Battery Point Trail leads through dense rainforest to some great views of Portage Cove, Lynn Canal, and the mountains surrounding Haines.

View to the north over the lupines and cow parsnip wildflowers on Kelgaya Point

The trail traverses the eastern flank of Mt. Riley in Chilkat State Park. The map section below is from my Garmin GPS track:

1= Haines and Portage Cove; Lynn Canal is to the right   2 = trailhead on Beach Rd.
3 = GPS track to Kelgaya Point   4 = Battery Point   5 = Mt. Riley and Chilkat State Park

This scenic trail undulates through the forest about 100-200 feet above Portage Cove for a mile before dropping down to the shoreline.

Hikers can walk at least another mile south along the rocks and sand-gravel beach to Battery Point or follow a narrow trail through wildflowers to various overlooks and a smaller cove between Kelgaya and Battery Points.

View from Kalgaya Point across small bay to north end of Battery Point;
Garmin calls the point above the arrow False Battery Point (see map above).

I hiked with Cody out and back on the trail to the cove between the two points yesterday.

I loved walking through the lush rainforest. There were lots of ferns, bunch berries, and large-leaved plants like Devil's Club. Moss covers just about everything and the spruce-fir forest is beautiful. 

 

 

There are occasional views down to the water.

The first half mile is easily-negotiated gravel but it soon turns extremely rooty, with some steep little ups and downs.

Outbound was more difficult for me because it was a net downhill to the water. I did better hiking uphill on the return.

 

 

He's hard to see -- Cody is waiting for me from the ravine where the trail goes.
He's getting old, too, but with four legs he's more agile than me on rough terrain.

ALONG THE SHORE

Once out of the forest I followed a narrow trail through dense wildflowers and grasses above the rocky beach for about a quarter mile to Kelgaya Point.

The trail popped out of the forest at this viewpoint.

Narrow trail through the grass and flowers

View north across the bay; Mt. Ripinsky is the large mountain on the left.

I took almost as many pictures of the lush flowers as I did of the landscape.

There were lots of blue lupines, penstemon, monkshood, wild irises, geraniums, tall white cow parsnip, Indian paintbrush, and other sun-loving wildflowers: 

Above and below:  cow parsnips

 

Delicate monkshood blooms

Above and below:  the slope on Kelgaya point was full of blue lupines and
wild geraniums, as well as cream- and yellow-hued Indian paintbrush.

 

Wild geraniums

There were also lots of pretty wild irises at the point.

Continued on next page:  scenes from Kelgaya Point and out second hike on this trail

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, Cody the ultra Lab, and Casey-pup

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© 2015 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil