Mt Marathon Trailhead — Attraction in Seward

Wow! This is a very great trail! I hiked this in the afternoon a few days ago to get out a bit after doing a morning fishing charter, and I can say, it was awesome! The beginning forest is steep but very lush and beautiful, but once the jeep trail ends there is a lot of mud(3-4 inches deep in some areas.) Once you get a fair bit above the treeline, you start to get great views of the surrounding mountains, along with a lots of wildflowers! There are still some snowfields that are easily traversable w/o poles or microspikes, but trekking poles made it a bit quicker. I had to turn around at the bowl about 2000 feet up because of foul weather coming over the ridge, but the views were still stunning and probably even more stunning on a sunny day. On the way down, I took the regular Mt. Marathon trail, which winds through a forested ridge for a bit before crossing some relatively large streams and going down steep, muddy terrain to connect back up the the regular trail. You can avoid the steeper sections by cutting back to the main trail on the second junction you see. Saw a couple moose tracks, but no moose. Little to no mosquitoes, great views, and great pictures(mostly on my DSLR camera). I would highly recommend hiking this trail while you...

Beautiful views and a stunning meadow as you hike out of thick willow brush and creeks and emerge to see a vast mountain meadow just below the crags.

Jeep/Bench/Skyline trail are interconnected, and the system links via a few early cutoffs to the famed Mt. Marathon race trail.

The Jeep and Bench trails offer a more gradual climb with some flat areas to stop and rest and check out big views of Seward from a few thousand feet up.

On sunny, clear summer days, watch out for big winds that can whip up on the crags near the race summit of Mt. Marathon. The day I went in mid-July, it was 70 degrees and sunny at the trailhead. But up near the race summit, I was dealing with 55 - 75 mph gusts and sustained winds of 50 miles an hour whistling along the north face of the mountain. If you are sweaty from the climb, that wind is like a giant blowdrier that'll dry you off completely in a few minutes. But hold on to your hat, glasses, phone, camera, Snickers wrapper, or whatever. You could lose a few items...

Ok, I gave in...4 stars because looking back at the pictures it was incredible! However, I definitely need to warn folks (as the signage suggests) that this is a difficult hike. Myself, and my 68 yo (very in shape) father took 6 hours to complete this (making it up the rocky steep portion past the bowl) but not to the race point.

It was not too bad on the way up in regards to the potential for getting lost....BUT, we somehow got lost on the way back and it was quite frightening. Only thanks to an angel did we make it back onto the Jeep trail on the way down, but only after really roughing it in the mud and down very steep inclines (I suspect we ended up on a part of the racers trail).

I can't say that we're the most experienced hikers in the planet, but just reader beware, if you attempt this start EARLY, and don't expect there will be folks on the trail to help navigate, granted we went after the "season" ended (9/28) and saw a grand total...