Skookum Volcano Trail

A 5 mile round trip hiking trail with 2000 feet of elevation gain (and 2000 feet of loss) that explores of number of drainages near Skookum Volcano in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, eventually reaching a high mountain pass with beautiful views. Parking for the trail is at mile 36.8 on the Nabesna Road.The trail starts by meandering steadily upward through a stand of spruce and alder, reaching your first of many stream crossings at around 1 mile. During our visit (early June 2016) the water level was low enough to make for fairly easy rock hopping across all streams, but I can see where a higher water level would make for some sketchy crossings.

We saw numerous moose scat piles in the section through the alders

This hike climbs through and has numerous crossings of the stream bed

There was a lot of volcanic rock in the area

The forested trail quickly devolves into following rocky stream beds, requiring visually patching together a route using cairns, all the while ascending upward at a good clip. With ease successive drainage followed, the stream divides into smaller and smaller creeks, finally dwindling down to a rivulet as you reach the alpine tundra. Then it’s an easy to follow trail (albeit up a quad busting incline) up to the pass. The main incentive for making it above tree line ASAP is leaving the swarming mosquitoes behind you; of course they are just waiting for your return trip. We found 40% DEET to be effective (on my scale of mosquito warfare, it goes from no DEET required, 40% DEET for moderate pestilence to 100% DEET for full on war).

We ran across this ptarmigan and a marmot above tree line

The official hike description points out a difficult loop can be made by descending the pass on the opposite side via more rocky creek and stream beds, eventually leading down to Nabesna Road 1.4 miles from where you parked. We opted to simply return the same way we ascended as this was enough adventure for the day.