Hiking the Muktuk Marston Trail Again

Last year I had the opportunity to join a group of ladies on a 5-hour hike along the Muktuk Marston Trail up at the Arctic Valley Ski Area near Anchorage. At that time, we got dropped off at the parking lot and picked up at the other end, at the South Fork Eagle River Trailhead.

It was a spectacular hike with a million wildflowers and amazing views. Truly a beautiful trail, and I loved it so much. The group I was with were all about the same level of fitness, so no one felt like they were slowing anybody down. We all packed our lunches and ate together at the midway point, up in Hunter Pass.

I have been wanting to get my family up there ever since but really couldn’t figure out the logistics of it. Who would drop us off and/or pick us up? How would we shuffle cars with a minimal amount of driving?

Just the other day I found out that the ski lodge at the trailhead offers their ski lift to hikers occasionally and I thought maybe that would be an equivalent option to hiking without needing to shuffle cars around. So, I put the call out to my family to see who would join me!

The plan was to either meet at my house to carpool (sister Noel chose that option) or meet at the parking lot (niece Katy chose that option) to begin our adventure. We would take the ski lift up to the top of the mountain (the blue line). Then take the Rendezvous Ridge trail along the top until it meets up with the Muktuk Marston trail at Hunter Pass and head on back down to the parking lot (the red line) – a total of roughly 6 miles.

Unfortunately, the ski lift doesn’t run in the rain, and it was pouring down rain when we all got there. So, we opted for Plan B: hike up the Muktuk Marston trail until we got tired, then turn around and head back to the car.

Even sopping wet, the trail was truly spectacular. So many wildflowers everywhere we looked! We had fun trying to identify them all, only occasionally having to look them up on the picture we had taken of the signage at the beginning of the trail that had most of them listed.

When we stopped for lunch, we laughed because each of us had packed PPJs to snack on. They’re easy, nutritious, and give a quick punch of energy to continue hiking - so yay for PBJs!

By the time we made it back to our cars, we were thoroughly wet but super pleased with our hike. We had such a great time together – although I really do want to take that ski lift someday. I plan to keep that one on the back burner for a while to try again on a later date.

The drive back down the hill to the highway brought us alongside this handsome fellow: look at that belly! He’s HUGE!

And a little further down, we came across this little lady and her cub! I was a little concerned at how scrawny she is – but then I remembered that she only just came out of hibernation. She’ll fatten up as summer progresses, never fear. Her cub was very healthy and energetic, so she’s doing just fine.