The West Butte Trail is the most popular hike in the Mat-Su Borough. It’s being loved to death. The borough is going to save it.
“It’s the first hike someone might take if they live or visit the Mat-Su,” Operations Branch Manager of Outdoor Recreation Hugh Leslie said.
He says that repairs are overdue. 520 steps carry hikers up the steepest stretch. The wooden stairs and support posts have degraded and can’t be repaired.
The Assembly realized that something had to be done to preserve this popular trail, says Leslie.
$600,000 covers the cost of replacing the aging wooden staircase. The project required public and private funding. The Borough Assembly put $500,000 toward the repairs in the 2027 budget. The Mat-Su Trails and Parks Foundation put up the remaining $100,000.
A bid for design and engineering goes out this month. The new staircase will be built with serrated steel steps and railings. These steps need little maintenance and will last about 20 years.
The borough is targeting completion by the spring 2027 hiking season. Hikers can expect disruption and partial closures during construction.
The need for repairs comes amid explosive growth in trail use across the borough. 700 annual trail parking passes were sold in 2013. That number has climbed to 4,000 so far for 2026.
The growth is visible at the West Butte trailhead. 500 daily parking passes were issued at the trailhead parking lot in the last week of June. An unknown number of annual pass holders also parked there that week. Each pass represents one vehicle. The number of hikers is higher.
Ralph Basner has hiked the West Butte Trail three to four times a week for about 10 years. He stopped on the trail to chat. He has noticed an increase in traffic over that time. Even on a rainy Monday morning the parking lot was a third full.
Basner hadn’t heard about the planned repairs. “That’s great news! I had no idea!” Basner said. He noted that some of the steps are so eroded that it’s hard for him to fit his feet on them.
A dedicated crew maintains the trail. One year-round staffer is supported by 12 seasonal employees. More than half of the seasonal crew returns each year. It is one of the longest standing, fully funded trail crews in the state according to Leslie.
The trail is personal for Leslie. He first hiked the West Butte trail 11 years ago with his three-month-old daughter in a BabyBjörn backpack. His family had just moved to the Valley.
A photo of his daughter on the summit appears on the pamphlet available at the trailhead today. Her arms are stretched over her head in a classic “Butte Pose,” with Pioneer Peak and the surrounding fields behind her.
Once the West Butte staircase is improved, the crew expects to shift focus toward other trail systems, including Jordan Lake Park and the Settlers Bay Coastal Trail.
For Leslie, public access to trails isn’t optional. He said while they may seem a luxury, they’re not. They are essential infrastructure for the community that citizens are devoted to, one footstep, one staircase, at a time.
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This Page Two article was reported by -Emily Forstner and produced by yours truly, Lee Henrikson. If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Friday July 10, 2026.
Photo y Emily Forstner for Big Cabbage Radio : The wooden steps on the West Butte Trail.