Running & Trekking The World!: April Bowl to Skeetawk via Government Peak

Saturday, July 25, 2026

April Bowl to Skeetawk via Government Peak

This is always one of my favorite hikes. However, I have never gone down from Government Peak to Skeetawk Ski Area. I have only descended from the Government Peak summit via Blueberry Knoll or the Government Peak Race Trail. This route is a couple miles shorter than the Blueberry Knoll route but has more ups and downs and small peaks to climb on our way down the Frostbite Ridge. I joined the Alaska Wild Women group along with several of the usual Valley Wanderers. We left a few cars down below Skeetawk and carpooled up to the Summit Lake, Hatcher Pass, April Bowl parking area. There were so many cars, we were lucky to find places to park. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday, after weeks of rain. So, everyone was taking advantage of it. We had as many dogs as people! It was delightful how well they all got along and enjoyed running together. Even Bella was friendly to all of them. Although, she tended to be up with the leader and of course always well ahead of me. This route is very tricky once you leave the established April Bowl Trail and reach Hatch Peak. Up there we had great views even of Denali far in the distance. Descending from Hatch Peak we followed the primary ridge leading in the direction of Government Peak. There were lots of ups and downs and a considerable amount of rock climbing and scrambling. I had to let Bella run free, so she didn't drag me off my feet on the rocks. I did have to lift her over a couple of huge boulders, but for the most part she negotiated them far better than any of us humans. It always seems to take forever to finally reach the summit of Government Peak. There are so many rock precipices that we need to negotiate as we make our way to the final steep climb to the marker on the top. About halfway to the summit a small group of the Valley Wanderers caught up with us. They had planned a different hike and were going to head down an alternate ridge and not go to the peak. We had a brief break and visited with them before our final push to the summit. Our group all reached the summit fairly close together and took a nice long lunch break up there in the sunshine. Once we were all ready to start our descent to Skeetawk, Kim started out first. Of course, Bella followed her. That meant I had to follow close to Kim since I do like to keep my dog in sight. We hiked along the ridge and through the rocky boulder pile to the white box that is some sort of weather station. Kim and I were ahead of the others, but we could see them behind us. Isabel caught up with us and pointed the route out since neither of us had done this part of the hike. There really is no trail at this point. It was mostly just soft tundra vegetation, and we walked easily on it. Kim continued to lead along with her big white dog Sophia, and Bella. We made our way down the ridge, then up the next peak, then down the next ridge, from peaks to valleys along the ridge that seemed to drop off for a thousand feet or more. Isabel was not far behind us, but the rest of the group seemed to get farther and farther behind. The actual group leader with the most knowledge of the hike was with them, and Isabel had also done the route before. So, we moved along confidently. There was a beaten trail from other hikers beginning to show up so it was now fairly obvious where we needed to go. We took many breaks hoping the others might catch up. As we got closer to Skeetawk, we wondered how far back the rest of the group had fallen. Isabel called and found they were a long way behind, and one had been having knee trouble. It was now obvious we were going to have a very long wait at the bottom. Fortunately, after some discussion on the phone it was determined that there were enough cars down at Skeetawk that we didn't need to wait for the rest to reach us. We certainly didn't want to leave if they needed us to drive them back up to Summit Lake for their cars. We were all tired and our dogs were ready to go home once we made it through the muddy mess of the lower trails leading to the Skeetawk parking lot. After 7 1/2 miles and 5 1/2 hours we finally reached our cars and took our tired dogs and our tired bodies home. It was a fabulous hike. I'm not so sure that I prefer it to the Blueberry Knoll descent, but I think it was a bit more scenic. I'd for sure do it again though.