Lazy Mountain: Prepare to Suffer
Well. There isn’t much more to say than the headline: Prepare to suffer. The direct trail up Lazy Mountain is 3,100 vertical feet of glorious, calf-burning agony, wrapped up in just 2.5 miles of trail (one-way). That sends the needle way past the “1,000 feet of elevation gain per mile of trail” I use to divide the really steep trails from normal Alaska hikes, and it means that for about half of Alaskan hikers it’s a big-time goal hike, and for the other half it’s a pleasant after-work ritual.
This is part of hike 20 in Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska.
| Distance: 5 miles round-trip | Nearest community: Palmer |
| Elevation gain: 3,100 feet | Typical season: May to October |
| Parking fee: $5 or Matanuska-Susitna Borough parking pass | Nearby trails: Lazy Moose, Matanuska Peak, Bodenburg Butte, Pioneer Ridge, Palmer-Moose Creek Rail Trail |
Lazy Mountain Trailhead Directions
From Palmer: Drive east on the Old Glenn Highway, which may be signed as Arctic Avenue, for 2.5 miles. Turn left onto Clark-Wolverine Road. After 0.5 mile, turn right onto Huntley Road. Just before the end of the road look for a right turn onto Mountain Trail Circle, which doubles as the trailhead for Lazy Mountain.
From Anchorage: Drive northeast on the Glenn Highway toward Palmer. You then have two choices: The fastest option is to continue into Palmer on the Glenn Highway and turn right onto Arctic Avenue (opposite Bogard Road) which then becomes the Old Glenn Highway, and follow the directions given above.
The slower, but rather more scenic, option is to take the highway exit for the Old Glenn Highway (before Palmer) and look for the right turn onto Clark-Wolverine Road, shortly before the bridge across the Matanuska River. From there, follow the directions given above: right onto Huntley Road, and right onto Mountain Trail Circle.
Hiking Lazy Mountain
There are actually two trails up Lazy Mountain: For an easier, 8-mile round-trip hike that ends up at the same place, take the right fork out of the trailhead, which is marked with a rough arch; this is the Lazy Moose trail.
If you’re here for the delicious agony of a straight-up ascent, take the left trail instead. This sends you straight uphill on the horribly eroded but still very popular direct ascent of Lazy Mountain. One of the biggest problems with erosion is that the resulting dust acts like tiny ball-bearings under your feet, making for a surprisingly slippery ascent when dry; and as you might expect, it’s slippery when wet.
But there is no better calf workout than this trail, and there really is something satisfying about meeting — and beating — the challenge in front of you.
About 1.1 miles from the trailhead, that straight-up ascent trail meets up with the Lazy Moose trail, which wound through the forest on the south side of the mountain before reaching that point. The trails continue uphill through another mile or so of steep, eroded trail with a few patches of rock and tough brush.
Don’t let yourself be suckered by one notable false peak along the way: You’ll know you’re reaching the true peak of Lazy Mountain because it (almost always) has an American flag fluttering in the wind.
Pictures From the Lazy Mountain Trail
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.
