It’s August in Alaska people, and the weather has gone to shit!
My friend Tay and her boyfriend are up visiting from Colorado, and Tay wanted to take her boyfriend to an awesome spot in Alaska. So between her and her parents we landed on Crystal Lake.
Crystal Lake is up in Crow’s Pass, the trail connecting Eagle River to Crow Creek Mine down in Girdwood.
Crystal Lake is closer to the Girdwood side of 21 mile trail.
The morning we began the trip I woke up to termination dust on the mountains across the valley from my house.
*Termination dust is the first fall snow dusting up in the mountains.
We all started the day in Bird Creek so Tay and Ryan could get some fishing in.
Between the two of them they caught 10 fish in under an hour.
After a snack at the bottom of the trailhead, we started the trek up into Crow Pass.
The beginning of the hike started out in misty rain. Which is manageable to be out in. It actually was even warm enough that we all ditched a layer of clothes.
Next, you stumble across old mining equipment that was left up in the pass. The rain started to pick up about this time.
From here the weather started getting wetter and wetter.
and then we moved onto a waterfall.
After the waterfall we crossed the creek and continued climbing up where you come to a bowl up in the mountains.
The bowl you come up into is where Crystal Lake is located.
That’s where shit hit the fan. The wind was ripping up there and it started dumping rain sideways. Oh, and let’s not forget it was fucking freezing.
There is even a cabin up here, but unfortunately for us it had already been rented long before we planned the trip. Normally, when the weather is not horrible up here the lake is a pretty turquoisey color due to it being a glacial lake. Not today.
We sort of kicked around for a little bit up there trying to decide if we should stay and camp, or leave.
Tay finally shamelessly announced that she didn’t care if we left or not and we all jumped on that band wagon.
We did decide to continue on a little further before heading back.
We made Raven Glacier our last stop.
The weather got progressively more miserable.
It got unbearable out there. We even pretended to look happy at the sign saying we’d made it. And I think we were only a few degrees off from that rainstorm being a god damn blizzard.
So we tucked tail and ran the fuck outta here.
I don’t think I’d ever been so happy to hop in the hamster and crank up the heat full blast.
*The hamster is my car.
So unfortunately I thought I was gonna get awesome pictures with my actual camera, but the weather was so nasty that I chose to take most on my iPhone.
Maybe next year.
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This entry was posted in Alaska, Hiking trips., Lil Nicki’s Stories, National & state Parks, North America
2 thoughts on “Crystal Lake Camping Fail.”
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Hiking in the rain is pretty miserable, you did the right thing by turning back! Looks like you still got a good hike in though, especially with he glacier too! I’ve only seen some in New Zealand, they are amazing and would love to see more ?
It was still pretty and fun but it was miserable haha