Palmer Trail Tidbits
Non-motorized recreation in the Palmer area is booming. Whether you climb mountains or stick to the lowlands, there’s a trail with your name on it, just waiting to be explored. Here are three Palmer trails we love, with tidbits to tide you over until your feet can hit the ground.
Matanuska Greenbelt: Thirty-three miles of trail wind through this tract where people hike, bike, ride horses, bird watch, and walk dogs year-round. The land is owned and managed by various entities. Some sections skirt the edges of the Matanuska Experiment Farm, established in 1915. Other paths are flowy singletrack popular with mountain bikers, and still other parts offer workouts for walkers, runners, and skiers.
Palmer-Moose Creek Railroad Trail: This 7-mile (one-way) route follows what’s left of a railroad bed along the Matanuska River between Palmer and Moose Creek. In the early 1900s, the spur transported coal from Chickaloon to the main line near present-day Palmer. Most of the coal was used for Navy ships.
The Moose Creek end of the trail, known as “Tsidek’ etna’” or “Grandmother’s Place Creek,” has interpretative signage about the Ahtna people and their connection to Moose Creek. Ahtna people have been calling the greater Palmer area home for thousands of years. “Grandmother’s Place Creek” was an important location for grandmothers and families to safely harvest fish – including all five species of Alaskan salmon.
Gold Mint Trail: Robert Lee Hatcher, for which Hatcher Pass is named, worked his gold claim beside the Little Susitna River in the early 1900s. His wife, Cornelia Templeton Jewett, a nationally known women’s rights and prohibition leader, lived there seasonally too. Today, the 8.5-mile (one-way) trail leads to a hut built and maintained by the Mountaineering Club of Alaska.
The Revel crew hikes a portion of the Gold Mint trail on our Valleys and Hops: Hike and Brew trip.
