Bear Point in Peters Creek: Steep, muddy, then easy walking at the top

The short but challenging hike up Bear Point is an exercise in perseverance: You’ll (briefly) wade through mud, you’ll grovel up a stretch of dusty, eroded trail… and then you’ll reap the rewards of all that effort as the trail rolls over into a beautiful, broad shelf of tundra with a modest high point in the distance. That high point is Bear Point, although many people will hike up this trail and bypass the point in favor of tagging the high point of Mount Eklutna, then descending to the valley floor and finishing the hike as a loop.

Bear Point is hike 28 in Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska, and part of hike 43 in 50 Hikes Around Anchorage.

Bear Point Trailhead Directions

This trail shares a trailhead with the hikes up Mount Eklutna and along the Big Peters Creek trail. To get here from Anchorage, drive north on the Glenn Highway. Take the Peters Creek exit and make the following turns:

• right onto Ski Road
• right onto Whaley Avenue
• left onto Chugach Park Drive
• Left onto Kullberg Drive (at the end of Chugach Park Drive)
• Right onto Sullins Drive
• Right onto Malcolm Drive

After a few switchbacks you’ll see the big brown sign that marks the trailhead, just as the road makes a sharp left turn onto Sierra Mesa Circle.

Hiking Bear Point

This trail starts on the broad, old roadbed of the Big Peters Creek Trail. This main trail is open to mountain bikers during the summer. During the winter it draws skiers, and it is also open to snowmachiners when sufficient snow cover is present.

After just 0.1 mile there’s a left turn onto a clear but unsigned side trail; this is the path to Bear Point. You’ll work through a couple spots of thick, goopy mud before the trail heads straight up the mountain, gaining more than 1,200 feet of vertical elevation in just 0.8 of a mile.

The trail is badly eroded for much of that steep stretch; please stick to the trail to keep from making the erosion worse. See the main trail up Lazy Mountain — or the old, straight-up version of the “Sunnyside” Flattop trail, if you’ve been around long enough to recall it — for fairly extreme examples of what can happen when people don’t stick to an already-eroded trail.

By 1.4 miles from the trailhead the trail rolls over onto a broad, sloping tundra plateau, with the modest high point visible in the distance, more or less straight ahead. At 2 miles from the trailhead you’ll reach that high point, which is quieter than you might expect because although this is a popular trail, many hikers bypass the “peak” in favor of a loop hike over to Mount Eklutna.

Which Way Will You Go?

Once you’ve reached that broad shelf of tundra, there are two popular ways to proceed. If you’re planning to tag the actual high point and return the way you came, do yourself a favor: Turn around and pick a few landmarks to help you spot the right place to descend, as the trail is otherwise unmarked and really blends into the immensity of that tundra shelf you emerge onto.

If you’re rather continue on to Eklutna, look for a patchy trail heading out to hiker’s right (or if you’re returning from the high point, hiker’s left). This inconsistent footpath points you in the general right direction, and will become clearer as you approach Mount Eklutna.

Pictures of Bear Point in Peters Creek

Name Confusion: Bear Point, Bear Mountain, or…?

You may hear this hike referred to as Bear Point, which is how maps label the actual high point on the hike, or as Bear Mountain. But there are two more reasonably popular “Bear Mountain” hikes in Southcentral Alaska: One off Skilak Lake Road near Soldotna, and another in Seward. So if you and your friends are discussing a “Bear Mountain” hike, please make sure you’re all talking about the same place!