June Hikes, Part 2: Triple Lakes and Polychrome Glaciers

This first picture isn't from either one of these hikes.  I just happen to really like the way the sky looks in it.

That line of shadow comes from a mountain.

Before I did the Triple Lakes hike, I attempted (for the second time) to ascend Mount Margaret.  That ended in failure because above about 4000 feet the winds were too high for me to be able to stand up, but I did see a lynx from the bus on the way out.

The Triple Lakes Trail has, as you would expect, three lakes along its course.  They're within the last two miles at the southern end, however.  The first seven miles are along Riley Creek before climbing a ridge, which it follows until descending to the lakes.  A high railroad trestle traverses the creek just downstream from the trailhead, and since I happened to be close by just as the daily train to Anchorage was passing over it, I snapped a few pictures.

Because the creek is in a relatively wide and low valley, the spruce forest on its banks is very thick, which is unusual for most of the streams in the park.  It also remains as a single channel for most of its course.  Most of the other rivers are braided and run in wide gravel bars (as you will see later in this post).

From there, I switchbacked up a ridge.  I did not expect the climb to be nearly as large as it actually was, and by the time I got to the top, I was exhausted.  I had already hiked about 1200 feet up a canyon wall earlier in the day, and I can't say I was all that motivated to ascend another 1000 feet on my second-choice hike.  I did it though, and the view over the Nenana River Valley was pretty spectacular.

From there, the trail drops down to the triple lakes themselves, which are notable for being among the few bodies of water in the park that actually contain fish.  The shores are mostly marshy though, so except in a few places, it's difficult to get close to them.

Two of the triple lakes.

***

The next day, I went hiking in the backcountry in the Polychrome Glaciers area, about 45 miles into the park.  The entire hike is along the gravel bars of the East Fork of the Toklat River and the glacial streams that flow into it.  As you can see, it looks nothing like Riley Creek.

As you get farther upstream, you can see how frequently the streams change course.  This bed of rippled mud had certainly had water running through it since it thawed this spring.

As you move up along the branches, it gets difficult to see any flowing water, since the gravel bars are so large compared to the channels, which are usually only a few feet wide.

There are glaciers in each of the valleys.

Even though it looks like I put the camera on the ground, I was standing up.  That's how strange the scale is.

The major difficulty in this hike is that the Park Road is up to 400 feet above the gravel bar on top of cliffs of mostly loose rock.  At the start of the hike, I dropped down at a much lower bridge, but I didn't feel like walking that far at the end.  Despite Park Service recommendations against doing it, I scaled the cliffs at their highest point and caught a bus back to the park entrance from there.  I'm not sure if that makes me lazy or not - I didn't feel like walking the 2.5 miles in either direction to get to a relatively shallow climb to the road, so instead I took a much steeper and less stable route.

It's a nice view from the top though.

***

As an aside, I just finished reading Into the Wild.  I'll almost certainly have something to say about that later, but for now, I will just note that the spot where Chris McCandless died is only 30-40 miles away from here.  The bus, in case you're curious, is now at a bar in Healy, which is 10 miles up the Parks Highway.