Byron Glacier: Beautiful hike, dangerous “ice caves”

Byron Glacier is right up there on my list of “short, easy hikes that blow your mind.” But I have to admit that I also get very sad when I see how small the glacier is when compared to my first sight of it, which must have been some 20 years ago.

The picture on this post was, if I remember correctly, taken somewhere around 2015; you might find it interesting to compare this to what the glacier looks like when you visit.

With that said the valley itself, the creek that runs through it, and persistent cones of avalanche debris that linger well into the summer are all beautiful in their own right. For those who are inclined to scramble around, there’s also an enormous pile of boulders left by Byron Glacier’s passage.

This is hike 62 in my guidebook Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska.

Hiking Byron Glacier

The maintained section of the Byron Glacier trail is so straightforward it doesn’t require any special directions: Just start out from the trailhead and walk, enjoying the beauty all around you. I particularly enjoy the company of Byron Creek, which flows along beside the trail for at least half its length.

That maintained trail ends on a broad, rocky plain. In the near distance you’ll see the jumble of boulders left by Byron Glacier’s passage, which are great fun to scramble around on if you’re comfortable doing so. In most years you’ll also see a stream of meltwater flowing out of a cone of avalanche debris and into the creek.

Because this trail is on National Forest Service land, dogs should be kept on leash.

About the Byron Glacier Ice Caves

Most years, that cone of avalanche debris lasts well into the summer; it might even last all year, although that’s becoming less common. That avalanche debris is not part of Byron Glacier, which now lurks further up the hillside and around the rocky corner from where you stand. But because the tunnel chiseled out by meltwater has walls of blueish ice — a mark of just how much it’s been compressed by successive layers of avalanche debris — many people think these ice “caves” are part of the glacier.

You may have seen some beautiful photos produced here. The photos really are stunning. But before you hike out in search of your own photos, please remember that people have been injured and have even died here in search of the perfect image. “Ice caves” like this one are never stable to begin with, and they become even less-so during the summer. If your timing is really unlikely, you might be inside when it collapses.

Whether or not you’re going to walk into the ice caves is up to you. All I’m asking is that you don’t do it under any illusions that hiking into the Byron Glacier “ice caves” is safe. Quite the opposite: Hiking in any ice cave is dangerous, and the fact that many people go there to take pictures doesn’t change that.

This Is a Dangerous Trail in Winter

Hiking into this valley during the winter and spring might seem like a safer proposition. After all, the cooler weather should mean the ice caves are more stable — right?

Not really, because this is one of several popular trails that are very dangerous in winter, thanks to its extreme avalanche hazard.

Remember, the Byron Glacier “ice caves” aren’t actually part of the glacier. They’re carved out of a pile of avalanche debris so deep and heavy that the lower layers are compressed enough to resemble a glacier. And how does all that avalanche debris end up in the valley? It slides down off the mountains, of course, and you’re going to have a very bad day if you’re underneath it when that happens.

The good news is that avalanches aren’t random. But doing a winter hike here without knowing how to evaluate avalanche hazard is equivalent to playing the lottery — with your life. Even those who are “avvy savvy” enough to calculate the hazard will often choose to give this valley a miss during the winter, because there’s such high risk of avalanches and the whole thing is basically one big terrain trap: Any falling snow piles up on the valley floor (and this trail), because it has nowhere else to go.