Living in Alaska, especially a little more rural, affords a lot of adventure and activities that are very close to home. One of my families favorite places to hike, go for a Sunday drive, explore, pick berries, everything, is Hatcher’s Pass.

We live at the bottom of Hatcher’s Pass on the Willow side, and love to drive up and explore numerous times every summer. My kids have also had many a winter activity through our youth group up there, from sledding, to winter camping and snow machining.

A couple of weeks ago my daughter wanted to go hiking, so a group of us drove up and hiked Skyscraper. This is one I’ve only done one other time. It can be a long hike, all the way around one of the high mountain valleys, or it can be a shorter hike, go out and turn around when you’re ready, that’s what we did because of time constraints.

The biggest thing is it’s a steep hike for the first 200 yards or so before reaching the ridgeline, making it a more advanced hike, and a little treacherous coming back down if you aren’t sure footed.

The hike starts right up at the summit of Hatcher’s Pass, almost directly across the road from one of our other favorite hikes, April Bowl, which is also a ridgeline hike if you choose to go that high.

I was asking my son, who is serving his mission in Canada, if he’d gone on any good hikes in his area. They have one day a week that they can get out and do something like that. He said he’d gone out walking on trails, but not hiking. My kids have decided it’s not a hike unless it’s really long, or you have to go straight up the side of the mountain, at least for part of it, Consequently, they love ridgeline hikes, or anything that gets them up higher in elevation where there’s a view.

And a view there was, a beautiful, 360 degree view. From the top you can see Palmer and down the valley toward Willow on the other side. Behind and in front of you, there are mountains and mountains, peaks and valleys as far as the eye can see.

We started hiking later in the evening, about 8:00, it takes about an hour to get to the trailhead from our house. We were out hiking just over an hour by the time we got back to the cars as everyone had work the next day, and we still had an hour drive to get back home.

Hiking for me is refreshing to my soul. I love getting out into nature, into the fresh air, seeing new sights, spending time with family and friends. I don’t do it nearly enough, but I love it when I do! This is a fun hike. It is an advanced hike, just because of how steep it is getting up to the top, and then coming back down. The footing isn’t really solid, so coming down there was a bit of sliding. I would highly recommend this hike if you’re looking for beautiful views and fun adventure!