Wasilla Creek Trail

Hi there!

Like so many hiking trails that Fly and I explore, this Trail Tuesday hike was not even on our radar until we were driving past the trailhead and discovered it existed.  So, we headed back on a free day to see if we could add this Wasilla Creek wetlands trail to our hike list.

The tiny parking area was full of cars, people, and dogs, which surprised me, since this seems like such an out of the way neighborhood trail, so we shoehorned our truck into a space and made a beeline for the trail.  Turns out the other folks were all together and were taking off down the powerline cut, so we had the trail to ourselves after all.

To call it a trail is a bit misleading – it’s actually a boardwalk!  It was so unexpected and I kept saying, “This is so awesome!”  The entire trail is an elevated, single-track boardwalk that zigzags through birch and spruce trees and heads out onto the Palmer Hay Flats.  A lady in the parking lot said she’d never been to the end of it, so I figured it must go for quite a distance, however, we discovered it is only about a half mile in length.  That was okay, because it still qualifies for the hike challenge since it’s a mile round trip.  The broad mountain views at the end, on the square viewing platform, are a great reward for such a short trek.

We hopped off the the end of the boardwalk and blazed our own trail across the frozen wetland, so Fly could run and frolic on the ice; this added to the length of the trip, though I don’t think this would be advisable in the summer when the wetland is thawed and mucky.

There were a ton of wildlife tracks in the snow and a bunch of muskrat homes, which were fun to see up close, though the residents didn’t come out and say hello.  How rude.

Sunshine flooded all around us, once the low winter sun finally peeked above the Chugach Mountains.  All the tall grasses were golden and lovely and made for some really nice photo ops.

The boardwalk follows Wasilla Creek, hence the name, and even though it was frozen, it was still nice to look at and take a risk of walking on it for a bit during the return trip.  It was super slippery, as ice usually is, and not all the way frozen in a few places.  Be careful, yo!

When we returned to the truck, Fly did a bit more mouse hunting and I was able to get a video clip of one of her pounces.  FYI: the lucky little mouse escaped to live another day.