Mount Alice: Not a summit for most, but the views are amazeballs
Most of the trails around Seward pack incredible views over Resurrection Bay, and the challenging hike up Mount Alice is no different. But wait… actually, it is. The unmarked pullout that serves as a trailhead can be a little confusing to track down, and the upper part of this mountain is not a hike, but a mountaineering expedition.
But hikers can still enjoy some beautiful viewpoints on from partway up Mount Alice, and the trail remains a reasonably straightforward trek until partway up the ridgeline.
This is hike 79 in my guidebook Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska.
- Distance: 3.5 m the correct pullout.
| Round Trip: 3.5 miles | Nearest community: Seward |
| Elevation gain: 2,100 feet | Typical season: mid-May to September |
| Parking fee: No fee | Nearby trails: Mount Marathon, Tonsina Point, Caines Head, Exit Glacier, Harding Icefield, Ptarmigan Creek/Lake, Lost Lake |
Mount Alice Trailhead Directions
From Seward, drive north on the Seward highway (which starts as Third Avenue in town) for about 3 miles. Turn right (east) onto Nash Road. You’re looking for a pullout on the right, just past mile marker 3 (which is only visible when you’re traveling in this direction). If you’ve found the right spot there will also be a “ROCKS” sign on the opposite side of the road, but you’ll only be able to see the back side of that sign from the pullout.
You might have to drive back and forth a couple of times to make sure you home in on the correct spot, but it’s worth it.
Choose a Name
This is another one of those hikes you might see referred to by several names, usually Mount Alice or Alice Mountain. I list it as “Alice Ridge” in Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska to highlight the fact that the hiking trail, such as it is, only goes partway up the summit ridgeline. If you want to go all the way to the summit you’re contemplating a full-on mountaineering effort, not a hike.
Hiking Mount Alice
Take a look at the trailhead driving directions below. As long as you’ve found the correct pullout, you should be able to see two obvious, but unmarked, trails coming down the mountainside. The leftmost of those trails more or less lines up with the middle of your parking pullout, and is the more obvious of the trails; but it starts with a brutally short, steep scramble. The next trail on the right offers a gentler start, and they come together after just 0.1 mile or so.
From that point on you hike more or less straight uphill through the spruce and hemlock rainforest. Although steep, the surroundings are pleasant and you’ll catch occasional glimpses of Resurrection Bay through the trees.
After about 1.2 miles the trail emerges into a gully and seems to peter into nothing. Keep your eyes out for a trail that forks to the right, heading up a short rise to putter across the flanks of the mountain, crossing berry patches and a few likely lookout points/picnic spots.
Most people turn around from these lookout points, but if you want to continue upward, you can backtrack (although not all the way to the gully) and look for another trail leading steeply uphill. That trail fades in and out, getting increasingly rocky before it transitions into a steep, exposed and rocky ridgeline.
Is This a Hike or a Mountaineering Trip?
I list this trail as 3.5 miles out and back — or to put it another way, ending about 1.75 miles from the trailhead — because past that point, it starts transitioning from a hike to a legit mountaineering trip that requires special skills and equipment that most hikers don’t have.
As with any trail, it’s up to you to decide how far you’re comfortable going. My advice is to keep in mind that the rock here is brittle and may break or crumble unexpectedly under hand or foot, and to think about how comfortable you are coming back down what you’re about to go up. Once you’re scrambling or otherwise traveling in borderline terrain, it’s generally much easier to go up than it is to come back down, and that makes it very easy to unintentionally get yourself stuck.
When in doubt, don’t push it. Rescues in this type of train are never simple, immediate, or guaranteed.
Pictures from Mount Alice
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Lisa Maloney
A long-time Alaskan, Lisa has written three award-winning guidebooks including "Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska" and "50 Hikes Around Anchorage." She also served as senior editor of Alaska magazine and has written hundreds of newspaper columns and magazine articles about her adventures around the state. Learn more about her at http://maloneywrites.com.
