Backpack Trail Guide

Trails / Alaska / Chugach Mountains

Portage Pass Trail

Chugach National Forest, Glacier Ranger District (Whittier side of the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel)

Portage Pass is a short hike to a glacier-view campsite. From the edge of Whittier, a steep old road climbs to a low pass with Portage Glacier spread out ahead, then a trail drops to a gravel beach on Portage Lake, across the water from the ice. The Forest Service calls it “the only hike with a view of Portage Glacier!”

It’s a short walk, so the overnight is all about the camp. Pick a dry evening, pack for wind and rain anyway, and expect to fall asleep to the sound of ice.

The hike

The trail is a segment of the Iditarod National Historic Trail, used long ago by Alaska Natives, Russian fur traders and early settlers, according to the Forest Service. It starts on the Whittier side of the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. After you come out of the tunnel, take the first right across the railroad tracks onto a gravel road marked “Forest Access,” and follow the signs. The forest’s handout says private land lines both sides of the lower trail and asks hikers to stay off the tracks.

The climb comes first. One newspaper story describes an old gravel road gaining nearly 800 feet in under a mile, and the forest rates the trail “More Difficult” for its steep, rocky grade. The early stretch runs through alder and trees and doesn’t offer much. Once you’re above the brush, one hiking site notes, the views open back toward Whittier and Passage Canal. Near the top the trail reaches open tundra. Divide Lake, about a mile in, makes a good picnic spot, the forest says, and the pass has a bench and a view of the glacier and lake.

From the pass, the trail descends about three-quarters of a mile to a mile and a half to Portage Lake, depending on the source. One Alaska travel guide describes passing a small lake and Divide Lake, then following small cairns across an alluvial plain to a gravel beach opposite Portage Glacier. Several guides mention a creek running alongside the descent. One hiking site says the trail narrows and gets brushy in places but stays easy to follow.

At the lake, the marked trail ends. One trail listing says a creek sits between the end of the trail and the glacier, so you’ll likely get wet going farther. A 2016 travel blog found that creek “just deep enough, and fast-moving enough, to be impassable” that day. Treat it as a turnaround unless it’s clearly low.

Two cautions are worth taking seriously. First, the weather. The forest warns that “extremely high winds” can build at Portage Pass when air pressure equalizes between Prince William Sound and Turnagain Arm, and one magazine writer met sideways rain and low visibility there and called the pass “notorious” for it. Second, the ground off the trail. One hiking site warns that the glacier-carved rifts east of the pass get “too technical” fast, with a sudden drop into a river valley, and that hidden potholes on top of the pass can swallow a foot.

Everything here depends on the tunnel. It’s one lane, shared with trains, and runs on a posted schedule, so plan your arrival and your exit around it.

For a longer Chugach National Forest trip, see the Johnson Pass Trail or Crow Pass Trail.

Tips

Camping

No permit is needed. The forest’s visitor guide says no permits are required for noncommercial backcountry camping and limits stays to 14 days in one area. It also asks you to cook and store food at least 100 yards from your tent. No Forest Service page read for this guide names designated campsites on this trail, so call the Glacier Ranger District if you have questions.

Campers report pitching tents along the Portage Lake shore. One 2021 family trip report says you “can camp anywhere along the lake.” Another blogger describes bear boxes and a camping sign near the lake, a short way past a small creek crossing.

Inside Intel: One backpacker camped in the cove just past that creek, away from the bear boxes, on a beach facing the glacier, and called it “the perfect camping spot.” Her advice: “Be prepared to hear calving all night.” A family trip report recommends heading farther along the shore toward the glacier, where a flat gravel bed has plenty of tent space and fewer day hikers.

Trail facts

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Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.