Granite Tors was a trail that a buddy and I wanted to do for a while and we couldn’t have picked a better day. It was a clear day, excellent cool temps, sun was out with zero smoke in the area.
Definitely bring bug spray (a good practice while being outdoors during the summer in Alaska). The mosquitos were immediately swarming us as we were getting gear ready.
Once you park, pay your parking fee. It’s only $5 but if not paid a $60 fee could be the result. The pay box is at the entrance of the parking lot.
This trail is a loop that is around 16 miles total, if you don’t veer off the trail much. On the way up we did a bit of exploring. We ended up doing the entire loop and did get off track a few times. On one side of the loop, the trail is not clearly marked. This made for a much longer hike than originally planned. Total mileage was just over 19 miles – it was a pretty long hike.
We started on the steep section of the loop. It had very nice views with an intense work out.
Along the trail we saw many mushrooms of a few varieties. The video shows the size of some – surprisingly large.
As we were going up the steep side of the trail, we did see several great spots to camp. My buddy and I just may make that happen.
The Alltrails App screenshot above shows the trail, distance as well as the elevation gain. 3,337 feet makes for a tough hike – completely worth it.
Cell phone signal is pretty non-existent until you get pretty close to the top of the trail. Definitely download the trail map from Alltrails.
If you are planning on doing the entire loop, definitely bring extra water. We pretty much ran out of food and water by the end of the hike. Defiantly plan ahead.
Video coming soon.