Tongass Nat’l Forest Parks & Trails

Two lefts past the Alas­ka Marine High­way Juneau Ter­mi­nus is the road to Auke Bay Recre­ation­al Area. Inside, you’ll find Point Louisa, a tra­di­tion­al fish­ing ground for the Auke peo­ple (a sub­group of South­east Alaska’s First Peo­ple, the Tlin­git). Point Louisa is a good fish­ing spot with good water views, cov­ered pic­nic areas, and gen­tly slop­ing grav­el beach make it a fam­i­ly favorite.

Start­ing from the Bara­nof Street trail­head, it’s about 2 miles up to 2,400 feet! That’s steep — steep enough to make for a chal­leng­ing race, the Alpine Adven­ture Run, which coin­cides with an annu­al meet­ing of spe­cial­ists in the sports med­i­cine field. The trail starts eas­i­ly, with a raised board­walk that takes you through open mead­ows and then a for­est of big hem­lock and spruce to a steep trail, with stairs and steps. You can climb this for 1.6…  ...more

Sheep Creek was named by Joe Juneau and Richard Har­ris after mis­tak­ing moun­tain goats for sheep. The trail begins in the for­est, ris­es abrupt­ly, then drops into Sheep Creek Val­ley. The old min­ing build­ings are bare­ly stand­ing. The trail then switch­backs up. If the rest of the trail is hard to find, fol­low the pow­er­lines. Be aware though — the pow­er­lines are still ful­ly charged!

This trail was named for Bessie Mine, which was active in the ear­ly 1900’s. It is no longer a main­tained trail and the last quar­ter mile of the trail is unde­vel­oped. The trail leads through spruce for­est and ends near a small lake at Bessie Mine and a his­toric cabin. 

The Cross Admi­ral­ty Canoe Route, a 32-mile water trail between Angoon and Sey­mour Canal, links sev­en moun­tain lakes, trails and portages that allow for kayak and canoe trav­el across the island. It’s an amaz­ing adven­ture for expe­ri­enced inde­pen­dent trav­el­ers, espe­cial­ly with For­est Ser­vice cab­ins pro­vid­ing shel­ter along the way.

This trail is close to town and starts on a flood­plain. The Cross trail inter­sects Gavan Hill Trail at mile 1 then leads throough thick trees. Anoth­er off-shoot trail leads to Sit­ka High School. The next part of the trail is an old log­ging road and comes out behind the base­ball field. The trail ends short­ly thereafter.

This trail offers fan­tas­tic views of the sur­round­ing moun­tains. The trail is not main­tained and may be mud­dy in places. Above the tree­line there are many wild­flow­ers and small pools of water. Hik­ing boots as well as water boots are recommended.

2.2 miles from Bai­ley Bay to Lake Shelokum Shel­ter. Access to Bai­ley Bay Hot Springs-one of the most scenic areas you will ever expe­ri­ence! The trail is chal­leng­ing. A land­slide has buried the trail in one place. Expect to scram­ble over rocks on a steep side­hill in this area. Moor­ing buoy locat­ed at trailhead. 

This makes for a good half-day to overnight hike that leads to a small lake with a fee cab­in. Peter­son Lake isn’t a clas­sic beau­ty of an alpine lake, but its low­er ele­va­tion (only about 750 feet above sea lev­el) means a longer hik­ing sea­son, and it is a peace­ful spot to relax and row around a pret­ty lake edged by a gar­den of float­ing pond lilies

The Auke Lake Trail was orig­i­nal­ly built to access the John Muir Cab­in. It also pro­vides access to Spauld­ing Mead­ows, an excel­lent place for Nordic ski­ing dur­ing the win­ter. The trail pro­vides views of the Chilkat Moun­tains, Admi­ral­ty Island, Gastineau Chan­nel, and Mts. Stroller White and McGin­nis. The trail also offers plen­ty of bird­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, espe­cial­ly now that a recent $1.2 mil­lion update was com­plet­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alaska…  ...more

The Mill Creek Trail con­nects the salt­wa­tery mouth of Mill Creek to the Vir­ginia Lake out­let. It pro­vides portage oppor­tu­ni­ties for small water­crafts. The trail sur­face ranges from unim­proved old roadbed to most­ly grav­el, to about 750 feet of board­walk near the end. The trail pass­es the rem­nants of an old sawmill and an active fish lad­der at the very begin­ning. Note that it is open to Off High­way Vehi­cles up to 50-inch­es wide.…  ...more

Of all the acces­si­ble hik­ing trails near Kake, the Portage Bay Trail is the clos­est to town (just over a mile south). It’s a short, one-mile stroll along the beach, where you might see eagles, black bear, salmon and trout.

This trail will take you the 0.8 miles from Shrimp Bay to Orchard Lake where you can access Plen­ty Cut­throat Recre­ation Cabin.

Over­look­ing the East­ern Chan­nel, this park is designed for whale watch­ing, with 3 cov­ered view­ing shel­ters, pub­lic-use binoc­u­lars, and 11 inter­pre­tive signs. Learn about whales’ feed­ing habits, migra­tions, and biol­o­gy while walk­ing the boardwalk.

Mine sites, Cab­ins, Ice Field Views

This trail pro­vides great views of the Kla­wock Moun­tains and sur­round­ing area and has a shel­ter as it ends in an alpine ecosystem.

This is a big climb: you’ll gain 2,550 feet en route to the sum­mit. And you can con­tin­ue along an alpine ridge to the next sum­mit (about one hour), Arrow­head, which sits at 3,300 feet! If you make it to these peaks, you’ll be reward­ed with big views and a beau­ti­ful alpine envi­ron­ment. And the trail can be accessed via pub­lic transport.

This is con­sid­ered Misty Fiord’s most pop­u­lar trail. It begins as a com­bi­na­tion of board­walk and nat­ur­al tread. As the route starts to gain ele­va­tion, stairs are notched out of old fall­en trees and switch­backs lead up the slope.

If you’re look­ing for a nice day along the water­front with the fam­i­ly, this is the spot. Watch fish­ing boats come and go, have a pic­nic at one of the cov­ered shel­ters, or go tide­pool­ing with the kids. At low tide you can access Mag­ic Island and look for sea crea­tures. A nice one-mile loop trail winds through the park — it’s a good place to stretch your legs. And there’s an inter­est­ing mod­ern totem pole, carved by Tom­my Joseph in remem­brance of…  ...more

This trail is near­ly flat but wet and mud­dy. It is a good place to see bears because of the great fish­ing in Lake Eva. There are many types of salmon and trout in the lake and the good vis­tas make up for the unmain­tained last mile and a half of the trail.

More than 120 miles of log­ging roads wind through Kupre­anof Island, offer­ing access to trail­heads and oth­er remote parts of the island. You can dri­ve on the fre­quent­ly used roads, and explore oth­ers by bike or by foot.

This trail leads from Short Bay in north­ern Behm Canal to Reflec­tion Lake cab­in. The trail pro­vides access to Reflec­tion Lake Cab­in. At last sur­vey the bridge about ³⁄₄ mile from salt­wa­ter is washed out, so hik­ers must ford the stream, which is only pos­si­ble dur­ing low water. There is Steel­head and salmon fish­ing in Short Creek and both trout and dol­ly var­dens are avail­able in Reflec­tion Lake. A moor­ing buoy is locat­ed in Short Bay, adequate…  ...more

This trail was built to pro­vide access to the John Muir Cab­in. The trail is extreme­ly mud­dy in sum­mer and rub­ber boots are rec­om­mend­ed then, but it is a great snow­shoe and ski trail in win­ter. There are many huck­le­ber­ries and blue­ber­ries along­side the trail and most of the trail has been planked or has small bridges to pro­tect the under­growth. The cab­in is open to the pub­lic between 10am and 5pm.

The trail starts near Nugget Creek dam and hikes through the small veg­e­ta­tion to the Vista Creek Shel­ter. It pass­es through incred­i­ble chasms to above the tim­ber­line. Bears and moun­tain goats are often seen here and there are min­ing ruins along­side the trail.

This trail is in good con­di­tion but is prone to rock­slides which can do some dam­age to the bridges. The trail was orig­i­nal­ly part of a trail sys­tem meant to ser­vice min­ing sites. The trail leads through muskeg and con­nects with Wind­fall Lake Trail, which leads 3 miles to mile 27 of the Glac­i­er Hwy. Fea­tures: Ski­ing, Running

Don’t con­fuse this unnamed trail with Sheep Creek Trail (which is a rel­a­tive­ly flat, three-mil­er also worth your time). So how do you find the trail head? With your back to the water, it’s to the right of Sheep Creek and the hatch­ery build­ings, to the left of the first house, and at the top of the embank­ment that leads up to the road. Hike up to the pow­er line (from Snet­tisham Lake — Juneau is near­ly 100% hydropow­er), cross it, and then follow…  ...more

This is the only trail that ATVers can ride that is acces­si­ble by road. Much of the trail is actu­al­ly an old log­ging road and cross­es many bridges. Rid­ers are asked to stay out of streambeds so that salmon can spawn. This trail is easy for hik­ers and ATVs but mod­er­ate for bikers.

This trail will take you the short hike from Yes Bay to Wolver­ine Island in McDon­ald Lake where you can access the McDon­ald Lake Recre­ation Cab­in as well as fishing.

A pre­mier lake fish­ery south of Wrangell, the Thoms Lake Trail is a long, 2‑foot wide grav­el trail that pro­vides access from the road sys­tem on Wrangell Island to Thom’s Lake. A State-owned pub­lic recre­ation cab­in is locat­ed on the shore of the lake, approx­i­mate­ly half a mile from the trail’s end along an unmain­tained path.

This trail is great for access­ing an area where salmon spawn dur­ing the month of August.

This easy trail access­es Swan Lake and the Swan Lake Pic­nic Area that is locat­ed in upper Car­roll Inlet. Please check-in with Ketchikan Pub­lic Util­i­ties via the trail­head phone before start­ing your hike (a phone is pro­vid­ed at the trail­head for this pur­pose). There is a dock at the trailhead.

This is an excel­lent trail for black & brown bear, har­bor seal, bald eagle, var­i­ous gull view­ing (July — Aug.) It is also a great spot for the fish­ing of Steel­head (April — May), cut­throat trout, and Dol­ly Var­den, pink salmon (July — Aug). June 15 through Sep­tem­ber 15 is the only time there is access for fish­ing and fish­ing is only per­mit­ted from shore at trail­head. Along this trail is the Anan Wildlife Obser­va­to­ry, an open log style…  ...more

This trail can be accessed by boat or float plane and is about 20 miles east of Sit­ka. This trail is board­walk and dirt trail that starts at the main dock then leads through the for­est. The spur trails along the way lead to the lake­side and along the riv­er. There are cut­throat trout in Bara­nof Lake.

If you’re in Skag­way for a sum­mer job or just a week­end fling, take your bike. Most­ly flat ter­rain and a com­pact urban lay­out makes this town a fan­tas­tic spot to see on two wheels. There’s even a free bike-repair sta­tion out front of Skagway’s pub­lic library.

This trail was named after John Lemon, one of the first prospec­tors to cross the Chilkoot Trail. It is rec­om­mend­ed that you wear water boots and long-sleeved shirts because of the mud and over­grown brush. There are many berries and, there­fore black bears in this area.

This trail fol­lows the for­mer min­ing tramway. The bridges are in poor con­di­tion and the trail has not been main­tained in years. The area is very scenic with high pop­u­la­tions of brown bears. The trail ends in Yan­kee Basin and con­nects to Bessie Creek Trail. 

The hike is about 35 miles north­east of Sit­ka and can be accessed by boat or float plane. The trail begins in a spruce for­est that is lined with salmonber­ry and is, at times, hard to fol­low because of ero­sion. It is mud­dy in places and there is some­times stand­ing water. This is a great place to see bears because there is great salmon and dol­ly var­den fish­ing. It also has the best steel­head fish­ing in the dis­trict.. It is a good place to hunt…  ...more

Arrange a water taxi ride to this man made arch­i­pel­ago extend­ing into Sit­ka Sound, a rel­ic of decay­ing for­ti­fi­ca­tions built to defend Alas­ka from for­eign inva­sion dur­ing World War II. Dur­ing World War II, Sit­ka was the hub of mil­i­tary activ­i­ty in South­east Alas­ka, with a U.S. Naval Air Sta­tion and oth­er installations.

Goose Lake Trail is a 1.5 mile round-trip, flat and easy hike that ends at Goose Lake, where you’ll find a pic­nic area and row­boat handy for fur­ther explo­ration or some trout fishing.

This trail can only be access­es by boat or by float plane. There are small rain­bow trout in both of the lakes. This trail starts in a spruce for­est then leads to a brushy mead­ow that is lined with salmonber­ry thick­ets. The trail then goes above the stream it par­al­lels to get to the lake. This por­tion of the trail can be mud­dy. The trail ends at a log jam at David­of Lake. 

Yako­bi Island’s Bohemia Basin, just 7 miles north­west of Pel­i­can, offers shel­ter, and a 4‑mile trek through old-growth for­est, past lakes, and an his­toric min­ing area. Plan to hike and camp out to ful­ly enjoy this rugged and remote part of the world.

Once the admin­is­tra­tive head­quar­ters for an empire stretch­ing from Asia to Cal­i­for­nia and Hawaii, Cas­tle Hill today is lit­tle more than a grassy hill with a few inter­pre­tive signs, a mod­est stonewall, sev­er­al old can­nons, and a few flag­poles. But when you vis­it the top of this hill, you’re stand­ing on rich his­toric grounds.

This hike begins on West Glac­i­er Trail (Menden­hall Glac­i­er) West Glac­i­er Trail (Menden­hall Glac­i­er) , which you’ll stay on from the park­ing lot past skater’s cab­in. Keep going. You’ll gain ele­va­tion as you hike the edge of the Menden­hall Glac­i­er down on your left. After a mile or so, the trail turns sharply to the left as you begin a long and stren­u­ous ridge hike that even­tu­al­ly takes you to the apex of Mount McGin­nis — the most per­fect peak…  ...more

This trail can only be accessed by boat or by float plane and cross­es Sea Lev­el Slough. Sea Lev­el Slough can only be crossed dur­ing low tide. Get­ting wet should be antic­i­pat­ed. Much of the trail goes through the Muskeg, mak­ing the trail dif­fi­cult to find in places. Wildlife and fish are abun­dant here. 

Rel­a­tive­ly easy but long (up to 7 hours), this full-day hike is worth the effort for the views at the end. You’ll want to have good shoes and watch your foot­ing, as the trail is lined with roots and is often wet. The trail winds through old-growth for­est, past beaver dams and old min­ing rails, and ends at a log cab­in nes­tled at the edge of a scenic lake with gor­geous views of Eagle Glac­i­er and the sur­round­ing mountains. 

This is a rarely vis­it­ed group of islands south of Chilkat State Park. Unpre­dictable winds, huge tides, and strong cur­rents make them a chal­leng­ing des­ti­na­tion to vis­it. Com­bined with the lack of any pub­lic trans­porta­tion, these islands remain a near-pris­tine wilder­ness left for the seri­ous boater to explore.

The first part of the trail fol­lows an old tram­line where there are many berries. The right branch of the trail leads to the dam, which was built in 1914 to cre­ate hydro­elec­tric pow­er. The oth­er trail leads to the reservoir.

The trail along Hamil­ton Creek is busiest around 5 in the morn­ing, as savvy anglers know that’s when the fish are bit­ing! The trail is about 2 miles round-trip, but you can fol­low the creek for miles, fish­ing and pic­nick­ing along the way. You will be shar­ing the expe­ri­ence with bears, so secure your snacks, and any fish you catch.

Main­land, 23 miles NW of Wrangell by boat. A 2.7‑mile trail from Mal­lard Slough Cab­in to Lecon­te Bay. Trail has min­i­mal sur­fac­ing first 0.4 mile and none there­after. Access to wildlife view­ing and hunting.

Near the end of the North Dou­glas high­way is a small half-mile trail lead­ing out to the north end of Dou­glas Island. The small beach there offers excel­lent views of Admi­ral­ty Island, the Chilkats, Lynn Canal, and the moun­tains behind the Menden­hall Glac­i­er. You’ll see sport fish­ers trolling for king salmon, and the occa­sion­al hump­back. The trail is wheel­chair acces­si­ble and used by tour bus groups, but go after 5PM and you’ll like­ly be…  ...more

This 1.5‑mile, round-trip trail includes sights of sink­holes, deep pits, streams that dis­ap­pear down holes, while pro­vid­ing nat­ur­al his­to­ry infor­ma­tion about flo­ra unique to the sat­u­rat­ed topog­ra­phy that also gives rise to Southeast’s biggest trees: bog lau­rel and Labrador tea.

Trail­head is locat­ed at the Canoe Point Pic­nic Area in Tro­cadero Bay (approx­i­mate­ly 8 water miles from Craig) and is accessed by boat or float plane. It is a .25 mile one-way trail with a grav­el and nat­ur­al tread that leads to a spec­tac­u­lar 130-foot waterfall. 

This trail winds its way back to three cab­ins in Point Brid­get State Park. If you’re inter­est­ed, find out more infor­ma­tion about Cowee Mead­ow Cab­in, Blue Mus­sel Cab­in, and Camp­ing Cove Cab­in. It begins by quick­ly descend­ing from mud­dy mead­ows through for­est and into a broad val­ley. Anoth­er mile on this easy, well-main­tained path brings you to Cowee Mead­ows cab­in. Here you’ll find won­der­ful views of the sur­round­ing moun­tains, just a few…  ...more

This trail can only be accessed by boat or float plane. It has slip­pery plank­ing and mud­dy and brushy sec­tions. Part of this is due to the spec­tac­u­lar water­fall. It is dif­fi­cult to fol­low this trail through the muskegs but a great place to see bears. The low­er part of the trail fol­lows an aban­doned min­ing tramway. There are the remains of some old min­ing machi­nary and struc­tures. Please do not dis­turb, destroy or remove any cul­tur­al resource…  ...more

Beyond the Rain­bow Falls Trail is the Insti­tute Creek Trail. This trail leads you to a shel­ter that over­looks Shoe­mak­er Bay. Trav­el­ing fur­ther along the trail, you’ll climb up into high­er coun­try reach­ing more shel­ters. This part of the trail is almost entire­ly sur­faced with stairs, log steps, and a board­walk. Be care­ful as all the stairstep­ping can be rough on your knees and hips. 

Explore Yako­bi Island’s lush rain­for­est on the 8‑mile round-trip Taka­nis Lake Trail (also known as Bohemia Trail). It begins at the mouth of Bohemia Creek and wan­ders through old-growth for­est, past two lakes, and an his­toric nick­el mine from the 1920s and 30s.

This is an easy .8‑mile board­walk trail with lots of stairs. The board­walk leads to an over­look of the Cop­per Riv­er Delta with many signs. Be sure to bring your cam­era because this is a great place to see moose and bear.

The trail is very mud­dy in sum­mer but is a great ski trail in win­ter. It leads through a muskeg mead­ow, through the woods to anoth­er mead­ow. The hills past this trail offer many more ski­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. The east­ern part of this trail is open to snowmobiles.

This trail was named for a local forester and is an unde­vel­oped route. There are many flow­ers and blue­ber­ries as well as salmonber­ries along the trail. The trail begins with a mod­er­ate grade but­steep­ens quick­ly and becomes wet with no switch­backs. The trail dis­ap­pears above the tim­ber­ling, but you can con­tin­ue on to Carin Peak if you wish to do so. Water­proof hik­ing boots are recommended. 

A short but stren­u­ous hike up Pelican’s moun­tain­side pro­vides great views of Lisian­s­ki Inlet. Climb 300 feet in half a mile and you’ll have your work­out in for the day. Take a friend and watch for brown bear!

Hike through forest­ed paths along the shore­line east or west of Tena­kee Springs. Head­ing west brings you to many beau­ti­ful lit­tle bays. Going east leads you over a pic­turesque sus­pen­sion bridge, then to Can­nery Point and Cof­fee Cove. Even­tu­al­ly you’ll find one of the old log­ging roads, which could lead you all the way to Hoonah!

This trail is about 10 miles south­east of Sit­ka and is acces­si­ble by boat or float­plane. There is good fish­ing in Salmon LakeThe trail fol­lows the val­ley past unmain­tined spur trails that lead to the Lucky Chance Moun­tain Min­ing Areas. The tread is rough in areas and the plank­ing is often slick and mud­dy. The trail ends at beau­ti­ful Redoubt Lake. 

The whole pur­pose of this trail was to pro­vide access to North Beach Recre­ation Cab­in for motor­ized and non-motor­ized use. Rid­ers must stay on a des­ig­nat­ed trail, in the park­ing area, or on the beach with their vehi­cles. As the trail gets near the beach, it splits and the east fork leads to the cab­in, while the oth­er leads to the beach.

Dan­ger Point Trail leads from Angoon through a dense­ly-treed area north of town, toward Dan­ger Point, a per­fect spot for sum­mer whale watch­ing. The game trail can be rough, but at just 2.5 miles round-trip, it’s a fair­ly easy hike through old-growth for­est that ends with a spec­tac­u­lar view of Chatham Strait and near­by islands.

A short boat ride to George Island brings chances to see whales and marine life along the way, fol­lowed by inver­te­brates at low tide and a love­ly walk through a beau­ti­ful tem­per­ate rain­for­est to an his­toric site that still has gun emplace­ments left over from World War II.

For those squea­mish about get­ting far under­ground, this shal­low cave pro­vides a look inside one, as well as a con­nect­ing trail to the lake above, a full-cir­cuit exam­ple of the geo­log­ic process that gives rise to Southeast’s caves.

This trail is par­tial­ly sur­faced with board­walk. There is access to camp­ing, pic­nick­ing, and trout fishing.

One of the newest trails in Sit­ka, this beau­ti­ful hike fol­lows a creek, pass­es sev­er­al water­falls, and takes you through old-growth for­est. It’s quite pop­u­lar, and you’ll find the Her­ring Cove park­ing area crowd­ed on the week­ends. It’s also great for fam­i­lies, despite being a lit­tle steep at points, thanks to fun trail fea­tures and fish­ing plat­forms at a lake stocked with grayling. The trail — made from grav­el, rock steps, and…  ...more

Adja­cent to the Air­port and acces­si­ble off Rat­cliffe Road, this trail runs through the wet­lands between the main­land and Dou­glas Island. It’s a great walk for fam­i­lies, bird­watch­ers, and exercisers.

This is one of the pret­ti­est trails for a vis­i­tor who’s not a big hik­er. It’s an inter­pre­tive trail with a self-guid­ed brochure, and you’ll trav­el through prime exam­ples of the dom­i­nant for­est ecosys­tems in the area: for­est and muskeg. Learn about these ecolo­gies while walk­ing a gen­tly slop­ing trail of grav­el and board­walk. One of the best ways to enjoy this trail is to park at Old Sit­ka State Park locat­ed just ½‑mile north of the Ferry…  ...more

As you approach the south side of Her­bert Riv­er, there’s a turnoff that ends at the Wind­fall Lake trail­head. The trail, some of which is planked, fol­lows the Her­bert Riv­er through the for­est. A spur trail once led to Her­bert Glac­i­er, but because of beaver damming it is no longer acces­si­ble dur­ing the sum­mer. How­ev­er, you can ski to Her­bert Glac­er via this trail in win­ter. This is a three-mile hike to a For­est Ser­vice cab­in on picturesque…  ...more

This trail pro­vides access to two good trout fish­ing spots and is acces­si­ble by boat or float plane. Many of the board­walk bridges have col­lapsed and are not safe to use. The trail is wet and mud­dy. Along­side the trail is a shel­ter in poor con­di­tion. Bears are often seen on this route, so keep your eyes open! 

The Kar­ta Riv­er Trail trav­els 5 miles from the mouth of the Kar­ta Riv­er at Kar­ta Bay to Salmon Lake Cab­in. It pro­vides excit­ing and chal­leng­ing access to wilder­ness resources, includ­ing free-flow­ing rivers, forests and oppor­tu­ni­ties for soli­tude. Also, Kar­ta Falls and Kar­ta Bay Trails extend from the Kar­ta Riv­er Trail. At Salmon Lake Cab­in, more adven­tur­ous hik­ers may fol­low the Ander­son Creek Trail to the mouth of Ander­son Creek. You can…  ...more

If you’re here on a sun­ny day, you know this peak — it’s the dom­i­nant, gen­tle vol­cano that fills the view to the west. And intre­pid hik­ers can walk all the way to the top. The trail is about 10 miles west of Sit­ka and is only acces­si­ble by boat, so you’ll have to char­ter a boat and be com­fort­able with wilder­ness hiking.

As glac­i­ers retreat, plants move in to occu­py the recent­ly exposed land in a process called suc­ces­sion. This entire trail is a clas­sic exam­ple of Ice Age suc­ces­sion, since you’ll pass from mature for­est to scrub trees to rocky moraines as you approach the glac­i­er. There are pic­turesque views along the Her­bert Riv­er, and while the hike is most­ly flat and one of the area’s eas­i­er walks, it’s long — about 5 hours round-trip. The trail is open to…  ...more

Tucked on the moun­tain­side over­look­ing the cruise ship docks, this mod­er­ate hike offers great views down Taiya Inlet and an idyl­lic camp­ing spot. This 8‑mile round trip trail is unknown even to some locals. It leads through a mixed stand of trees and descends to a beach­front jut­ting south towards Haines on Lynn Canal.

A board­walk takes you the first 500 feet of this trail and the remain­ing dis­tance is unsur­faced. The Sala­man­der Ridge Trail pro­vides you access to the sub­alpine moun­tain region and boasts excel­lent views of the East­ern Pas­sage. To get here from Wrangell, dri­ve about 27 miles south on the Zimovia High­way and con­tin­ue on For­est Road 6265 to its inter­sec­tion with For­est Road 50050. The trail­head will be on the right near the end of the road.  ...more

This trail is about 25 miles north­west of Sit­ka and is acces­si­ble by boat or float­plane. There is a beau­ti­ful mile-long white sandy beach at the begin­ning of the hike. It’s a great place to do some beach­comb­ing and to view sea lions. The trail then leads through muskeg and for­est until it reach­es a small lake that is good for swim­ming, but also very cold. The trail ends in Sealion Cove.

A side trail from Per­se­ver­ance that breaks off 2 miles into the hike, this trail is gen­er­al­ly mud­dy because of the beau­ti­ful water­falls and snow that resides on the moun­tains until ear­ly sum­mer. (And there’s extreme avalanche dan­ger in win­ter.) But it’s a great day hike, and if you keep to the left you can access the alpine high coun­try of Mount Juneau. There are beau­ti­ful alpine lakes and wild­flow­ers along the way as you gain over 1,200…  ...more

Mine sites, Cab­ins, Ice Field Views

Big John Bay trail is the fur­thest hike out from Kake, in a remote area right on tidal and salt­wa­ter flats. After a dri­ve of 16 miles and a hike of about 2.1 miles, you’ll come to Big John Bay cab­in, which can be reserved for the night through the U.S. For­est Ser­vice. Get­ting there requires strict atten­tion to tide tables, as the 15-foot vari­a­tion in tide restricts trail and cab­in access.  ...more

Just south of the Chilkat Island is Sul­li­van Island, and at its south­ern end, you’ll find Sul­li­van Island State Marine Park. It has the same acces­si­bil­i­ty issues as the Chilkat Islands; the eas­i­est way to see these islands is to look for them as you cruise via fer­ry or cruise ship down the Lynn Canal between Haines and Juneau. 

Long Lake Trail is a quick day trip to a forest­ed lake. The trail is entire­ly sur­faced by board­walks and bridges so you won’t even have to touch the ground of wet mead­ows. At the lake, there is a shel­ter and a row­boat. The skin­ny, mile-long lake is a per­fect spot for trout fish­ing. Dif­fi­cul­ty: Easy Dis­tance: 0.6 miles 

Start­ing at the Nation­al Park Ser­vice Vis­i­tor Cen­ter, this trail sys­tem takes you through rich coastal for­est and along a salmon stream, then opens to views of the shore­line and coastal moun­tains. It also trav­els past totem poles and memo­r­i­al sites, includ­ing that of the 1804 Bat­tle of Sit­ka. The last armed con­flict with the Tlin­gits in Sit­ka and the begin­ning of Russ­ian rule, this bat­tle is memo­ri­al­ized with a plaque installed in 2011. Park…  ...more

Its trail­head locat­ed across Zimovia High­way from the Shoe­mak­er Bay camp­ground, this 4 – 5 mile hike is steep, but spec­tac­u­lar. Beau­ti­ful Rain­bow Falls comes into view after the first mile. Climb­ing past the falls, hik­ers are reward­ed with views of Chichagof Pass and nar­row Zimovia Strait.

This flat trail — a must for bird­ers — takes you past the Juneau Inter­na­tion­al Air­port run­way and into the famed Menden­hall Wet­lands. You’ll start by fol­low­ing the Menden­hall Riv­er until you get past the run­way. Then the trail veers left, but a small­er foot­path fol­lows the embank­ment above the Menden­hall out to where it emp­ties into Lynn Canal. Fol­low the main trail for about anoth­er 1.5 miles, past a small cov­ered shel­ter and the largest tree…  ...more

Just before Echo Cove is Brid­get Point State Park, where you’ll find this well-main­tained trail. It mean­ders through muskeg, mature for­est, and grass­land until it reach­es a beaver dam and views of the Lynn Canal. Bears often vis­it the mead­ow, but leave it to fish the stream.

This is a great, easy walk that can be linked to the For­est and Muskeg Trail and Mos­qui­to Cove Trail. The board­walk trail trav­els through a rich tide­lands ecosys­tem, where you’ll find good bird watch­ing for shore and seabirds. You may even spot bears, who show up here to feed on young grass­es in ear­ly sum­mer and return in mid-July to the end of Sep­tem­ber for the pink and sil­ver salmon runs. The U.S. For­est Ser­vice man­ages the area, and the…  ...more

This trail is easy but has many roots and can be mud­dy. 1.5 miles from the trail­head a spur trail to the right leads to a spot that is good salt­wa­ter fish­ing for dol­ly varden.

The trail­head is locat­ed 15 air miles north of Ketchikan in Moser Bay and can be accessed by boat or plane. It pro­vides access to a 1930’s Civil­ian Con­ser­va­tion Corps 3‑sided shel­ter at the out­let of Wolf Lake. Both trout fish­ing and hunt­ing are pos­si­ble in the area. The creek between upper and low­er Wolf Lakes must be ford­ed, so plan accordingly.

Angoon’s Ceme­tery Trail is apt­ly named. It’s a well-trav­eled local trail through the ceme­tery that links up with Dan­ger Point Trail for a short tour of the wood­ed isth­mus just north of the vil­lage of Angoon.

This trail can only be accessed by boat or float plane. The trail is an old log­ging road. This is a real­ly good trail for ski­ing in win­ter as well as snowmobiling.

This trail forks off of the She­likof Trail. It leads along Iris Mead­ows until it runs into muskeg. It is an old log­ging road about 17 miles west of Sitka.

This unmarked trail is named for Alaska’s Sec­ond Region­al Forester, B. Frank Heint­zle­man. He was also Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Gov­er­nor between 1953 and 1957. Moun­tain goats are often seen along this route. After cross­ing Jor­dan Creek, the steep ascent begins. It is pos­si­ble to hike from the Menden­hall Glac­i­er Vis­i­tor Cen­ter from this trail.

0.5 miles from Mink Bay to Hugh Smith Lake, the trail is an easy hike with one steep hill tra­versed by a series of switch­backs locat­ed at the mid­point of the trail. At the lake, a hik­er can observe Alas­ka Depart­ment of Fish & Game biol­o­gists work­ing at a fish weir con­duct­ing a sock­eye salmon pop­u­la­tion study. Trout and salmon fish­ing in this sys­tem is con­sid­ered to be excel­lent. No skiff is pro­vid­ed on this lake.

This trail is mud­dy, steep and wet. It is a good place to see bears because of the Cut­throat trout fish­ing in both lakes. The trail starts in an open muskeg, but don’t let that fool you into think­ing the whole hike will be that way! 

This trail can only be accessed by boat or float plane. It is a mud­dy but grad­ual incline and a great place to see bears. The lake is full of salmon and trout and the trail begins at the cabin.

The trail down to Cathe­dral Falls isn’t very long, but involves a steep 100-foot descent (and ascent when it’s time to go back!). Down at the creek, you can explore behind the falls, fish for trout and salmon, or watch black bear, which are like­ly to be fish­ing as well.

2.3 miles from Grace Cove to Lake Grace. This trail is rat­ed most dif­fi­cult. Be pre­pared for some hard hik­ing, but the beau­ty and excel­lent trout fish­ing make it all worth while. Except for the trail, there are no recre­ation facil­i­ties present on site.

This is a pop­u­lar trail for cyclists, fam­i­lies, and swim­mers! Yep, on sun­ny days this is one of the warmer spots to take a dip. That’s because the small lakes warm up in the sum­mer (relatively…if you’re from Flori­da you might dis­agree). The trail can be accessed using pub­lic trans­port, and cyclists can even mount their bike on the bus. A local bike shop does a tour here, and if you come back down Blue Lake Road there are some fun, steep…  ...more

The trail is very steep from this point to the sum­mit. When the weath­er is good, some peo­ple walk over toward Gran­ite Basin on the ridge. There are mar­mot, spruce grouse and black bears seen here often.

Steep trail that is worth the climb: you’ll find excel­lent views of Gastineau Chan­nel, Juneau, and Dou­glas from here. NOTE: The 6^th Street trail head is no longer main­tained. Hik­ers must access Mt Roberts via the Basin Road trail head.

5.4 miles from the Naha Bay Dock to Heck­man Lake Cab­in. The trail pass­es both the Naha Riv­er Shel­ter and the Jor­dan Lake Cab­in and there are excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ties for wildlife obser­va­tion, fish­ing, and camping.

The Low­er Sun­ta­heen Riv­er Trail extends less than a mile from the road sys­tem, along the creek to its mouth on Icy Strait.

An easy, mile-long trail fol­lows the out­let of Pats Lake down to its drainage in salt water. It’s locat­ed 11 miles south of down­town, at a spot where Zimovia High­way inter­sects sev­er­al grav­el roads.

This beau­ti­ful trail is part of an exten­sive local sys­tem of trails and board­walks. It’s pop­u­lar with locals and state fer­ry trav­el­ers, since it can be linked via trail to the fer­ry ter­mi­nal, the For­est and Muskeg Trail, and the Estu­ary Life Trail.

A half-mile board­walk con­nects For­est Road 8530 to Wukuk­look Beach, at the con­flu­ence of Wukuk­look Creek and Chatham Strait. The trail winds through a spruce for­est and mead­ow before reach­ing scenic Wukuk­look Beach and its panoram­ic view of Chatham Strait.

Har­bor Moun­tain Trail­head can take you to the sum­mit of Har­bor Moun­tain, but you have to dri­ve up to 1,800 feet. This road was orig­i­nal­ly built dur­ing World War II to pro­vide access for mil­i­tary instal­la­tions. Be care­ful: the road is in decent shape, but it’s nar­row. From the trailhead/​parking area, the trail fol­lows a ridge with great views in all direc­tions. It’s had recent upgrades, so it’s easy to fol­low and there are rock bench­es and…  ...more

This trail was designed to be a hik­ing and ski­ing trail, and while there usu­al­ly isn’t enough snow for great ski­ing, recent upgrades have made this an excel­lent hike through the woods. Big trees, good foot­ing, and the remains of mines make for an inter­est­ing walk, and watch for por­cu­pine and deer. You’ll be hik­ing near the Tread­well Ditch, which col­lect­ed water runoff from the lakes above and turned it into hydro­elec­tric pow­er for miners.  ...more

Set­tlers Cove State Recre­ation Site offers two of the best sandy beach­es to be found in the Ketchikan area and pro­vides pit toi­lets and shel­tered and unshel­tered pic­nic tables with fire grates. A camp­ground with eight camp­sites is avail­able as well and one pub­lic-use cab­in on the water that can be rented.

This pop­u­lar trail is well suit­ed for fam­i­ly out­ings. It leads through stunt­ed forests to a board­walked sec­tion of the trail near Beaver Lake. Once you have reached the lake, there is a boat avail­able for pub­lic use. This is a great place to take the kids and keep an eye open for grayling in the lake. It was peri­od­i­cal­ly stocked with grayling between 1986 and 1991. 

The Peters­burg Moun­tain Trail is 3.6 miles long. It begins at the Kupre­anof State Dock and ends on the top of Peters­burg Moun­tain. The trail is open for the fol­low­ing uses: Hiking

This side trail leads to the edge of the AJ Glo­ry Hole, a mas­sive chasm with 800 foott deep walls. The mine pro­duced mil­lions of dol­lars in gold dur­ing its oper­a­tional life. The hole was cre­at­ed in a process where min­ers would blast under a mound of earth and have it col­lapse. This allowed for easy min­ing of the ore and then the hole could be blast­ed a lay­er deep­er. The hole is rough­ly ¹⁄₂ mile long and ¹⁄₃ mile wide and has ver­ti­cal walls.…  ...more

Wind­ing through old-growth for­est, this trail is main­tained for hik­ing year-round and cross-coun­try ski­ing when there is enough snow.

Expe­ri­ence a num­ber of dif­fer­ent ecosys­tems along this trail. You’ll walk through open mead­ow, wet­land, and rain­for­est muskeg just to name a few. You’ll also find beau­ti­ful flow­ers in the spring and juicy berries in the sum­mer and ear­ly fall. Dis­tance 1.8 miles Type Loop Fea­tures Wheel­chair Accessible

Because this old tram route is not main­tained, it becomes dif­fi­cult after the first four miles to spot the trail.

This short trail leads you along the mouth of the Eagle Riv­er and a salt marsh estu­ary. Be sure to pack a pic­nic as there are tables near the end of the trail.