30/08/2019
Where in the world did Lazy Mountain get its name!?? It is anything but lazy! We made it to the top though! 🥳😄 Lazy Mountain is a great day hike and its less then five minutes from The Lodges on the Old Mountain Road...in fact, we had a great time finding our place from up there, as well as other Palmer landmarks!
There are two trails up Lazy. The Lazy Moose trail, which from my understanding takes about an hour to an hour and a half longer but is easier on the body...its got more switchbacks so you don't go straight up... We opted for 'the steep side' because we didn't have an extra hour, so up we went! There were many great places to stop and look out over Palmer and Pioneer Peak, and when we got high enough, we think we could see some of Wasilla. It was a tough hike but my saving grace was that it was only really steep for about half the hike. At about the point where I doubted if I could make it to the top (knowing there are three 'ridges' or false summits and we were just barely getting to the first one) it flattened out significantly and I was soo grateful to be able to walk without my legs starting on fire. It was actually pretty relaxing. 😄
The top was beautiful (and I wish I was a better photographer to be able to capture the real beauty!) but it was also a little nerve racking for me, heights make me nervous and there is a ridge to the summit. I wanted to make it to the flag they have up there (If I remember right, courtesy of a Veterans group in the area...Thank you to all the brave souls who have served, and serve, our great country! 🇺🇸) and put my name in the book as one who made it to the top, so I braved the ridge to get there, took a quick picture, wrote down my name, and headed back down without much hesitation. Coming down was fun! We ran part of the way then slid on our bums the rest, and ended up covered in dirt! It took us 4hrs to get up and down and was definitely worth it! I plan to take the younger ones up the Lazy Moose Trail next!