And so after hiking to Lower Dewey Lake we came to that fork in the road and to please my husband we started up, and I mean UP. The photos of the trails do not give it justice. It was three miles up. Though I did some consistent walking/jogging the weeks before our cruise, I was not in the kind of shape to climb a mountain. My husband does squats in his regular weightlifting regimen, and he was having a hard time so you know I was dying out there.
I took the lead so that I could set the pace. I didn’t want to be left trailing after him. But I went as fast as I could stopping only to rest when I absolutely had to or claimed I needed a photo! I just KNEW we were going to miss the ship. “We have plenty of time,” was always my husband’s reply. The hike was beautiful, and my husband got his wish to climb up to that waterfall, that he saw at the lower lake, as the entire hike zigzagged up one side of it.
My husband kept saying we were almost there. In my head I calculated how long it takes me to walk a mile, and we were going at a snails pace climbing up. We were nowhere near the top when he began saying that. We met 3 hikers in the 3 hours we hiked up, THREE. I was worried about two things bears and not making it back to the ship on time. Jason said he read that you’re supposed to yell, “Bear” every now and then so you don’t surprise one. I thought that was kind of ridiculous. Suppose a hiker that didn’t get that memo heard me yelling, “Bear” it would scare me anyway. So picture me every few minutes for three hours yelling, “I am not a bear!” Ha ha! My husband was too tired himself to find it either annoying or amusing.
Now don’t let these bridges fool you. They were the only ones, but a nice little reprieve from climbing. By the time we arrived here we thought for sure we must be getting close. It still took us another hour to make it up.
Finally, the trees started getting smaller and the area began to open up.
And then there it was. Upper Dewey Lake. I could have kissed the ground. It really was gorgeous!
We met this newly wed couple spending their honeymoon in that little cabin by the lake. They were out hunting blueberries to make pancakes! That sounded like a lot of fun.
They graciously offered to take our photo. My hair was completely wet and plastered to my head. We spent about fifteen minutes at Upper Dewey Lake. That’s it. All that work for 15 minutes. What a shame!!! I pulled out my water bottle that I had saved until we reached the top. Now Devil’s Punch Bowl is another mile up and we were told it was even more beautiful. As soon as we reached Upper Dewey Lake my husband started in saying we should keep going. “We don’t have time!” I insisted. “We have to get back.” Reluctantly he agreed that was probably the best decision.
It was too cloudy to see the glacier in the back ground, but it was still beautiful, and so peaceful. The air was crisp, and cool–perfect after a three hour hike.
Then we started back down the mountain. For the first hour my husband still said we had plenty of time, but after that he stated to worry too. “Oh we’re going to be cutting it close. We need to hurry,” he began. I could have punched him. Ha ha! You would think going down would be easy, but it was so steep that we were still working very tired muscles all the way down. My legs were trembling and Jason kept slipping behind me. I thought for sure he was going to ram into the back of me and take us both out. He HAD to be trying to kill me! But we couldn’t slow down because we really were going to be cutting it close. All the way down I yelled, “I want off this mountain. I want down,” to keep the bears away.
We made it down to Lower Dewey Lake and thought we had made it. We forgot that it had taken us an hour to get from the entrance of the trails to that point toward Upper Dewey lake. We were so tired and the lower trail isn’t for wimps either. Finally, we made it to the entrance of the trail and then still had the 1-2 mile walk back to the ship. I was in SO MUCH PAIN!
We arrived back on the ship with about a half hour to spare before the all aboard! I couldn’t believe we made it without any injuries. If one of us had twisted our ankle we would have missed our ship. That night we told someone what we did. They looked at us like we were crazy and said that another couple didn’t make it back because the wife had broken her ankle hiking Dewey Lake!!!!
What I recommend. All of the websites I found said that hiking to Upper Dewey Lake was an ALL DAY activity. If you have an entire day, this is a must do for anyone that loves to hike and look at beautiful scenery. I highly recommend it! However, if you are cruising and only have 6-8 hours don’t do it unless you are an avid hiker/runner. If you aren’t in awesome shape definitely hike to Lower Dewey Lake, it is a great and beautiful hike that you can do from your cruise ship in a couple of hours.
Ya’ll are both way braver than I am, I would have never walked that far, especially if I knew we had time constraints!! But it is beautiful.
Wow, Esther, thank goodness neither one of you were injured while hiking on those rough, steep trails. Were you able to soak your aching muscles in a hot tub or get a massage after returning to the ship?
I had to read this because we went to Alaska in August and had the best time! I would have loved to have stayed there longer. We did some hiking too and one particularly grueling one that we were ill prepared for. The view was well worth it though, just like on yours! I would have been a wreck if we had had the time constraints you had! Thank goodness you made it back!
Similar thing happened to me. My husband wanted to add a hike to our itinerary that I did not want to do because I did not think there was any way it could be completed before nightfall. Several spots along the hike were quite treacherous with high drop-offs. I have never been so stressed out and fearful in my life. I actually could never remember the scenery at all, and it is a very surreal experience to look at the photos we took because I simply do not remember what anything looked like. There is a time to be supportive and a time to put your foot down and I always pray God gives me the wisdom to make the right choice at the right time:)
@Patricia, “There is a time to be supportive and a time to put your foot down and I always pray God gives me the wisdom to make the right choice at the right time.” I hear ya!
My husband and I are going to Alaska this May. We really want to do this hike and go all the way to the Devil’s Punch Bowl. We will be in port for 13 hours. Do you think that is enough time?
Oh I’m so excited you’re going! I think we had 8 hours in port so 13 hours does give you more time. If you are avid hikers/climbers and nothing goes wrong, you should be fine. Insert smile here! One of the guys that came jogging down as we were going up had gone all the way up and down in just a couple of hours. He acted like it was just a fun little jog. It’s up to you, but I wouldn’t do it again, not with the fear of something happening and missing the cruise. Without that pressure I would LOVE to do it again.