Alaska has it all: The highest peak in North America, the longest coastline, and the biggest population of bald eagles, grizzlies, and steelhead.
Not to mention the insane surfing, hiking, and opportunity for exploration at every turn. Here are just a small percentage of the bucket-list adventures in the Frontier State.
It’s the largest, wildest, most adventure-ready state in the country.
For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube!
Founded over 100 years ago, Chena Hot-Springs Resort is located 60 miles east of Fairbanks, Alaska. It’s a cozy, geothermal-powered getaway with prime view of the Northern Lights from the hot springs water surrounded by snow-covered Alaskan wilderness. While the giant ice hotel on the ground is the most impressive monument, the giant greenhouses provide fresh vegetables all year long — earning the title of “the freshest salads in Alaska year round.”
A 68-mile, three-day float down the Chulitna River on the south side of Denali State Park is perfect for independent travelers. The whitewater is mellow, never going above class II, the camping is straightforward, free and plentiful along the riverbank, and the surrounding scenery is stunning. You can even use the Hurricane Turn railroad line to run shuttle out of Talkeetna, as it will drop you, your friends and all your gear off on the side of the river and you can float all the way back to town.
The state of Alaska has around 33,000 miles of coastline so it doesn’t take a math expert to realize that there are probably some really good waves. With the improvements in wetsuit technology making them warmer, lighter and more flexible than ever, surfing in Alaska is booming. From tidal bore waves in Turnagain Arm to point breaks in Yakutat, there’s even an old fishing boat called the Milo that’s been retrofitted and offers boat trips to remote Alaskan waves.
A great way to see Alaska’s interior is by train. The line from Anchorage to Fairbanks , a 12-hour trip on the full service Denali Star, takes you through the heart of the tundra with stops in Wasilla and the quirky and artistic town of Talkeetna. Fairbanks, famous for its Northern Lights and close to Chena Hot Springs is a worthy destination and the wildlife and wide-open expanse of the tundra, along with comfortable seats, a great bar car, and upper level with floor to ceiling windows make it an ideal way to travel. Plus it runs all winter long and is rarely slowed by weather. The Anchorage to Seward line is a good option as well, which runs through the second longest tunnel in the U.S (2.2 miles long) and through a large roadless area near the Spencer Glacier.
One of the most remote and least visited areas in Alaska, Mount Aniakchak is a 3,700 year old volcano in the Aleutian Range. The caldera, formed during an eruption in 1645 BC is around 6-miles in diameter and is ringed by a National Park and protected as a National Monument and preserve. Take a float plane and land on the caldera’s smooth lake to camp for a night or two, or you can up the ante by landing on the lake and then packrafting from the lake to the ocean on the Aniakchak river.
Located across the street from the Juneau Airport, the Mercantile and Armory has a state of the art, underground shooting range with a wide selection of firearms available to try. One of the coolest firearms offered is a WWI machine gun, circa 1919. After a quick history lesson and safety briefing, an instructor strings up a target and you get to unload a belt-strip of ammo. You can also practice with the standard Alaskan firearms like a .44 Magnum and 30-6 rifle.
Home to around 1,600 bears, Admiralty Island has the highest density of Grizzly bears in North America. Referred to as the “Fortress of the Bears,” in the native Tlingit language, Admiralty Island also has large areas of old growth temperate rainforest. While it’s possible to link Admiralty’s lakes by portage and cross the island in a canoe along with a few Forest Service cabins available for use, the majority of visitors go to Pack Creek. A permit is required to visit the creek, keeping the number of visitors low as the bears fish for salmon and socialize with one another during the summer months. Somewhat acclimated to human presence as long as you stay in the designated areas, Pack Creek offers the safest way to observe Grizzly Bears in close proximity.
The Mendenhall Glacier is one of Alaska’s most popular tourist destinations, but most of the visitors don’t get any farther than the NPS visitor’s center and interactive exhibit. Walk past the giant tour buses that clog the parking lot with a kayak on your shoulder and paddling across the lake, where Bald Eagles perch on top of Icebergs, to get an up close look at the glacier’s massive walls is a whole lot cooler. Don’t get too close to the glacier — the Mendenhall Glacier is one of the fastest shrinking glaciers in the state and as a result massive chunks of ice calve off the side of the glacier with some regularity. There’s also an impressively powerful waterfall that crashes into the lake on one side of the glacier and if you team up with a guide or a local in the know there are a few blue ice caves left to explore.
The Situk River, a 17-mile stretch of water from Situk Lake to Yakutat Bay and the Pacific Ocean has the best Steelhead fishing in the world, hands down. The notoriously difficult, smart, and strong fighting fish pour into the Situk by the thousands starting every year in late March to spawn. Book a stay at the Yakutat Lodge and their expert guides will show you the intricacies and techniques needed to land one of these beautifully colored fish on the fly. All Steelhead fishing on the Situk is catch and release, so don’t expect to bring home a bunch of meat (if that’s what you’re looking for try the Situk during the Coho Salmon run in September). Here, it’s all about the sport.
No other ski experience comes close to Heli-Skiing in Alaska. The steep open faces, consistent and stable marine-snowpack and easy helicopter access means you can ski some of the steepest terrain found anywhere in the world. You can also cruise down endless rolling glaciers and glades or sculpt perfect powder eights on gently sloping moraines overlooking the ocean. There are a number of great heli-ski operations in Alaska from Valdez to Haines but The Chugach Range truly has it all and Chugach Powder Guides will make sure you find whatever it is you’re looking for. Based in Girdwood, just a 45-minute drive from Anchorage, CPG has access to 120 miles of mountainous terrain. The four star lodging at Alyeska resort, great lift-accessed skiing at the resort and a cat-operation means the only “down” days you’ll have are because you’re legs need a rest.
More of a dirt road than a highway, the 135-mile Denali Highway opened in 1957 as the first road to access Denali National Park (today, it doesn’t go into the park) and cuts through some of Alaska’s most dramatic and isolated alpine terrain. Only 24-miles of the highway have been paved and the going is often rough and slow on this poorly maintained road. With plentiful roadside camping, expansive views of three different mountain ranges (The Alaska Range, Chugach and Wrangell Mountains) during clear weather and clocking in as the second highest road in Alaska where it crosses Maclaren Summit, driving the length of the Denali highway is an adventure onto itself — but also access to some of the most remote parts of the Alaska Range. If you’re looking for something even wilder, try the Denali highway in the winter months, when access is restricted to dog sleds and snowmobiles.
Housed in two old cabins, one built in 1897 and the other in 1909, and a lighthouse, the Salty Dawg Saloon is one of the oldest and most recognizable landmarks on the Homer Spit, a five-mile long stretch of sand that juts out into Kachemak Bay. It’s also one of the best dive bars in a state that has no shortage of great dive bars. Serving drinks since the late ’50s (before it was a bar), the cabins served as Homer’s first post office, a school, a railroad station, a grocery store and at one time, a home to three adults and eleven children.
Inside, dollar bills cover every inch of open wall and ceiling space, hanging over the old wooden bar with thousands of carved initials like leaves on a willow tree. Each bill is inscribed with the name and hometown of its previous owner and the occasional bra or pair of panties adds a bit of color. Don’t expect any fancy Alaskan themed cocktails at the Salty Dawg. While it is a popular tourist destination, it’s also a hard drinking, fisherman’s dive bar with its own collection of local regulars and quirky characters.
The 300 square-mile Harding Ice Field is the largest in North America and one of the last vestiges of the Ice Age. It’s also just a 2.5-hour drive from Anchorage. Exit Glacier, one of thirty-five glaciers that flow off the Harding Ice-Field, is the only one you can drive to on the Kenai Peninsula making it an obvious access point. A steep four-mile hike brings you 3,000 vertical feet up the glacier to the ice field. On a clear day the ice field looks like a giant, undulating frozen ocean stretching out as far as the eye can see rimmed by dramatic, sharp edged peaks. It’s one of the best views in Alaska.
In Alaska, everything is just bigger. No place proves this more than Mount Denali (aka Mt McKinley) and its surrounding wilderness and wildlife. The highest mountain in North America attracts scores of mountaineers every year to challenge one of the most dangerous and awe-inspiring peaks found anywhere in the world. For the rest of us, a trip through Denali National Park’s six million acres of wilderness, where 1,200 pound Moose, along with extra-large size Golden Eagles, Caribou, Dall Sheep, Wolves and Grizzly Bears are common sights and a view of Denali’s impressive peak when the clouds clear (which is a bit less common) is thrilling enough.
The packraft, a portable, inflatable single-person raft that weighs around seven pounds and fits in your backpack seems custom-made for the Alaskan backcountry. Huge swaths of wilderness in Alaska with no trails whatsoever make it the ideal place to bring a packraft and go on an entirely unique exploration. Maneuverable and stable enough to weave through moderate whitewater and sturdy enough to take heavy loads across large bodies of flat water, the packraft opens up wilderness areas previously considered completely inaccessible.
Famous for the intense whitewater found upriver in Turn-Back Canyon, the lower part of the Stikine, called “The Great River” by native Tlingit tribes meanders through the last 165 miles from Telegraph Creek in British Colombia to Wrangell, Alaska. While there are no rapids here, it’s a quick float — the Stikine is North America’s fastest flowing navigable river. Passing beneath glaciated mountains, past icebergs, and through pristine wilderness full of wildlife like Grizzly Bears and Bald Eagles. John Muir referred to the Stikine as “a Yosemite one hundred miles long.”
In Chugach State Park, the Crow Pass trail starts in Girdwood and ends in Eagle River, 26 miles away. From the shores of Turnagain Arm, the trail winds gradually up through a rocky gorge with several waterfalls and around Raven Glacier before heading downhill and across the Eagle River. Fording Eagle River shouldn’t be taken lightly. Ranging in depth and speed depending on the season and time of day the crossing is less than a mile from the glacier so is always bone-chilling cold. You can also bring packrafts, hike to the river and then float down it.
