Hike 9: Angel Rocks, Fairbanks, AK (July 28)

This hike was a little more difficult than I would like to admit. It wasn't very long, but maybe it was the heat, the different air in Fairbanks, or that it was after work with Fairbanks coworkers, but I'm glad I had lots of water and my hiking poles.

Angle Rocks Trail starts on Chena Hot Springs Road (about 49 miles out of Fairbanks) - almost all the way out there, and if you're doing the long version, you can end at Chena after a 7 mile hike. The short version is 3.5 mile loop. (For more accurate location information, this is a good spot to look.)

The trail starts out along the river, and then heads up towards the Angel Rocks which are granite outcrops and of course, we had to scramble up on top of them. I'll be honest, I was a little nervous climbing up on them, because if I turned around to look behind me, it was probably about a 600 ft drop, without anything to catch me or prevent serious injury or death. But Mike got up there, so I could too, right? And there's that saying about being outside of your comfort zone, but the limitations are if you fall off and die, that might be a little too far outside the comfort zone.

Turns out, everything was fine, and we scrambled down the rocks a less scary way than we came up.

After scrambling around the rocks, we began the hike down and took our time eating blueberries and keeping an eye out for bears.

Looking up from the bluff. 

View from Angel Rocks. 

The hiking trio! It was warm.