Powerline Pass trail: A long (maintenance) road to wildlife sightings and fantastic mountain views

I see Powerline Pass as one of the most straightforward hikes in the state. For much of its length it’s actually a gravel maintenance road, so you don’t have to worry about stressful routefinding or getting disoriented when the clouds roll in.

But that doesn’t mean you’re compromising on the sights or your overall experience. This moderate-difficulty trail cuts through a stunningly picturesque valley, and wildlife sightings — especially moose, and often bears — are very common here.

This is hike 45 in my guidebook Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska, and hike 17 50 Hikes Around Anchorage.

Hiking to (or Toward) Powerline Pass

Given that the Powerline Pass trail really is an old gravel road, it’s impossible to miss. From the Glen Alps trailhead, just hike the flattish connector trail that starts near the automated pay station. After 0.3 mile) it delivers you to a T intersection with the gravel road that is the Powerline Pass trail. This intersection is a great place to set up a spotting scope (or bring binoculars) and look for wildlife in the valley below.

If you turn left at that intersection, you’ll start a 3-mile, mostly downhill hike to the Prospect Heights trailhead. If you turn right you’ll be heading for the actual pass, and that stretch of trail is what I’ll focus on here.

As you hike, you’ll reach a couple of turnoffs for other excellent trails in this valley. For example, at 0.5 miles from the trailhead, you’ll see a left fork that leads down to a bridge and across the valley, variously branching and merging into several fantastic hikes including Middle Fork Loop, Williwaw Lakes, Little O’Malley and Big O’Malley.

If you keep going, at 2.25 miles from the trailhead you’ll hit another left turn. This one leads you to the really delightful Hidden Lake trail.

Two more big features of note on the Powerline Pass trail are a great valley overlook at 2.6 miles from the trailhead, and a couple of shallow streams that sometimes flow right across (or down) the trail, starting around mile 5.

As the trail rises toward the pass, shrinking from a gravel road into a packed dirt trail, you’ll see two small lakes on the right: First small Grey Lake, and then tiny Green Lake just before the pass.

Should I Continue on the Indian Valley Trail?

Most people will treat the Powerline Pass trail as an out-and-back trip, hiking only as far as they feel like going before they turn around. But there are a few bold souls who reach the pass and choose to continue down its other side on the Indian Valley trail which, as you might guess, ends in the small community of Indian along Turnagain Arm.

This descent adds another 5.2 miles to your trip, a whopping 3,800 feet of elevation loss, and the need for a second car parked at Indian.

But to be honest, I don’t recommend doing the Indian Valley trail at all. My recollection of it is that it’s very wet, brushy, and buggy. That recollection is so strong and so negative, in fact, that I haven’t gone back to the Indian Valley trail in years. It’s one of the very few Alaska hikes that I just can’t find many good things to say about.

A Couple Things to Consider

Given its relatively simple, straightforward nature — not to mention the great scenery, frequent wildlife sighitngs, and all the other great trails splitting off of it — it’s no surprise that the Powerline Pass trail draws lots of traffic. But I’d like to ask that you keep a couple of things in mind when hiking there:

Avalanche Hazard

There tends to be very high avalanche hazard in the actual Powerline Pass — the gap in the mountains, at the head of the valley — and avalanches can happen further down in the valley, too.

Rescues

Flattop — you know, the uber-popular mountain that overlooks the start of this hike — is one of the hottest spots for rescues by the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group. I think that’s because Flattop is so popular, and so easily accessed, that people tend to take it for granted that they’ll be fine there.

But the truth is, all the standard Alaska hazards still apply: Not just avalanches but wildlife encounters, injuries to yourself, slips/falls, weather, and cold exposure (or nowadays, heat too). And of course, the same is true of the Powerline Pass trail.