With Covid19 putting the kabash on basically all of my travel plans, the summer of 2020 seemed like the perfect time to make the most of exploring the Interior and northern Alaska!
My first adventure of the season was backpacking Carter Lake, and after that trip I was itching to get back out and enjoy the beautiful Alaskan summer. One of the most popular trails near Fairbanks is Granite Tors, so that seemed like the perfect place to start!
We packed up our gear on Saturday morning and headed out Chena Hot Springs Road to the trailhead, which is located at milepost 39.5. The drive is a straight shot once you are on Chena Hot Springs Road, and it takes about an hour to reach the trailhead from Fairbanks.
The trail offers two loop options, one two miles and the other 15. We had decided to start our trip on the East Trail and make a clockwise loop after reading the trail guide created by Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources. Alaska’s DNR does a great job with their trail guides, and this one in particular identifies the clockwise route as having a more gradual ascent, which sounded great to us (this was only our second backpacking venture of the summer, mind you!).
After leaving the parking lot and crossing the bridge to follow the river, the beginning of the hike starts off on a boardwalk through a marshy area where there were beautiful white blooms springing up alongside the path. Despite the route plan, we actually ended up starting the hike on the West Trail because of some trail damage closures. Thankfully because of the smaller loop, we were still able to hop over to the East Trail later in the route.
We traveled up through a gorgeous birch forest, gradually climbing to more rocky, open areas. We would catch glimpses here and there of the tors along the ascent, which are what give the trail it’s name. These unique rock outcroppings formed millions of years ago when molten rock pushed upward, cooling before reaching Earth’s surface. As the surrounding earth eroded, the rock pinnacles were exposed, and these unique geologic features are scattered across the hilltops at the outward end of the Granite Tors Trail loop. They are beautiful, and quite a site to behold!
We stopped for a little break near a bench on the trail, and enjoyed some sunshine. The weather was pretty hit or miss, and we got rained on here and there. After a few minutes of sitting on the bench and enjoying the sunshine, it started hailing! We grabbed our gear and got moving, hoping it would blow over soon.
Throughout the trail there were signs of previous fire damage, and we saw quite a bit of that as we continued upward, trying to escape the rain. One hiker who passed warned us that the trail was difficult to follow, but we didn’t have much trouble. There was only one spot that we hesitated at as we scrambled across some rocks, and within a minute or two we had found our way again.
While most of the people we saw were hiking the loop as a day hike, we liked the idea of breaking it up into an overnight trip and had brought all of our backpacking gear along. We knew as we hiked that there was a shelter at mile 7 available on a first come, first serve basis, and we were curious to see what it would be like. While it’s lovely from the outside, it seems like little more than a storage shed on the inside, and we were glad to have our tent as an option. What can we say, we’ve been spoiled by public-use cabins like the one at Fielding Lake!
We continued on past the trail shelter, always watching the horizon for new formations of tors. I’ve shown friends and family lots of pictures of my travels through Scotland, and talked to a few of them about how this hike felt like traveling without traveling- the Alaskan version of Scotland. The tors feel reminiscent of the Old Man of Storr rock formation on Isle of Skye, or like Mother Nature’s version of a stone circle, similar to the man-made ones found on Orkney and the Isle of Lewis and Harris.
It’s crazy as I continue to travel throughout Alaska at just how much there is to be discovered here. While I love mountains and glaciers as much as the next person, there are so many hidden gems beyond the post card images you see of alpine lakes, surrounded by pines with a backdrop of mountains. I wrote a bit about the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes previously, and Granite Tors is another marvel to add to the list!
Once we arrived at the Tors, we found a cozy spot and started to set up camp. Thanks to the midnight sun, we had a lot of time to settle in, make dinner, take in the views, and enjoy the sunset. It was a peaceful, beautiful evening, thanks in part to repeated applications of some good bug dope!
We slept really well, having picked a spot close enough to one of the tors that we had a decent amount of shade. Actually, we slept in, which for me is almost unheard of while backpacking! After breakfast and packing up, we got ready to leave around noon, and realized we were really sad to go. For anyone contemplating an overnight trip, I honestly would have enjoyed having a third day in between our arrival and departure to just wander the ridges, exploring the tors more.
As we left, we passed by many more of the big beautiful rock formations, until we started our descent. It was a bit rockier on the West Trail than the east, but we didn’t have any problems. We stopped at mile 10.5 for a charcuterie picnic lunch, before continuing our descent. At one point we could see a dark line where the trail cut through trees on a hill below us, which was a fun perspective.
The trip ended much like it had started, making our way through a birch forest until we ultimately arrived at another series of boardwalks. Despite the mosquitos and hail, I really enjoyed exploring a new place in my own Alaskan backyard!
