Hiking Virgin Falls
Jun. 17th, 2024 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAlaska Travelog #7
Girdwood - Sat, 15 Jun 2024, 6:30pm
We paused on our road trip from Anchorage to Seward this afternoon to hike at Virgin Falls. Unlike the few stops we'd already made since leaving Anchorage at 4pm, this one was fully planned. ...Not that the others were unplanned. They were matters of, "We've got plenty of daylight, so we'll stop at roadside vistas as we go." I'll write about those in a blog when we finish this drive. For now it's just Virgin Fals, in the ski town of Girdwood.
Like Barbara Falls we hiked this morning, this trail wasn't well marked. I mean, the drive to the trail wasn't well marked. There were no brown traffic signs, nor even any green signs— heck, not even hand-written signs— directing visitors to the trailhead. There was just the end of a winding gravel road that threaded past wealthy people's ski homes with one small trailhead sign and lots of "NO PARKING" signs. Presumably the wealthy ski home owners don't want the riffraff here. Still, that one trailhead sign was one trailhead sign more than Barbara Falls. 😅
From the parking area a surprisingly short trail leads steeply uphill to and overlook above Virgin Falls. A foot trail also leads down to a spot near the creek. We lingered here several minutes before continuing on.
I consulted the AllTrails app on my phone to figure out how far we'd gone.... According it it we were less than halfway there, whatever "there" is.
The trail continued higher above these falls, so we continued higher.
It's not clear what the trail is supposed to go to. The falls we'd already seen are what almost everybody posts pictures on AllTrails about. Further up there are recent deadfalls on the trail, and at some point the trail becomes fairly indistinct. The trail seems to turn sharply to the side and climb straight up the side of the mountain, away from the creek. That seemed like the wrong way to get to higher up falls on the creek, if there even are higher falls, so we turned back.
On the way back down we spotted some falls higher up the creek than Virgin Falls. Call these... Upper Virgin Falls. Or maybe Middle Virgin Falls, if there's actually something higher up that we were supposed to see. These aren't at the "end" of the trail, so possibly there's something higher up we couldn't find. Or maybe natural changes like landslides and deadfalls have changed it. Either way, we enjoy these falls and the relative solitude we enjoyed at them. Most people turn around at the lower falls.
Here's a short video (above) of the upper falls. Enjoy the sights— and especially the sounds— of being alone with nature.
Girdwood - Sat, 15 Jun 2024, 6:30pm
We paused on our road trip from Anchorage to Seward this afternoon to hike at Virgin Falls. Unlike the few stops we'd already made since leaving Anchorage at 4pm, this one was fully planned. ...Not that the others were unplanned. They were matters of, "We've got plenty of daylight, so we'll stop at roadside vistas as we go." I'll write about those in a blog when we finish this drive. For now it's just Virgin Fals, in the ski town of Girdwood.
Like Barbara Falls we hiked this morning, this trail wasn't well marked. I mean, the drive to the trail wasn't well marked. There were no brown traffic signs, nor even any green signs— heck, not even hand-written signs— directing visitors to the trailhead. There was just the end of a winding gravel road that threaded past wealthy people's ski homes with one small trailhead sign and lots of "NO PARKING" signs. Presumably the wealthy ski home owners don't want the riffraff here. Still, that one trailhead sign was one trailhead sign more than Barbara Falls. 😅
From the parking area a surprisingly short trail leads steeply uphill to and overlook above Virgin Falls. A foot trail also leads down to a spot near the creek. We lingered here several minutes before continuing on.
But Wait, There's More
When I wrote that this trail was surprisingly short, I meant that literally. The trail description on AllTrails.com— without which it would've been hard to find this hike, considering the seemingly deliberate lack of signage— says it's 0.5 miles roundtrip and 180' of ascent. Except the quick trail didn't feel like 0.25 miles of hiking, and it definitely didn't feel like we ascended 180'.I consulted the AllTrails app on my phone to figure out how far we'd gone.... According it it we were less than halfway there, whatever "there" is.
The trail continued higher above these falls, so we continued higher.
It's not clear what the trail is supposed to go to. The falls we'd already seen are what almost everybody posts pictures on AllTrails about. Further up there are recent deadfalls on the trail, and at some point the trail becomes fairly indistinct. The trail seems to turn sharply to the side and climb straight up the side of the mountain, away from the creek. That seemed like the wrong way to get to higher up falls on the creek, if there even are higher falls, so we turned back.
On the way back down we spotted some falls higher up the creek than Virgin Falls. Call these... Upper Virgin Falls. Or maybe Middle Virgin Falls, if there's actually something higher up that we were supposed to see. These aren't at the "end" of the trail, so possibly there's something higher up we couldn't find. Or maybe natural changes like landslides and deadfalls have changed it. Either way, we enjoy these falls and the relative solitude we enjoyed at them. Most people turn around at the lower falls.
Here's a short video (above) of the upper falls. Enjoy the sights— and especially the sounds— of being alone with nature.
