A Sweet Hike up Sugar Loaf Mountain

 

“Are you limping?” 

My colleague, Claire, asked me that Monday afternoon as I walked slowly down the hallway at work. She looked very concerned, like I might be injured. I started laughing. 

“Yes,” I replied. “Eric and I did a fun, steep hike yesterday and my quads are killing me today!”

Sore quads were a small price to pay for climbing the north side of Sugar Loaf Mountain near Denali. I may have been walking like an old lady (wait, I AM an old lady!), but the hike and views were worth the pain. 

Sugar Loaf is the mountain on the east side of the canyon just north of Glitter Gulch on the Parks Highway. A popular way to access the mountain is via a trail that starts from the Grande Denali Lodge parking lot. That takes you up its south flank. But you can also hike it from trails that go up the north sides of Coyote and Dragonfly creeks. (These are just past the bridge after you pass Bison Gulch heading south.)

Eric had hiked the Dragonfly Creek trail a couple of times but hadn’t had the time to make it all the way up the mountain. Then we learned about the Coyote Creek trail from a video by our friends Jay and Mary Ver Hoef (aka The Alaskan Amblers – check out their YouTube channel here). They had hiked it last year as part of their 40 adventures for their 40th wedding anniversary. 

Eric and I decided to hike up one trail, explore the ridges on Sugar Loaf, and then hike down the other trail. Sunday looked to be an awesome day, so we got up early, drove two hours south and by 9:15 AM we were on the trail. 

Great ridge walking on well worn sheep trails

Both trails have parking pullouts nearby, so we parked at Dragonfly and walked the half-mile to Coyote, getting the pavement part done first. Neither trailhead is marked. These are unofficial social trails. Jay had sent us a gpx, so we used that to help find the Coyote trail using Eric’s Gaia app. You can also find it fairly easily without a GPS device. It’s right across from the southern end of the Coyote pullout. (Coyote Creek doesn’t have a road sign. Dragonfly does.) Just plow through the bushes to the ditch, then search for the trail that goes straight up. (For Dragonfly trail, cross the road from the pullout, hop the guardrail, and follow the trail in the ditch north.)

Steep climbing right from the road

Because these are both steep social trails, neither is easy, but both are extremely different. Coyote is dirt-covered, in the woods, and requires a bit of bushwhacking, but it’s fairly easy to follow. Dragonfly is rocky and requires a lot of scrambling and route-finding. 

Eric breaks out of the brush on the Coyote Creek ridge trail

The first part of Coyote was up, up, up through the woods. We were glad to do it on fresh legs. After 1.5 miles, we broke onto a brushy plateau. The views started there and never stopped. The trail petered out, but we found a route without too much brush. Soon we were on open, firm-surfaced tundra. And what a glorious day! Sunny and with a stiff breeze, but not too windy. We stopped often to take photos. 

The route is fairly obvious along the rounded ridgetop, just keeping going up. The head of Dragonfly Creek has a rocky traverse, but a sheep trail through it is so good it looks like it has been built by people. 

Just keep heading up

We had seen a structure on the horizon, about three miles in, and headed for it. Looking past the structure, we saw Denali! Glorious! And a pleasant surprise, because we weren’t sure we would be able to see it from the ridge. 

The small building, long since abandoned, barely has room for the pull-down bedspring frame attached to one side. An old heater sits in one corner. But it seems to be more than just a shelter, as multiple fuel tanks nearby are attached to it via hoses. Eric thought that maybe it was an old communications structure. 

We continued southeast up the ridge heading toward a massive rock outcropping that may be Sugar Loaf peak. (We got conflicting information on different maps about which is the actual peak.) We didn’t climb to the top, though. The last scramble is steep and on crumbly or loose rock, not something either of us felt was worth the risk. 

We are pretty sure this is the top of Sugar Loaf - no way I was climbing up that

Eric scrambles a little ways up while I stay on firmer ground

But the vegetated shoulder was protected from the wind and provided a nice picnic spot. On one side was Denali and the Alaska Range, on the other was Mount Deborah and more Alaska Range! 

Denali and the Alaska Range to the east.  You can see the Nenana River and the highway far below

After lunch, we explored the ridge a little further to the east until it dropped off. Below the ridge we saw a herd of about 20 sheep off in the distance. We were wondering why we hadn’t seen any sheep all day. So that’s where they were hiding. 

You could continue to hike the ridges and later we read that others have dropped down into Moody Creek and packrafted back toward Healy. But we didn’t have the time or the rafts or the expertise, so we headed back. 

Having come up Coyote, we decided to descend Dragonfly since I had never been on it. Eric remembered it as steep and rocky, but it was worse than he remembered! I made my way slowly down the unrelenting slope. Eric would patiently wait for me. There were areas that were less steep, but they were few and far between.

Steep descending

More tricky descending

Still more steep trail

In retrospect, we should have gone up Dragonfly and down Coyote. But we were committed and kept hoping it would get better soon. It did…about a tenth of a mile from our car! Our legs were tired, and our feet were sore, but it was well worth it. 

A rare fairly flat area!

While difficult, these trails are far less busy than Bison Gulch ridge on the other side of the highway. And once you are above tree line, the walking is easy and the views are spectacular, especially if you go far enough and Denali is visible.  

I can’t recommend this hike enough. It’s definitely worth the limping the next day! 

 10 miles round trip with about 4000 feet of climbing.