Hiking The Angel Rocks Trail

So my first week in Alaska is wrapping up and I've managed to place myself in harm's way via a multitude of methods. Wondering around in the wild without bear spray (a real thing, I swear), marching out onto thinly frozen creeks, climbing rocks without hesitation or thought, and the list could go on and on. As with the other trails and hikes we'll just go through things in order of occurance. Here's a cliff that doesn't really have anything with the route other than it's vacinity to Angel Rocks (I later found out it is the trail head for Granite Tors). I'm about 6' 2'' if you want something to provide a sense of scale.

Slightly further down the road is a slightly worn path that leads to this nice little scene with the frozen clear river. The lack of developed trees is either due to it being right at the end of winter, or because there was a wild fire here. I'm not sure which.

Here's the entrance to the trail (finally). Once you get some 100 ft down the trail things change up and looks completely different than what you'd expect from this.

As I was saying, the trail switches from wondering through the forest to meander beside a river (the Chenga) and keeps on until it starts up toward Angel Rocks. This river is markedly different than the one above in that it isn't frozen, and one other way that you'll soon see.

You might have a hard time seeing it, but the yellow tint seen in the image below is the color of the water (not the river bed). This is from the silt which becomes trapped in the ice as the river freezes and is release during the thaw. As an added bonus, the cresent shape in the photo is actually a beaver dam.

Eventually the path leaves the river behind and slopes upward toward Angel Rocks. Those pinnacles seen jutting up beyond the trees are the ultimate goal for this hike.

As previously mentioned, I wondered off the path multiple times during the hike and one of those times resulted in me finding this nice, frozen stream which runs down the mountain. I could see it flowing beneath certain sections of the ice, and accidentally poked through at one point as I walked around on it. I don't believe it was too deep, but I still didn't want to get my jeans wet and then have to finish the rest of the hike and drive home in that condition. Wild animals have been transversing this frozen path as evident from the tracks they left behind.

So this is one of the first major rock formations you come across during the hike. It doesn't have the best view, possess the highest elevation, or provide anything of particular noteworthiness, but it is the hardest to climb. Hence, I made it my misson to reach the top, regardless of the fact I was going solo or have no formal rock climbing experience. I figure that I probably won't get too many chances to come back here and I might as well get the most out of my visit.

Here's another look at what I had to climb to reach the top of this rock formation. It took me some 15-20 minutes to reach the top, but I eventually made it.

Here's a look down from up on top. Quite a ways to fall, don't you think? And yes, that is my shoe. Nice, isn't it?

 
Here's a slightly different view from the top of the same rock formation minus the shoe. This side is probably the closest to the ground and it is still pretty far up.
 

 
Even though the hike isn't too far (only a couple of miles) you can still get some really great views of the surrounding area. You can really make out the yellow hue of the water from here.
 

 
If you do a 180(insert degree symbol here) you can see just how much higher the other Angel Rocks go. It really isn't much of a task to reach them once you've gotten this far. The trail meanders around and gently slopes up toward them. These are also fairly easy to climb as they have paths that lead right to their highest point. You may have to make a few akward footing placements, but other than that there is absolutely no excuse to not get up there.
 

 
I ended up hiking to the highest of the Angel Rocks at ~ 1850 ft and took a couple of images of the valley below. This one turned out the best and really shows off the view. It doesn't compare to seeing it in person, but it'll have to do.
 

 
We could have continued to go higher from this point, but this would have been the last of the Angel Rocks. There is a trail somewhere that leads to the summit shown here, but I got a late start on the day and the trail is poorly marked and I decided to call it a day. I might take another stab at it if I run out of hiking ideas or someone twists my arm into going up this way again. But most likely this will remain uncharted territory for me. I can live with that.
 

 
Finally, this last image is a compilation of some 15 photos combined using "Hugin," a panorama making application. It is free, realitively user friendly, and pretty accurate. The original image it prooduced was 280 MB, but only took up about 5 MB as a pdf. I'd post the original image, but blogspot can't handle it as a 280 MB or pdf file. Sorry. I'm open to reasonable suggestions though. Oh, and this is a 360(insert degree symbol here) image so if you print it out, tape the ends together, and place it around your head you can experience the wonder and majesty of being in Alaska! Wow! Cool! Neat...yeah.

 
Well, that's do it for this outing. Hopefully things stay as nice and easy as this hike. Next weekend we tackle the fairly tame (all you do is drive to the top) Ester and Murphy Domes. Peace Out.

- TiH