Top of the Hill - Forest Loop Trail
in Alaska
You have just climbed up a pile of debris -- a "moraine" -- left by the glacier that carved out the bay. A glacier is like a giant bulldozer, moving a lot of rock and rubble before it and along its sides as it flows out of the mountains. The moraine at the very end of the glacier is the "terminal moraine" while those along the sides are called "lateral moraines." You are standing on a lateral moraine.
Notice the trees get bigger as the walk continues. These trees are older than those on the beach, which are growing on land that has emerged relatively recently due to post-glacial rebound.
- States
- Alaska
- Trail type
- National Park & Preserve trail
- Centroid coords
- 58.4519°, -135.8909°
About Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve
This trail is inside Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, a national park & preserve managed by the U.S. National Park Service. Conditions, road status, trail closures, and reservation requirements are published on the park's NPS page — check it before driving in, especially in winter or during major weather events.
Official NPS trail page: https://www.nps.gov/places/top-of-the-hill-forest-loop-trail.htm
Park homepage: https://www.nps.gov/glba/index.htm
Plan your hike
Maps + permits: long-distance trails like this often require permits for through-hiking, backcountry camping, or specific sections (especially in National Parks). Check with the maintaining organisation listed above and the relevant land manager before booking travel.
Water + supplies: water sources vary seasonally on most U.S. trails. Carry a filter and consult current trail-condition reports — through-hiker journals (PCT-L, AT Reddit, etc.) and the maintaining organisation publish regular updates.
When to go: hiking seasons vary widely with elevation, latitude, and snowpack. Through-hikers traditionally start the AT in March-April (Springer northbound) and the PCT in late April (Campo northbound). High-elevation western trails (CDT, JMT, Wonderland) generally aren't passable until July.
If you've hiked Top of the Hill - Forest Loop Trail and have current notes (water sources, trail closures, permit changes), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn.
Other trails within 50 miles
Sources
Trail data on this page is compiled from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), the maintaining organisation's public-facing materials, and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA where excerpts are quoted). Distance, terminus, and descriptive text for nationally-designated trails are hand-curated from federal land-manager websites and trail-association sources. We do not modify the underlying data; this page presents what is already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page.