-hmm. 

Yeah, 

yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. 

That you can do it. You can do it. I have every faith. I'm so excited to read it when it comes up. 

Oh, thanks Lisa. Okay, so today we're talking about.

Some awesome hiking destinations in Alaska. And you know, this is like a mammoth topic that it took us a little time to whittle it down to. Speaking of whittling, see what I did there? You see what you did? Um, to, to like bring it, bring it to a manageable amount for one episode. So what we decided to do is have you share five places in Alaska that you feel are particularly good for hikers and, listeners and hikers.

I will just tell you that there are hikes kind of everywhere, right? So these are just some that like rise to the top as like, if you're a hiker, this is where you wanna go. Okay, Lisa, what's the first one? 

Okay, we'll start with my adopted hometown of Anchorage, Alaska. Yay. That's where I live. It's the.

Biggest city in the state. I'm sure your listeners know we have almost half the state's entire population. What that means is there are a lot of people who wanna go hiking and thank goodness there are a lot of wonderful trails to support that hiking and some very active trail crews too. So we have lots of good options here.

Yay. And for those of you who want to know more about hiking in Anchorage, uh, two years ago we had an episode about hikes in Anchorage with Matt Worden, who both Lisa and I know wonderful hiking guide in Anchorage. So you can go back and listen to that if you've got more time in Anchorage and you wanna hear more about it.

Okay. So Lisa, give us a couple of your favorites for visitors in the Anchorage area. 

Sure. Matt is fantastic. 

He is. 

I got to take one of his foraging tours last year, so Oh, 

dreamy. 

He can take you hiking and he can also feed you or help you feed yourself.

And 

he can protect you from bears. 

Yes, yes. It's 

wonderful all the way around. 

Bear protection is always a very good thing. Yes. I absolutely adore what I tend to call the backside of Flattop Mountain. Yes. A lot of people call it the sunny side of flattop. 

Mm-hmm. 

It, it, visitors usually have heard about flattop because it has, it is the most climbed mountaineer anchorage and the.

Front side or near historical tail trail, excuse me, up to the top. I'm, I'm going a little hiking nerd now, because that's not actually the original trail. There, there are remnants of the original trail that are still there if you know where to look for them. So, so that the, the remnant trail is the one I would've first hiked on as a youngster, trudging up that mountain.

Nowadays, the front side is unfortunately very eroded. It's been described as being love to death. Mm-hmm. Maintenance soon. Yeah. And the end terminates in a literal rock scramble where you need all your limbs to help keep your balance and keep you on the rocks. Mm-hmm. So while, while it is a wonderful hike, it's not always, uh, the best introduction for many reasons.

And yeah. Yeah, so, so without going too far down that particular rabbit hole, the state park went around to the opposite side of the mountain and they created, there used to be a runner's path that would just go arrow straight up the mountain and then arrow straight down the mountain. And I can't tell you how many times I ate dirt coming down that path.

Yeah. 

Just because it was so steep. It was like a, uh, like funhouse stairs after a certain point where you just Right. And your feet slid out from under you. 

Yeah. 

But now there is a beautiful set of well constructed switchbacks that go all the way up to the same type of, the same top of the mountain that you could reach by rock climbing on the other side.

Yeah. 

Or you can just go to this side and wander your way up. The views are incredible. Mm-hmm. And I think locals might sometimes go, oh, flat top. Everybody climbs that, but there's a reason everybody climbs it. Yeah. And 

it's pretty 

awesome. And my favorite thing, you listeners can now see, this is why we had to narrow down the number of places I could probably spend an hour talking about this one trail.

I 

know 

you are not gonna let me. 

No, I won't sadly. 

Part of the reason I enjoy this trail so much, I remember in one of my hiking guidebooks I mentioned that it's like a force field that you get to the top of a destination and then people stop and they turn around and they go back down without even looking at where else.

Maybe there's a trail, maybe there's not, but there's a whole mountain. There's a chunk of earth that you stick to. Yeah. Because gravity and they don't, um, I, I think the mentality is mission accomplished. Yeah. Obviously, sometimes the mentality is also, Hey, I have three or four hours. What can I do in that time?

Yeah. 

For people who are willing to stop and take a second and look around and go, great, I've done that. Now what can I do from here? Then going a flat top by either way, but especially by that friendly, less death defying way in the back mm-hmm. Is perfect because there's a beautiful ridge behind it. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. 

And you can just putter. It's, it's very, very rocky in some places, but it's not, um, I would say it's more, uh, class three. So you're not having to use your hands to hold onto things. Yeah. You can walk, you just have to be comfortable with the fact that you're walking from a piece of rock to another.

Yeah. 

But. Most, most people with enough mobility to get up to the top of the mountain can also walk this ridge for a couple miles, honestly, behind. And it's just, it's like walking on top of the world. Yeah. And it's so easy, 

you could see in all different directions, which is part of what makes that, even just that backside trail you were talking about.

Really cool. 

You can. And uh, another thing that I think people sometimes rag on Anchorage area trails about is because they get so familiar to us mm-hmm. Because we're there a lot. 

Yeah. 

However, they're different every single time because there will be different weather, there will be, , you know, different animals, different sounds, different people.

And I will never forget, one of my most memorable experiences was on that ridge behind flat top just because the meteorological conditions had conspired so that there was a very thick bank of clouds on one side of the sharper part of the ridge. And, you could actually see the moist air was coming up the mountain and blowing straight up.

So it, it was just curtains of fog that were cycling up on that side of the ridge and it was completely clear air on the other side of the ridge. 

It's very cool. Love. 

It was really neat. 

Aw. Is there anywhere else you wanna call out in Anchorage specifically before we go to some of the others? 

Uh, yes. If I can expand to Eagle River, which is the people in Eagle River will tell you it is definitively not Anchorage, but yes.

Considered part of the municipality. It's basically a, a small suburb. Suburb that is about 10 miles away from Anchorage. There are some stellar hikes there. There's a, a particular valley called South Fork, Eagle River Valley. 

Yeah. 

And one of my favorite hikes is there, it's about 12 miles back to Eagle and Symphony Lakes.

Mm-hmm. And then also in between Eagle River and Anchorage, there is a place called Arctic Valley. Uh, I should clarify, there is a valley called Arctic Valley. I'm actually talking about Arctic Valley Ski Area, which is Yeah. Up. In the mountains. It's an important difference if people are thinking of hiking and Arctic Valley ski area has a couple of beautiful, beautiful ridge walks and those can be tied in with the trails from that South Fork, Eagle River.

, There is a little, a little bit of signage nowadays, which is great, but it's definitely worth having a topo and sort of planning out what you're gonna do to make sure you end up where you wanna be. 

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Even more Anchorage ideas. Get hiking South Central Day, hiking South Central Alaska, and or, um, listen to the episode from May, 2024, where we talked about this before.

 People sometimes wonder if they need a guide to be up here. This is just from reader emails and comments that I get.

And maybe people who are, are truly used to sort of more rustic hiking conditions everywhere would be very comfortable on their own up here.

Maybe not. Yep. Yep. Maybe they want somebody to be with them to say what they're looking at, but there does seem to be a, a growing number of hiking tours or tours that can incorporate hiking up here. Yep. So if, if this is a big bucket list item for you, I would actually encourage you to find yourself a guide, make sure they're reputable.

There are a couple of dodgy ones. Out there. And there are some really great ones like Matt, that we were talking about earlier. Yeah, 

go hike. Alaska, by the way, is the name of Matt's company listeners. Yeah. So if you're like, how do I just find Matt? That's, that's how, yeah. Yeah. 

Perfect name, right? 

Cool. Yeah, I think that's really good advice.

And another hiking guide that um, is a newer company, but it's really awesome. And Denali is Northern Epics. That's another one I'm really familiar with. So they're, awesome. They're coming on the podcast also. 



Okay. What's our second one, Lisa,



I'm having agos of only having to choose this many. I'll just quickly say a Kuna Lake is not my number two, but it should have been on the list. So anybody who's interested in great hiking areas could look that up. 

And it's very close to Anchorage, so it falls there.

It's, 

yeah. Okay, good. I, I'm sort of expanding the Anchorage bubble as we speak. Number two is actually not that much further from Anchorage, than Eklutna Lake, but it is Hatcher Pass. Uh, I think a lot of people have heard about Hatcher Pass because of all the amazing hike photos that are floating around on the internet.

Mm-hmm. It's stellar. It's like being in the Lord of the Rings. Scenery because most of the hikes, there're about a dozen really good hikes there. Most of them either start above tree line or they get you up above tree line very quickly. 

Yeah. 

And yeah, so you're puttering around in this rolling tundra with chunks of granite sticking out of the mountains and most directions anywhere you look there, there might be one thin thread of road, but other than that it's just ripples of mountaintops.

Yeah, it's really cool. Spectacular. Yeah, it, you're right. It, it's so cool. You almost need a moment just to think about it. I think 

you do. I mean it, yeah, it's really cool. And it is a frequent flyer. Alaskan favorite. 

Very much so. Mm-hmm. And it's a, a favorite destinations for this local at least. And I think a lot of locals.

Yeah. Yeah. But I think sometimes people assume there is a community there and there is no town named Hatcher Pass. It's literally a mountain pass. 

Yes. 

And the area around it. And there are small communities nearby, like Willow is on what for many visitors and residents would be the far side of the pass.

Yeah. 

So depending on who you rent from, if you rent from one of the small Alaska companies that understands the way the roads work up here, you're probably fine to drive what is called the Hatcher Pass Road.

It is a gravel, that's the important word, unpaved road that goes up into the pass and then down the other side, and you have to use it to access some of the better hikes. Mm-hmm. There's also a notorious stretch called Archangel Road, which is another unpaved and, uh, very often, very, very rough road.

Yeah. Leads to a couple of great hikes. So, so if you're renting with a small company, talk to them to make sure, but most likely you are okay to drive those roads if you are renting with a large chain,

. Avis and Kurts and, and companies like that. Are very easy to access and often a better deal. 

Mm-hmm. 

Not always, but often. Uh, they often have a rule against taking your car on gravel highways. Yeah. And that applies to a few places in the state.

It's meant to apply to the Hatcher Pass Road. Yeah. And, and I think the rule is to PR protect their cars. 

Yeah. 

But what it means is that if you're renting one of those cars and you wanna go on these hikes, but just know that you might be violating the contract if you take a rental car there.

Yeah. So 

it's definitely, and 

there's like you were saying, this is like a whole area with different trail heads and a lot of different places. So Yeah. Just pay attention to the fine print. 



Okay. What's our number three, Lisa? 

Number three, I'm going to say Seward,

mm-hmm. 

Which is amazing because it is still on the road system, so you can just drive there. And the drive is beautiful. It's also at the end of the road and which makes it even more beautiful because it preserves the wilderness around it. Yeah, it is. I almost run out of superlatives to describe it. One of my favorite things is just to drive to Seward and stand.

In downtown Seward and take photos of the waterfront or videos of the waterfront and send them to friends who are out of country. And I just love the sort of discombobulated texts that I get back from 'em saying, where is that? It looks like you're in a movie. What's going on? I don't understand. Yeah. I'm standing in a downtown.

It's crazy. Yeah. 

I'm like in front of the flamingo or whatever. 

E exactly. Because of that, you can probably imagine a lot of the hikes around Seward go up into those spectacular mountains.

Yes. Uh. It's an interesting place, especially from my writer's perspective, because there are decidedly some local trails there that don't even have a trail head sign. And my general rule is if I'm pretty sure that it's not being shared far and widely, then I'm not gonna write about it



People probably know that there is a runner's trail that goes up the top of Mount Marathon and then back down. They might not know that there is a separate hiker's trail because the runner's trail is objectively dangerous.

Yeah. People get injured a lot, whether they're running or hiking.

But there is a separate trail or kind of confusingly a, a three trails strung together because a new one starts where the old one ends.

Mm-hmm. That take you up a much more humane path. So you can still get to,

The high point where the runners turn around much more safely and it's especially much safer on the way down because gosh, going up that runner's trail is hard.

Try going down it. 

Yeah, 

yeah, yeah. 

Going down loose, steep stuff is just really terrifying. Honestly. 

It is. Especially if it's been raining and Seward is a very rainy destination. 

Yes. 

But 

it's a really good chance it has been raining, 

even if it's not raining on you at the moment. Yeah, it has been recently, but so, so worth knowing about.

Definitely worth hiking if that is on your list. However, I would actually classic couple of other trails as a little more exciting and must do. One of them is. A lot of people call it the Kanes head trail. 

Mm-hmm. 

It's a little confusing because the destination you're going to is North Beach of Cain's head straight recreation area.

I remember being confused about that the first time I was riding out my hike. It is a wonderful beach hike to the aforementioned beach, and from there you can do a couple other things. You can just putter around, explore. You can camp overnight. It's a perfect place for a one night backpacking thing.

There are a couple public use cabins. You can also hike up into the alpine. You can hike up and over a little ridge and down to a, a more, uh, remote. Beach that you're not gonna see a bunch of boats pulling up at. However, to get there, you have to walk through a couple of tide constricted areas, which means that unless the tide is very low, you, you literally can't walk there.

It's underwater. 

Right? 

People should know how quickly and extremely our tides come in here. It's, it's a surprise to a lot of people. We have one of the highest titled infants in the world. 

Mm-hmm. 

And so. For a lot of visitors that might not work out because it's a fairly long hike. So if you make it out there on one tide, you kind of have to be ready to hike, uh, excuse me, to camp right.

And then hike back at the next low tide the next day. Or here's my pro tip that makes it doable. During the summer, you can get water taxis to North Beach. Mm. So if you plan it out with the tides and a little more research is guaranteed because not just any low tide will do, it has to be below a certain number.

But if you plan out hiking one way with the tides, then you can prearrange a water taxi going the other way. Or if you're pressed for time and have other things to do, you can go ahead and just take the water taxi both ways. 

Mm-hmm. 

Have them drop you at North Beach, you can hike several miles blissfully, you can hike.

Back toward town and then turn back around and come back when it's convenient for you. As long as you don't pass those tide choke points without thinking about them. 

Yeah. 

And then you'll, so you'll get to have the best part of the adventure, but not have to be out there for 24 hours before you can come back.

Yeah, that's a great 

tip. Thank you. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. Or even if you just go partway, there's a place called Tanina Point that you can reach without passing any of those tide choke points. And that also, it's just a couple of miles to get there. You're right on the ocean.

That's a super popular family hike.

I think you had one more suggestion for Seward. 

Yes,. And it's kind of a twofer, and that is the Exit Glacier and the Harting Ice field trails. . Yeah. They're just that good. They're wonderful to hear about them. They are. And there is different as night and day, right?

Mm-hmm. Because Exit Glacier is mostly flat. 

Mm-hmm. 

I, I'm not entirely sure if it's technically wheelchair accessible, but I do know that it is very good for people who might have a little more mobility challenges. Yes. But still it is accessible for sure, or it is, 

I would say, like, you know, there'll be like cracks sometimes or things that are like, you know how when, like the park service says that something is an accessible trail, but then it's not always necessarily mm-hmm.

I would say read more about it if that's a concern for you, but you're right, you're totally right that it's really good for people with limited mobility. 

And I don't know if they did this on purpose or if it was accidental, but one of the things that I think makes it good for those with more limited mobility is that there are more benches Yes.

Along this trail 

Yes. 

Than in typical places. Yep. So, aside from having, I'm not gonna say it's a 0% grade, but it's a, a low enough grade that it is theoretically accessible, then there are a relative high number of places that you can sit and rest or just enjoy the scenery if you want to. The trail culminates, it's kind of a figure eight, but the whole point of the figure eight is to get you to, uh, a viewpoint.

Where you can still see bits of exit glacier, you actually can get pretty close to it. That part is decidedly not accessible and no, there's, yeah, there's sort of a rocky staircase. And again, if it's been raining, yeah it can be slippery. So, so not everybody who likes the trail itself is gonna wanna take that extra sort of, uh, climb up the stone stairs to the viewpoint.

But if you do, it's pretty spectacular. If you don't, there are a couple of points in that figure eight where there are pedestal binoculars, I believe is the term for them and lookout points where depending on the vegetation, but most of the time you can look out at the floodplain at the toe of the glacier.

And it's been a couple years since I've been to those particular areas, so I'm not sure if you can actually still see glacier ice from there, but it's a pretty stark and beautiful view of an angle on a glacier that most people don't get to see. Yeah, it's where all the melt water. Comes flooding out.

, There's also the Harding Icefield Trail, which starts partway along the Exit Glacier Trail. So there's kind of one trailhead for both. And then the Harding Ice Field Glacier splits off and it climbs up a mountainside alongside exit glaciers.

So you get a whole different view. You get to see why people call glaciers rivers of ice because it really is like a. Massive river came, bouncing down the mountainside and just froze. 

Yeah. 

In freeze frame and ice. And then if you go all the way, which is a pretty big ask because this is fairly steep and 

it's a tough, it's for me, it's a really tough hike.

Yeah. Yeah. 

It, 

I think for most people it would be, but every once in a while you'll hear someone saying, oh, it's like a moderate day hike. And I'm like, well, there's almost 4,000 feet of elevation gain and it's like nine miles. So I, I would say for most people, that's hard. 

For most people, this is the type of hike that they will actually train all summer.

Yeah. To get, to go on the not, not necessarily. I'm one of those 

people. Yeah. 

Right. And, and, and so you could maybe speak to this, just do lots of other hikes during the summer and kind of work up to that kind of mileage and elevation gain.

Yeah. 

It's not, it's not a good one if you've never hiked before, that's for sure. 

Oh goodness. No, it's not. And the weather, because you're going up that far, if you think about it, 4,000 feet of elevation gain. Yeah. The weather's gonna be very different up there. Yeah. It's where you started and it can change quickly.

So there's actually an emergency hut at the very top where you can basically huddle and seek shelter because that's all it's good for. If the weather is too bad for you to get back down in the moment, if, if things are looking like that, that's probably not the day to do that hike in the first place.

Agreed. Yeah. 

But yeah. But if you do go all the way to the top, in addition to the emergency warming hut, you also win spectacular views over Harding ice field, which to continue the analogy with water is like the headwaters of all the glaciers that come spawning down out of it, including exit glaciers.

So it's really, if you're looking for a, a once in a lifetime or a genuinely bucket list worthy type of view, then it's worth. Training up to be able to do that hike. 

Yes. And Exit Glacier and Hardy and Icefield are both in Kenai, fjords National Park as well. I think that's kind of worth mentioning for those who are into parks, which is a lot of people, especially a lot of hikers.

Okay. Lisa, we got a couple more. What's our number four? 

Okay. Moving onward. Juneau, . I have to mention this for a couple of reasons. I haven't done as much hiking there as I have in the part of the state that I live in. For anyone that doesn't know, you can't drive to Juneau. It's a journey that involves either a jet plane or a boat of. Varying sizes, depending on where you're coming from. You might pull up there in a giant cruise ship. You might pull up there in a little speedboat from Petersburg, which is another Southeast Alaska community because they decided to drop you off.

Yes. Um, it's on the state ferry line. So there are actually lots of different ways of getting there. And I think it has a reputation primarily as a cruise town, just because you, you can't miss the big ships. They're, they're very mm-hmm. Visually distinctive when you're there. And of course, um, downtown Juneau is very close to the cruise docks.

So if you happen to be downtown, which is where a lot of great attractions and activities start, then you will also see just lots of people from the cruise ships. 

Yes. How I, I will say though, Lisa hiking is one of. The best ways to get away from the crowd in Juneau. And also listeners, if you miss the episode we had in August, um, that was about going to Juneau, not on a cruise ship that most people go on a cruise ship, but that episode was for people who were like, I wanna go to Juneau, but not on a cruise.

How do I do that? So if that sounds appealing, go back and listen to that. But even if you are on a cruise, you can hike. 

You can. And I, I have to admit, so I'm usually an independent traveler when I'm here in Alaska. Right. I'm not on the cruise ships either. I love Juneau. It's fantastic. No, it's awesome.

Fantastic. Yeah, it's, there's just so much to do there. Yeah. Uh, but hiking is definitely high up on the list. Even if you are on a cruise ship, you can still, or, or if you're not, , Mindenhall Glacier. And just from there, one of the beautiful things about hiking anywhere I think is like the, the way that the trails spread out and before you know it, you're gonna go from seeing tons of people to not a whole lot of people. Uh, and it's just to me. Juneau has a certain element of rugged beauty that you might not expect quite that close to, but it's still a pretty good sized city.

Mm-hmm. 

So I find it a very exciting place to hike more than anything else.

Then another one is Mount Roberts, which is it's right in town, right? Yeah. If you're standing downtown. 

Yeah. 

And let's say you have the cruise docks on your right for most areas there.

Then you could sort of look to your left and look up and you're looking at Mount Roberts. There is a really gorgeous set of, uh, I think they just call it a tramway, I think Gondolas when I see them. 

Yeah. 

They go up and down. And one of the reasons it's super nice is that if the ground conditions are conducive, because remember, snow can linger.

Up here a lot longer than you might expect to see it if you're from somewhere else. But if the trail's in good condition, you can hike all the way up Mount Roberts to the, um, to the, the tram housing if you want to. And then there's a little bit of a, a sort of a miniature network of trails, or you can do like the Swiss stew and just take the tram up.

Mm-hmm. 

And then it's the Jenny 

way 

it, yeah. Yeah. It's, it's the efficient way. It's the smart way. 

Plus you can skip the muddy forest hike and focus on Exactly. Hiking in the, on the view. Yeah, 

exactly. So, so I have to admit, I would love a muddy forest hike. I'm all about it. 

Bless. 

However, in terms of, I, I realize it's, it's an issue.

It's a personal failing. So, so for most people, I, I think most sane people would prefer to just take the tram up and then you can putter around. There's, you have all the reward of being up in the Alaska Mountains with relatively little of the effort.

Yeah. I will say, uh, even though I am talking about how easy it is to get up there, I would definitely encourage people to still take it seriously. 

Yeah. 

Uh, some people will tram up and then hike down. Take that seriously too, please. Yeah. 'cause it is Alaska, it's a big mountain visibility. It's sometimes very poor and it's 

slippery 'cause it's muddy and rocky and, yeah, 

exactly.

And I think a lot of people hear that and they connect a word like that to maybe the slippery conditions that they're used to experiencing in their life, which is a very logical thing to do. But I, I like to describe it as an uncontrolled setting. Even though you're close to town



So just a heads up, we'll call it, easy to get to by Alaska standards, but there's still mm-hmm. Very real consequences if, um, if you wander off the trail or just a few slippery you fall, it's a much more remote area.

So I, I am big about risk management in the outdoors. I think people sometimes consider it a bit of a downer to talk about it. I look at it, it's 

important. 

It's important. I consider it doing your due diligence to ensure that you're gonna have a great time Yes. Out there. Because if you really important need to be rescued or if you get hurt, it's not gonna be a good time.

Right. Yeah. And it, it's doesn't. It doesn't happen. It's a 

different time at, at the 

very east. I think that's it. I mean, it's not even type two fun. Is it type three where it's just horrible no matter what? 

Yeah. I, I think it depends on how great it was before you got your injury. 

Okay. Good to know. But I do wanna encourage people to remember that it's still Alaska.

Yeah. And even if you are looking at a road, or in this case, maybe you're seeing, uh, the top of an enormous cruise ship down by the dock, so you can still get yourself into trouble.



And, , ride the tram up, Mount Roberts and enjoy being in the Alpine. And then, um, you know, you make your own choices from there, but I would highly encourage people to, to think about taking the tra down too. 

Yeah. It's a pretty great way to do it. And you can go way further along the ridge too if you do that.



, Last but not least, what's our fifth dreamy hiking destination? Okay, 

so this is, I, I feel like this one is a big deal just because maybe you wouldn't go there to just casually hike, but if you're gonna plan things out, it should absolutely be on your list.

And that is Sitka. which is another, another cruise port that's very popular. 

Mm-hmm. 

Um, there are a couple of trails that start pretty close to town that you can go up. I've had a couple of locals take me out and you kind of, you have to do a little more research. To the best of my knowledge, there's not a big trail guide, but there is a trail crew that maintains trails and there are some sort of, uh, if you ask around at the visitor center, they might be able to clue you into some community hikes that are going on.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Just having so many well-maintained trails, a lot of them close to town.

Some you need a little water taxi to access, but you can set that up if you ask around. There are just a, a shocking number of opportunities to get you out and about near a community that, that, that is that small and the magnitude of the landscape, much like Juneau. Uh, I actually put Sitka another notch up in the spectacular scale.

Yeah. It, it's, it's just exhibit A for how in Alaska everything seems to be bigger. You're on an island, so there's going to be a gorgeous view of the water most of the time. 

Yeah. 

Again, you are in a remote location. So again, if you're gonna be doing much hiking on your own there, you wanna think things through, make sure you have appropriate communication devices and things like that.

Yep. But the reward to effort ratio is crazy. 

Yeah, I totally agree with that. And by the way, we didn't cover bear safety in a ton of detail in this episode, but we have covered that in several other episodes. So, um, and I'm sure that we'll cover it again, but I think, Lisa people tend to be very worried about bearers.

And that's legit. You should take bear safety seriously, but you should also take having a rain jacket. Seriously, right? Yeah. So you're much more likely to get in trouble because you get wet than because of a bear. So just I think. Preparing, like you said, Lisa, and I know these are all things that you cover in your books as well.

I just wanted to briefly mention that that along with weather and communication, like you said, are important things whenever you're hiking, that you need to take seriously.

A hundred percent. And also I'll add navigation to that as well. Yep. Because going back to the idea that we don't have as much signage here. Yep. It's easy on some of these trails to just walk right past the little side trail that you Yes. It supposed to take back. 

Yep. 

And then, you know, if there a fog comes rolling in or anything that Yep.

Again, increases things, 

totally 

increases the difficulty. So part of the reason Alaska is so amazing is that we are a largely uncontrolled environment and it's just good to keep that in mind. There are variables that you can't affect. Affect 

that'll 

affect you. 

Yes, absolutely. Okay, so Lisa, these are, these are all amazing hiking dust.

These are five 

of my favorite things. 

I know. I love it. 

I 

do. There's so many others I know. But you have a blog. We didn't talk about that yet. Hiking in alaska.net. You have day hiking. South Central Alaska, you have way more info about hiking for people who wanna do a deeper dive. 

I do, uh, my blog is hiking alaska.net.

And , I do want to say, I think I was talking about the. Big sort of grandiose hike since could. There are smaller hikes, there are hikes you can do straight from town. So I wanna make sure I'm not getting to you as you have to. Yeah, the sticker 

cross trail and that kind of 

thing that are more chill.

Yeah. And not Christo is right there. 

Yeah. 

You know, if you're wanting to go straight up. So there are. Very visitor friendly options. I wanna make sure I'm not painting it as if you have to be packed for a week longer. Yeah, that's good. That's a 

point 

because we kind of started talking about that while we were talking about Sitka, but that's just as true everywhere you, you talked about.

Yeah. 

Yeah. And, and yeah, you can go big or you can go small and um, if you're not careful, you're small can turn into bigs, so. 

Mm-hmm. And if this somehow is the first episode of this podcast, you're listening to just a couple other hiking spots and episodes that have happened and are coming before we do the couple wrap up questions.

So one is, if you go back to, , the episode about Skagway in February, we talked quite a bit about hiking there. 'cause Skagway is also a great hiking place. And then, I mentioned earlier Northern Epics, , and Trinidad, who's an awesome hiking guide in Denali. And he's coming on the podcast next month.

So Lisa, couple questions I ask everybody who comes on the podcast. So one is, I'm gonna tweak it a little bit for you.

Okay. 

One is, and I'm gonna ask you for Anchorage, because that's where you live, even though we could make an episode about post hike eats and all of the places we talk about. Ooh. Um, so instead of like an Anchorage has a lot of great places to, of course. Um, what's your favorite post hike? Eat in Anchorage?

Is it a place to go? 

Yeah. Oh, 

usually I'm scarfing cheese out of a Ziploc bag, to be 

honest. Yeah. Right. Let's imagine. Yes. Let's remove the often, um, very exciting. And, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Flashy life of a travel writer, which involves sleeping in your car and eating cheese outta a bag. True.

Let's just, let's just imagine. Instead, 

I just, I'm just thinking my, my desires, uh, rotate quite a lot depending. The first place that popped to mind is a little taco stand.

Ooh. And sort of the, the pocket of downtown Anchorage, it's called El Green, goes like the color green and then goes like, go on. Yes, 

yes. 

They are delicious. Are they not? They're, yes they 

are. 

They have a brisket taco that is, 

Ooh, I haven't had 

that 

one. Just wonderful. 

Yeah. 

Yeah, that 

sounds super worth it.

So can you explain again where it is? Because 

I, I believe it's at the corner of fifth and l That sounds right. West or water side of the street. 

Yeah. 

And it's really just a little stand, it's like a, a food truck that I think is permanently parked there and they have a couple of picnic tables and 

Yay.

Oh, 

that's perfect. Yes. Other place if, if I can sneak one in, that's not Anchorage, but if you're going to Hatcher Pass. 

Mm. 

There is a little place called Nona's Osteria. It is an Italian restaurant. It's not open all the time. They do lunch and dinner most days of the week. It is so worth it.

Oh, that sounds awesome. 

I had the most spectacular Italian food there and apparently from the scuttlebutt, is that there, uh, there's a word. It's pizza or something like that. There. Their professional pizza maker has received huge kudos from either the Italian ambassador or, or part of their contingent.

So, 

wow, that is high praise. 

It is, and it's everything that exemplifies Italian cuisine. And I had heard a lot of buzz about them lately, and I thought, well, how good can an Italian restaurant be? It's spectacular. 

Okay. Ooh, love that. 

Mm-hmm. 

Okay. And then very, very, very last. Lisa, what is one tip you have for first time Alaska visitors?

It can be about hiking, but it doesn't have to be. 

Hmm. Oh, just one is so hard. Mm-hmm. , I think the one that. Is most often helpful to people coming up here is just to slow down a little bit. 

Mm-hmm.

Because everybody, there's so much to see. You could spend weeks or months up here. I mean, I've spent decades up here and I'm still seeing things for the first time.

But people who have just a short time to get here, especially in a world that's driven a lot by the things that we see online. And the pictures are so stellar.

So you wanna go to the same places and maybe take the same picture or at least see the same thing yourself. And I think it leads people to sort of have a mentality of go, go, go, go. Next stop. Next stop. Next stop. And. I imagine you could have a very satisfying trip doing that if your goal is to kind of come away with the markers of where you've been.

Mm-hmm. But if you slow down just a little bit, if you give yourself a little more time in communities, uh, if you, even if you just give yourself more time for drives. Mm-hmm. And a lot of people are surprised by how long it takes to drive from one place to the other. On the road system here, 

longer than Google Maps says, 

I always add a minimum of 20%.

And then know that you're usually on a highway with no alternate routes. So if it's closed, you might be there for hours, you might 

have 

to go back and find a motel to stay in. Um, but give yourself more time. Err on the side of making fewer itinerary stops and spending a little more time there, as opposed to packing an itinerary or something new every day.

And I think you'll ultimately feel like you came away. With a better feel for what it is to actually spend some time in Alaska because the, the locals in most of the small towns you'll go through, they're, they're usually very friendly, they're happy to talk to people who are excited about their area, but they can't do that if you're moving target it just whooshing through.

If you slow down, you'll, you'll get to experience the little bits of things that are just the, the artifacts of being in a place that are not visible if you are only road tripping through in a hurry. 

And that gives you more time for hiking. 

Exactly. You can't, I mean, you can't really hike if you're just blazing through because you can't, what if, what if you don't get where you're going and then you have to throw off your whole itinerary to spend another couple hours.

Yeah. Yeah. And the the other thing is, some people are just very destination driven and. That is an admirable psychology that helps them do things that would be hard for me. However, if you're a wide-eyed wonder in the wild up here, if you give yourself a little more time, then you never know what you're gonna see around the next bend in the trail.

So true. 

.  📍 

Well, Lisa, thank you so much for coming, and listeners, I'll put links into the, in the show notes for Lisa's books and also her blog hiking alaska.net blogger to blogger. Your blog is amazing and provides the kind of information that people like actually need and not the like, nonsense that's on all trails.

So local knowledge takes you so far, especially in Alaska. So thank you so much for being here, Lisa. 

Thank you Jenny, for having me.