One of the most heavily used trails in the Girdwood, Alaska area is the Winner Creek (Gorge) Trail. Trailheads are located off of Crow Creek Road or behind the Alyeska Hotel. Unfortunately the hand cable tram that you can use to cross the gorge was not working while we were there. We decided to check out the gorge and then head up the Upper Winner Creek Trail.
Winner Creek Trail
We chose to start at the Alyeska Hotel. There is a 1.5 mile hike to the junction with the Winner Creek Trails. We first headed left about 1 mile to check out the gorge. We then returned that 1 mile to the junction and continued the other direction on Upper Winner Creek Trail which we took out into the valley below Berry Pass. We returned to the junction and hiked the 1.5 miles back to the Alyeska Hotel. All together, our pedometers on our iPhones said that this route was either 8.5 miles/ 23,077 steps & 93 floors (Mike’s) or 10.7 miles/ 22,477 steps & 86 floors (Karla’s). How I hiked further in less steps is not quite clear, as Mike who is seven inches taller than me takes much longer strides. We have been noticing discrepancies in our results on other hikes as well. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. We know there was 5 miles without any hiking on Upper Winner Creek, we probably hiked at least 2 miles out and 2 miles back for a total of at least 9 miles.
Winner Creek above the gorge
Both trails are scenic. The Winner Creek Gorge Trail stays in the woods the entire time. It is a clearly defined and wide trail which obviously gets much heavier traffic than the Upper trail. There are a lot of boardwalk sections which were in very good repair. There are many sections with heavy undergrowth/brush but it was clear from the trail. There is some elevation change of about 260 feet descending to the gorge from the junction. There are a snow cat bridge and foot bridge over the creek before reaching the hand cable tram. The gorge is scenic.
Winner Creek Gorge
Winner Creek Gorge view #2
Upper Winner Creek gets far less traffic. The beginning of the trail was pretty well defined, but it degraded as you went further out. There was also quite a bit of boardwalk that had been installed through some muddy sections. The brush along the trail is quite thick and is over-growing the trail in places. There are some muddy sections and some very narrow sections. The mosquitos were thicker and we used some bug dope on this section. We were making plenty of noise, as there could’ve been a moose or a bear just 5 feet off the trail in the heavy vegetation and we might not have seen them. The forest service states that bears and moose are seen along this trail. Definitely make noise and carry bear spray if you hike it.
View on Upper Winner Creek Trail
Another view from the Upper Winner Creek Trail
The views as we got further up in the valley were spectacular and panoramic. We could see Berry Pass and the areas around it that still had snow and the valley of Winner Creek. There were plenty of wildflowers and songbirds. This is a good trail for getting away from the crowds, we ran into only one other hiking party versus a steady stream of hikers on the Gorge trail.
