Anchorage Shore Excursions

The dri­ve from Anchor­age to the sea­side com­mu­ni­ty of Seward begins with two hours of spec­tac­u­lar views as you pass between the dra­mat­ic shore­lines of Tur­na­gain Arm and the jut­ting peaks of the Chugach Mountains.

This fish-filled creek rush­es out from Far North Bicen­ten­ni­al Park and through the cen­ter of town. Cast for rain­bow trout, Dol­ly Var­den, or sil­ver salmon-all with­in walk­ing dis­tance of your car. Throw on a pair of hip-waders and head up the creek or angle from the shore­line trail. Direc­tions: Park at one of the lots on Camp­bell Airstrip Rd. to access the creek from Far North Bicen­ten­ni­al Park, or head west on 76^th off of Old Seward to King…  ...more

If you only have a lim­it­ed amount of time in Anchor­age but want go out for a great hike, con­sid­er Kin­caid Bluff Trail. Just a 20-minute dri­ve from down­town Anchor­age, this is a 6‑mile loop hike to Kin­caid Chalet. Along the way, you’ll find 3 miles of rugged trail that skirt the sum­mit of pre­cip­i­tous bluffs at the end of the Anchor­age Peninsula.

The dri­ve from Anchor­age to Valdez takes 6 to 7 hours on aver­age. But, there are many scenic vis­tas and unique places to stop along the way mak­ing it easy to spend more than 6 hours on the road. You will have views of sev­er­al moun­tain ranges, glac­i­ers, and more.

Wolves are the largest mem­ber of the canid fam­i­ly that live in Alas­ka. Adult males can weigh any­where from 85 to 120 pounds, some of the largest males reach­ing close to 150 pounds, while females aver­age 10 to 15 pounds lighter than their male counterparts.

The red paint on the han­dle mim­ics the tra­di­tion­al red ochre pig­ment found in South­east Alaska.

This rest area is the site of a rail­road sec­tion house. The restored house and its out­build­ings were built by the Alas­ka Rail­road to house the sec­tion fore­man and his fam­i­ly. The fore­man was respon­si­ble for main­tain­ing a 10-mile stretch of rail­road track. You’ll find an old train car and rotary plow that used by the sec­tion fore­man to clear snow off the tracks in win­ter. This is a fun stop for kids to take a look at rail­road his­to­ry and…  ...more

For­get pick­ing up a gener­ic sand­wich dur­ing your lay­over. This local craft beer and food mec­ca in Ted Stevens Anchor­age Inter­na­tion­al Air­port offers mul­ti­ple lay­ers of local fla­vor from the orig­i­nal pro­duc­tion brew­ery and restau­rant in Fox, Alas­ka. Sil­ver Gulch is America’s Most North­ern Brewery. 

Polar bears are of spe­cial inter­est because of their large size, white col­or and as a car­ni­vore in a large­ly unknown remote envi­ron­ment. They occur only in the north­ern hemi­sphere and near­ly always in asso­ci­a­tion with sea ice.

Like most func­tion­al North­west Coast art, pad­dles were his­tor­i­cal­ly dec­o­rat­ed with the clan and crest sym­bols of their own­ers. The flash of a pad­dle by kins­men enter­ing a coastal vil­lage for a pot­lach or oth­er fes­tiv­i­ties once served to under­score the pow­er and pres­tige of those who approached by canoe.

The Alas­ka Rail­road offers scenery, wildlife, and his­to­ry; get our audio guide to all the high­lights along its route.

At any Vis­it Anchor­age infor­ma­tion cen­ter loca­tion, you can find brochures and maps to help you chart your trip around Anchor­age and South­cen­tral Alas­ka. Pay a vis­it to the ulti­mate Anchor­age experts who are in the know on the best activ­i­ties, restau­rants, tours and oth­er local hot spots. Log Cab­in and Down­town Vis­i­tor Infor­ma­tion Cen­ter Open dai­ly, except major hol­i­days: Mid May to mid Sep­tem­ber: 8am-7pm Mid Septe­me­ber to mid…  ...more

If you like cas­cad­ing water­falls, a great stream, and excep­tion­al views of Tur­na­gain Arm, you don’t want to miss this hike. The rum­bling stream with grad­ual cas­cad­ing falls and moun­tain views pro­vides a pic­turesque val­ley set­ting unique to this trail. The trail is rough and steep and climbs high enough that you’re like­ly to see Dall sheep, gold­en eagles, and Arc­tic ground squir­rels in the high­er ele­va­tions. Spruce grouse can also be spotted…  ...more

Eagle Riv­er camp­ground is con­ve­nient and mod­ern. Right beside it are also class IV rapids. Kayak­ers and rafters call them Camp­ground Rapids. But near­by are a cou­ple of places not nor­mal­ly asso­ci­at­ed with camp­ing. Do you like ghost sto­ries? Do you have some trash pil­ing up in the back of your truck? Maybe you should stop in and have a look. But don’t say we did­n’t warn you!

“Depar­ture” is an expres­sion of the effect that Alas­ka has had on my mem­o­ry. It is a col­lage of mem­o­ries, reflec­tions and obser­va­tions of the time I have lived in Alas­ka and the respect I have for its grandeur, wildlife and people.

Whether you want a stress-unwind­ing mas­sage before or after your flight — or a quick hair and nails upgrade, this spa offers a lit­tle oasis of calm amidst Ted Stevens Inter­na­tion­al Air­port — with treat­ments start­ing at just $35.

Kincaid/​Pt. Cam­bell Park

There’s lots of tech­no­log­i­cal­ly supe­ri­or cloth­ing — lay­er­ing sys­tems designed for Alaska’s tough con­di­tions. You’ll find base lay­ers; fleece coats; and water­proof, wind­proof, breath­able shells in well-known brands like Con­dor Out­door Gear and 5.11Tactical.

Three Anchor­age artists were asked to paint their ​‘vison’ of what the Anchor­age Air­port of the Future would look like.

W on D st, right on Loop Rd, st on Route Bravo

This trail begins at the Bird Ridge park­ing lot. Access the paved trail and fol­low it south to the Bird Ridge turn-off where you’ll have the option to take a right for great views of Cook Inlet. The trail is flat and paved or cov­ered with a board­walk so this is a great option for all age groups.

Bik­ing, hik­ing, fish­ing, climb­ing, wildlife view­ing, camp­fires — and the bore tide spec­ta­cle of Tur­na­gain Arm. Few camp­grounds any­where offer as many out­door options to an adven­tur­ous fam­i­ly as Bird Creek Camp­ground in Chugach State Park. Locat­ed at Mile 101 on the Seward High­way, the camp­ground fea­tures 22 sites for tents or RVs.

This bright blue steel bridge is inter­est­ing for its struc­ture, which hear­kens back to old rail­road tres­tles from bygone eras. It has two sec­tions that span the arms of an oxbow in Camp­bell Creek.

The play­ground here is one of the largest in Anchorage.

The pan­els are deep-relief and tex­tur­al. Mate­ri­als include hand carved wood pieces, alu­minum and lay­ers of pigment.

Park­ing lot with 44 spaces, 2 ten­nis courts, 2 lit­tle league base­ball fields, pic­nic tables, large grill, tod­dler equip­ment suit­able for 2 – 5 year olds, play equip­ment suit­able for 5 – 12 year olds, trails and access to the Coastal Trail.

Alas­ka is one of the world’s avi­a­tion hotspots, and the Airmen’s Asso­ci­a­tion rep­re­sents the pilot com­mu­ni­ty by pro­mot­ing and pre­serv­ing avi­a­tion in the state. Every May, they host a huge air­show where they raf­fle off a free air­plane. Tick­ets are $100 — they sell out quickly.

Black bears are omni­vores, with their diets vary­ing great­ly depend­ing on sea­son and loca­tion. In Alas­ka they can be observed feed­ing on every­thing from dan­de­lions and grass to fish and carrion.

Made of Spruce wood, con­crete, seal­ers and oil paint, over steel armature.

The Glenn High­way is pure Alas­ka: a 135-mile mix of his­to­ry and nat­ur­al splen­dor run­ning north from Anchor­age. Get an insider’s per­spec­tive on some of the most scenic, his­toric, and fas­ci­nat­ing spots along this impor­tant high­way, which runs from Anchor­age to Gle­nallen. Learn about the spec­tac­u­lar Matanus­ka Glac­i­er — and the riv­er that flows from it — and get the best spots to take in the view. Lis­ten to the dif­fer­ent kinds of forests, and all…  ...more

The muskox is an Arc­tic mam­mal of the Bovi­dae fam­i­ly that is known for its thick coat and the strong, ​‘musky’ odor emit­ted by males, from which its name is derived. The odor helps attract females dur­ing the mat­ing season.

Just two hours north from Anchor­age, Tal­keet­na is a town with authen­tic pio­neer feel and mod­ern tours and lodg­ing facil­i­ties. It’s the per­fect stop en-route to Denali, or as a day dri­ve from Anchor­age. Top excur­sions include raft­ing, jet boat tours, and flight­see­ing tours of Mt. Denali.

This park was orig­i­nal­ly named Cres­cent Park and renamed in 1989 to hon­or David Green for his fam­i­ly val­ues and spe­cial place in his heart for chil­dren. In 1997 a group of busi­ness­es, orga­ni­za­tions, and vol­un­teers stepped for­ward to fund and build the play­ground that cur­rent­ly exists.

Float Through Anchor­age Neighborhoods

Phone: 907−248−5338 Address: 4940 W Intl Air­port Rd, Anchor­age, AK Hours: 6am — 2am daily 

The tow­er you see was decom­mis­sioned in 1977; since then, the Inter­na­tion­al Airport’s con­trol tow­er has over­seen Lake Hood as well — more than 800 flight oper­a­tions every day! You can hear some of the unique vocab­u­lary used by the con­trollers and the pilots when you lis­ten to the Lake Hood weath­er report over the phone: 907−245−1618. Pilots inter­na­tion­al­ly use a pho­net­ic alpha­bet to avoid con­fu­sion. A = alpha, B = bra­vo, etc. 

Long pop­u­lar with fam­i­lies who seek a wilder­ness-like set­ting with­out leav­ing the urban area, the place has a rep­u­ta­tion for clean­li­ness and seren­i­ty. But you have to make peace with the riv­er: it is loud. 57 camp­sites are nes­tled along three wood­ed lanes and the inter­est­ing grav­el bars of Eagle Riv­er are nev­er more than a few min­utes’ walk away.

This near­ly 20-acre park near Camp­bell Creek has sev­er­al soc­cer fields, pic­nic tables, a lit­tle league ball field (with­out the back­stop), a view­ing area over­look­ing Wal­dron Lake, and sev­er­al ele­vat­ed fish­ing and salmon-view­ing decks that are sus­pend­ed above Camp­bell Creek. You can access the Camp­bell Creek Trail and all of these ameni­ties from Rakof Ave., just east of the New Seward High­way, as well as from a park­ing lot off of Shelikof…  ...more

It’s a 5‑hour dri­ve up to the park from Anchor­age, and you’ll find a num­ber of scenic high­lights and activ­i­ties along the way

Built in Knik in the ear­ly 1900’s, the cathe­dral was moved here by horse-drawn sleigh in the 1920’s and has since been ren­o­vat­ed. Pope John Paul II vis­it­ed it in 1981. Vis­it: 10 min Con­tact: 5^th ave and H st

Locat­ed along­side Air­craft Dri­ve at the Grav­el Strip, the auto­mat­ed gates were installed to pre­vent cars from dri­ving out onto the run­way. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, they allow for a nice pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty of a plane taxi­ing to the run­way. How does a pilot open a gate? They dial their avi­a­tion radio into a spe­cif­ic fre­quen­cy and click the micro­phone five times.

There is a camp­ground here locat­ed North East side of town, with soc­cer fields, etc. It is up against Mil­i­tary land to the East. This trail is most­ly used for cross-coun­try ski­ing. 3.1 miles of the trail is unlight­ed and 0.6 miles of the trail is lit. There is access to the ball fields from this trail. This trail is also used for sled­ding and is very kid-friend­ly. There are some who use this trail for Alpine ski­ing and there is a rope tow to…  ...more

If you love hik­ing or walk­ing in a mature for­est with well appoint­ed trails and inter­est­ing geog­ra­phy — includ­ing a menagerie of Alaskan wildlife plus access to miles of shore­line — you can’t go wrong in Kin­caid Park. With 35 to 40 miles of offi­cial­ly main­tained trails equipped with map kiosks, plus many unsigned but well-trod sin­gle-track paths, the park is a lit­er­al maze. It’s great for every lev­el of inten­si­ty — from fit­ness run­ners to families  ...more

In 1984 when the Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter was being built plans were includ­ed for Town Square. In the sum­mer it is a good spot to sit and take a break. In the win­ter, the trees are strung with christ­mas lights and an ice skat­ing rink is cre­at­ed at the cen­ter of the park.

This trail in Kin­caid Park leads you into either L Train or the Bluff Trail. It climbs from the sand dunes up to the ridge, then splits into the descent into L train or con­tin­ues on a long run towards the chalet, with an option to cut left onto the Bluff Trail.

Hik­ing up Mt. Alyeska is a chal­lenge, but the reward is great views of Tur­na­gain Arm, the sev­en ​“hang­ing” glac­i­ers of Gird­wood Val­ley, and peaks stretch­ing deep into the Chugach Moun­tain range. Below you’ll find our rec­om­mend­ed routes to the top; all leave from the Alyeska Hotel (where you’ll find trail maps). While any sum­mer day is good for this hike, try to time your vis­it around one of the area’s events — you’ll have some­thing extra to…  ...more

A ceil­ing mosa­ic designed from the acute per­spec­tive of look­ing up along birch trunks in the north­ern, bore­al for­est. The dif­fer­ent thick­ness­es of glass smalti, var­i­ous mar­ble and gran­ite pieces cre­ate a rich, com­plex sur­face that responds to the chang­ing light in the clerestory

Cud­dy Fam­i­ly Park was a labor of love for many vol­un­teers for years. The park was estab­lished in the ear­ly 1980’s. But it was only when the speed skat­ing oval was built out in 2011 and the play­ground added in 2013 that Mid­town Anchor­age gained its own park on par with Westch­ester Lagoon in downtown.

This trail is per­fect for days when your time or ener­gy for a longer hike is lack­ing. Lying on the out­skirts of Anchor­age, these trails are most­ly flat. Though it is pop­u­lar with locals, espe­cial­ly for ski­ing and snow­shoe­ing in the win­ter, the trail is hard­ly crowded.

Taxi­dermy work com­plet­ed by Ani­mal Artistry Inc. of Reno, NV.

A 730-acre hik­ing and horse­back mecca.

Twist­ing, curvy addi­tion to the north end of Bolling Alley

The Anchor­age Muse­um has a won­der­ful restau­rant off the lob­by with a lit­tle some­thing for every­one – whether you are look­ing for a quick work­day lunch or enjoy­ing the fine­ly craft­ed cui­sine in a more leisure­ly man­ner. When the sun is shin­ing, you can even enjoy being served on the out­door patio adja­cent to the park-like muse­um grounds.

Explore the 4000-acre Far North Bicen­ten­ni­al Park to expe­ri­ence true wilder­ness with­in Anchor­age. Though the area looks very wild, a few loca­tions near Camp­bell Creek had sub­stan­tial devel­op­ment dur­ing World War II when the near­by Camp­bell Airstrip was read­ied for use by fight­er planes.

This Fairchild 24G was built in the ear­ly 30’s and saw heavy usage as both a civil­ian and mil­i­tary plane.

If you need it, there’s a good chance Fred Mey­er has it. You can find every­thing from gro­ceries to cloth­ing, and elec­tron­ics to toi­letries here. It’s a great place to come, too, if you’re plan­ning on adven­tur­ing in the Alaskan wilder­ness, since there’s a large amount of hunt­ing, fish­ing, and camp­ing sup­plies. You can even pick up hunt­ing and fish­ing licens­es here as well as guides and tide books. If you’re look­ing for Alaskan souvenirs,…  ...more

Caught by Jack Tragis on June 11, 1996 near Unalas­ka, Alas­ka. This mon­ster was 9′ 5″, 459 lbs, 31 yrs old.

Black Bears are one of the more adapt­able ani­mals in the entire ani­mal king­dom, as they are cur­rent­ly found in every sin­gle Unit­ed States’ state, with the excep­tion of Hawaii.

4 park­ing spaces. Pic­nic area with 2 tables, 2 bench­es, one grill. Locat­ed in Gov­ern­ment Hill Greenbelt.

InMo­tion Enter­tain­ment is the largest air­port-based elec­tron­ics and enter­tain­ment retail­er in the nation, offer­ing tablets, net­books, dig­i­tal cam­eras, pock­et cam­corders, DVD play­ers, noise-can­cel­ing head­phones and accessories.

Under an hour from Anchor­age, this 22-mile dri­ve takes you away from Alaska’s towns and cities, and into Chugach State Park. The road is smooth with twists and turns, and runs along­side Eklut­na Riv­er, and the beau­ti­ful and glacial Eklut­na Lake. You can also see Twin Peaks over the trees.

For your con­ve­nience, this ameni­ty is being offered free-of-charge and is our way of wel­com­ing you to the airport.

This is part of the Hill­side Trail Sys­tem and is open all year long. This is one of the Hill­side trails that is groomed for ski­ing. It is a short con­nec­tive trail and there is access to it via the Pow­er­line, Gasline, South Fork Rim and Denali View Trails.

The high banked turns — some that near­ly dou­ble back on them­selves — flow smooth­ly, and undu­lat­ing ter­rain keeps the speed in check while still pro­vid­ing a quick descent if you’re will­ing to let the bike run.

This is part of the Hill­side Trail Sys­tem. It is one of the trails that is groomed for ski­ing in win­ter. There is access to this trail avail­able via the Pow­er­line, Gasline, White Spruce, Blue­ber­ry Hol­low, Alder, Panora­ma View, and Gold­en Grass trails.

New in 2016, Dol­ly Var­den Cab­in offers the same recre­ation oppor­tu­ni­ties that you’d find while car camp­ing in the Eklut­na Camp­ground, but you sleep inside an insu­lat­ed with a wood-burn­ing stove and loads of space. Aimed at peo­ple who might want to expe­ri­ence the pad­dling, bik­ing, hik­ing and climb­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties of the stun­ning Eklut­na Val­ley, but don’t want to ​“rough it” or chop wood for heating.

This self-serve restau­rant, locat­ed at the top of the moun­tain, fea­tures great scenery. Alaskan clam chow­der in a bread bowl is a pop­u­lar choice (about $7). Open 11am – 4:30pm dai­ly. Clos­ing time shifts with the sea­son, so call the hotel for cur­rent hours. Closed in Octo­ber — Mid-November.

The 1964 Earth­quake dev­as­tat­ed trans­porta­tion routes from Anchor­age to Seward. A dar­ing res­cue of the rail bridge over Twen­ty-Mile Creek helped keep the line open in the days fol­low­ing the quake.

Along this road, you’ll find a num­ber of air­plane main­te­nance hang­ers. Hav­ing an air­plane here isn’t cheap. FAA reg­u­la­tions require pilots to get their planes inspect­ed annu­al­ly, which can cost any­where from $500 to $5,000 (or more)…and that’s before spend­ing an hour in the air. Of course, fuel adds to the cost as well. Most sin­gle-engine planes, like the ones you’ll find here, burn 8 – 20 gal­lons per hour. With fuel at $5 – $6 per gal­lon, the…  ...more

This is part of the hill­side trail sys­tem. It is not one of the trails that is groomed for ski­ing in win­ter. It is locat­ed at the entrance to the trail sys­tem and pro­vides access to many oth­er trails in the system.

This 134-acre park is set in the woods where, in 1964, an entire neigh­bor­hood slid into the ocean dur­ing last cen­tu­ry’s most pow­er­ful earth­quake. The earth­quake was mea­sured at a 9.2 on the Richter scale and last­ed 4 min­utes. Today, this trag­ic event is com­mem­o­rat­ed in Anchorage’s Earth­quake Park, where you’ll find signs explain­ing the cir­cum­stances of the quake and its effect on the area.

This is a great pock­et of wilder­ness right in Anchor­age: easy to get to, qui­et and pret­ty idyl­lic. Set in the north­east­ern sec­tion of Kin­caid Park, Lit­tle Camp­bell Lake is packed with lily pads and sur­round­ed by a thick for­est lined with trails. Spend the after­noon hik­ing, swim­ming, fish­ing, or pad­dling around the lake. 

Giv­en its vast size and rugged ter­rain, it’s log­i­cal that Alas­ka has had a long love affair — and even depen­dence — on avi­a­tion. It was July 4, 1913, that the first flight took place in Alas­ka, and today there are more planes here, per per­son, than any­where else in the world.

There’s a nice bar, with good view, and tables as well. The menu is good pub food.

W on D st., right on Loop Rd, left on Otter Lake Rd

Sit­ka black-tailed deer are a diminu­tive coastal sub­species of the mule deer that is com­mon through­out west­ern North America.

While many peo­ple find sat­is­fac­tion in climb­ing to the top of Bear Point, oth­ers may won­der about reach­ing the sum­mit of Mount Eklut­na, the promi­nent peak ris­ing just to the east. It involves two more miles of hik­ing, up 1,100 feet, includ­ing a short, sharp scram­ble up a grav­el trail. You can return to the Peters Creek Trail trail­head via an alter­nate route, which makes for a fine loop hike.

Charges are per bag, per day depend­ing on size. Fish box­es, etc. are also charged per box, per day depend­ing on size. There is no lim­it as to length items may be stored. Pas­sen­gers must present an air­line tick­et or board­ing pass in order to use this service.

Start­ed in 1986 as a cof­fee cart, the com­pa­ny has grown tremen­dous­ly and is dis­trib­uted through­out much of the Amer­i­can West. That’s because they source excel­lent beans, roast them well (here in Anchor­age) and are pas­sion­ate about the bean! They also offer organ­ic and Fair Trade cof­fee, for the social­ly-con­scious cof­fee drinker. They have sev­er­al loca­tions through­out the city and have knowl­edge­able baris­tas pulling shots for espres­so drinks.…  ...more

Per­ma­nent col­lec­tion of the Anchor­age Muse­um of His­to­ry and Art, Doy­on Native Cor­po­ra­tion, Smith­son­ian Insti­tute, Yuga­travik Muse­um, Yukon Kuskok­wim Health Cen­ter, and the Alas­ka Native Med­ical Center.

So don’t just stroll through town — take the offi­cial tour, brought to you by long­time res­i­dent experts: Alas​ka​.org and the Anchor­age Con­ven­tion & Vis­i­tors Bureau.

The Wood Bison at the Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Cen­ter are cur­rent­ly the only herd in the Unit­ed States

Mil­i­tary per­son­nel may request trans­porta­tion to Fort Richard­son or Elmen­dorf Air Force Base 24 hours per day.

One of her spe­cial­ties is baby belts, which fea­ture elab­o­rate flo­ral designs of beads on tanned smoked moose hide which is tra­di­tion­al­ly used to car­ry babies on their moth­ers backs.

Found at mile 8.8 along the Eklut­na Lake­side Trail, this camp­site has bath­rooms, a pic­nic table, and a fire ring.

SE on N Eagle Riv­er, SE on Eagle

This pad­dle, tra­di­tion­al­ly used by hunters and in cer­e­monies, is a tes­ta­ment to the ele­gance of old-style Aleut & Alu­ti­iq art.

Locat­ed on the sec­ond floor of The Hotel Alyeska, this resort-run restau­rant offers some­thing for every­one, with Alaskan favorites and a chil­dren’s menu. Din­ner entrees include Alaskan hal­ibut Flo­ren­tine, roast­ed prime rib, and Alaskan seafood bouil­l­abaisse (all between $24 – $26).

The com­mon name for lynx in Alas­ka is Cana­di­an Lynx. Males are known as ​“toms,” while females are ref­er­enced as ​“mol­lies.”

If bik­ing on trails through the woods appeals to you, then Kin­caid Park is an ide­al des­ti­na­tion. It fea­tures an exten­sive net­work of trails per­fect for moun­tain and snow bik­ing. Whether you seek stiff climbs and sharp turns —or if you just want a leisure­ly out­ing with fam­i­ly and friends — you can find the per­fect cycling route some­where in the park. While win­ter does close the main trails to all uses except ski­ing, there are plen­ty of snow-season  ...more

Phone: 907−248−5338 Address: 3730 Spe­nard Road, Anchor­age, AK Hours: June 1 — Aug 31: 7am-7pm (dai­ly), Sep 1 — May 31: 8am-6pm 

An off-shoot of the View­point Trail, Moose Mead­ow Trail cuts back towards the South Fork of Camp­bell Creek. You’ll wind through mixed forests of spruce, aspen, and even some cot­ton­woods. Keep an eye out for a spe­cial type of moss known to locals as Old Man’s Beard. It typ­i­cal­ly grows on the under­side of ever­greens boughs and, in the right light, cre­ates an eerie ambiance. The Moose Mead­ow Trail con­nects up with Rover’s Run near the Creek. If…  ...more

Nes­tled just off the Seward High­way near Bird Creek, these two new, spa­cious cab­ins might allow you to ful­fill almost any fam­i­ly-friend­ly Alaskan recre­ation fan­ta­sy in a sin­gle week­end. They offer unmatched options for all kinds of activ­i­ties — bik­ing, fish­ing, hik­ing, wildlife view­ing — with excep­tion­al­ly easy access by car.

Right in the shad­ow of the Inter­na­tion­al Air­port and the float­plane water­way is a strip for small wheel planes, which you’ll notice is grav­el, not paved. That’s because many bush planes have over­sized tires, and grav­el — because it’s a more for­giv­ing sur­face in high cross­winds — inflicts less dam­age on the tire.

Lake Hood is the busiest sea­plane base in the world with 200 dai­ly oper­a­tions (take­offs and land­ings). If you’re stay­ing at a hotel near the Anchor­age air­port, this is the best place for a near­by walk. Our walk­ing tour high­lights the most inter­est­ing view­points, his­tor­i­cal fea­tures, and insights into the avi­a­tion activ­i­ties going on around the lake.

In order to cre­ate more space for float­plane park­ing on the lake, five tie-down chan­nels were dredged out in 1975. The first of the fin­gers is the Com­mer­cial Fin­ger, which is host to flight­see­ing and air taxi oper­a­tors. The oth­er four fin­gers are open to pilots for tie-down park­ing. Tie-downs are park­ing spots for the planes. Once parked, a pilot must tie the plane’s wings and tails to the ground or dock so if it gets windy, the plane won’t…  ...more

An inter­est­ing fact about cari­bou: they out pop­u­late peo­ple in the state of Alas­ka 1.5 to 1.

If you need a cup or trav­el mug for your Alas­ka adven­tures, they also car­ry those, so you’ll be caf­feinat­ed and ready to go home or to the Last Frontier.

This is Anchorage’s old­est neigh­bor­hood — and also one of its most charm­ing, thanks to its mix of quin­tes­sen­tial, salt­box-style archi­tec­ture, a few mil­i­tary Quon­set huts, and a selec­tion of mod­ern designs.

Bas­kets made of sub­tle col­ors and bal­anced graphics.

If you need a cup or trav­el mug for your Alas­ka adven­tures, they also car­ry those, so you’ll be caf­feinat­ed and ready to go home or to the Last Frontier.

This wide trail con­tin­ues from mile 4, up the val­ley to the Bird Creek cross­ing. A less devel­oped trail con­tin­ues on for anoth­er 2 miles, then quick­ly gains ele­va­tion to the pass. Trav­el­ing to the East from Bird Creek Pass will lead you to Griz­zly Bear Lake and Moraine Pass.

With just a short walk from the park­ing area you will find a beau­ti­ful 20 foot water fall. The trail­head starts off par­al­lel­ing the Tur­na­gain Arm and there are a num­ber of small trails that go to dif­fer­ent look­outs. Take the trail to the left for a short dis­tance and you will find the McHugh Trail branch­ing off to the right. The trail zig-zags upward through the woods and pro­vides ever bet­ter views of the Tur­na­gain Arm and mountains. 

Not every­one should under­take this 13-mile tra­verse that begins at Glen Alps above Anchor­age. Con­sid­er­able off-trail hik­ing, plus a steep climb to a ridge top, might be out­side your com­fort zone. But this trail does offer a pro­found sense of soli­tude and some spec­tac­u­lar views. It also includes the nov­el­ty of hik­ing a mile-long sheep trail that tra­vers­es the back of The Wedge, some 500 feet above the seclud­ed waters of Ship Lake.

Immerse your­self in Alaskan his­to­ry with the His­tor­i­cal Time­line walk, browse 20+ shops fea­tur­ing Alaskan arti­sans, and get whisked across Alas­ka in the 40-minute film ​“Alas­ka the Great­land” at the Alas­ka Expe­ri­ence The­atre with its 3‑story high wrap­around screen. Vis­it: 1 to 2 hr Cost: Call for prices and show times Con­tact: 4^th ave | between C and D st, 907 – 278-3263Open: Sum­mer M‑F 10:00 am to 7:00 pm | Sun 11:00 am to 6:00 pm | Winter…  ...more

There’s no bet­ter way to get a grasp of Alaska’s his­to­ry — or real­ly, its many his­to­ries— than by vis­it­ing the Anchor­age Muse­um. The state’s largest muse­um offers a com­pelling overview of Alaska’s his­to­ry, art, cul­ture and sci­ence. This audio guide dis­cuss­es some of the highlights.

In Alas­ka it’s not just bears you need to wor­ry about. Aside from the weath­er and real­i­ties of how unfor­giv­ing the cli­mate can be (did you bring rain gear?), we live among bears and oth­er large ani­mals like moose.

Rid­ers will expe­ri­ence faster flow and more banked turns, plus fun fea­tures that are built on the side of the trail.

Red fox­es are wide­spread and abun­dant in Alas­ka. There are no cur­rent pop­u­la­tion esti­mates, but red fox­es’ num­ber in the tens of thou­sands in the state. 

This is the most-hiked trail in Alas­ka, but win­ter snow can cause avalanch­es in the spring, so be care­ful what time of year you choose to go.

After park­ing, con­tin­ue down the road until it nar­rows into a trail. The land cross­es briefly some pri­vate land. Hun­dreds of peo­ple hike or ski this trail every year. The trail is a grad­ual ascent up Rab­bit Creek Val­ley, with the creek and McHugh Peak on the right and the back side of flat­top, and Ptar­ma­gan Peak on your left. The trail starts in alders, but with­in a mile or two, opens onto alpine mead­ows. The trail even­tu­al­ly takes you to…  ...more

Set along the Coastal Trail at the very end of 5^th Avenue in Anchor­age, Elder­ber­ry boasts 1.5 acres of scenic park­land with great views of Cook Inlet. Because it’s close to down­town, you can make this a rest stop while tour­ing and shop­ping down­town. Come with a pic­nic, or just a walk while enjoy­ing the view.

In a city filled with rel­a­tive­ly new build­ings, most built well into the 20^th cen­tu­ry, the His­toric Anchor­age Hotel stands out for being dif­fer­ent — it’s charm­ing­ly old. And while the 26-room, Queen-Anne-style hotel in down­town Anchor­age is a thriv­ing reminder of the city’s fron­tier past, it con­tin­ues to charm guests with its high lev­el of ser­vice and all the com­forts of a 21^st-cen­tu­ry bou­tique hotel.

Cab­in is near Crow Pass in the Chugach Moun­tains, 3 miles from the Crow Pass Trail­head and is locat­ed 500 yards East of the Trail at the old cab­in site 

John Hen­ry, an Amer­i­can born artist, is known world­wide for his large-scale pub­lic works of art, which grace numer­ous muse­um, cor­po­rate, pub­lic and pri­vate collections.

Made of red cedar, sinew lash­ing, acrylic paint.

The artist is Aleut, and lives in his home vil­lage of Naknek as a sub­sis­tance fisherman.

A short road called Konikson locat­ed just past Bird Ridge head­ing east will take you to the trail­head. Stay to the right until you see a trail about a quar­ter mile in going right and up. The trail fol­lows a small drainage, and quick­ly gets past the tree line.

There are no shel­ters along this trail and it is 23 miles to Windy Gap Cab­in. This trail leaads through spruce for­est and cross­es lakes and creeks with beau­ti­ful scenery on all sides.

Russ­ian Jack Springs Park is approx­i­mate­ly 300-acres in size and offers end­less activ­i­ties for any time of the year rang­ing from a golf course, to a dog park as well as one of the best sled­ding hill Anchor­age has to offer! 

The Alyeska Mul­ti-Use Path­way is a paved, light­ed mul­ti-use trail that extends from the Seward Hwy to the Hotel Alyeska. The path is pop­u­lar with walk­ers and run­ners, and with a fresh batch of snow it becomes a great clas­sic ski trail.

This trail is pop­u­lar in the win­ter for ski­ing (low avalanche dan­ger) and sum­mer for views, and berry pick­ing. Many peo­ple begin at Glen Alps Park­ing lot and ini­tial­ly fol­low Pow­er­line Pass trail until it turns off to the left. Go down and over the creek and then fol­low the trail up an easy slope towards what is com­mon­ly known as the Ramp and the Wedge, on either side of the val­ley. When you get to the pass, or ridge, look down towards the…  ...more

On these spe­cial Fri­days, art gal­leries cel­e­brate new works by local artists, and it’s great enter­tain­ment for art lovers. You may find gal­leries host­ing recep­tions with hors d’oeuvres, offer­ing a chance to meet local artists while enjoy­ing a stroll through down­town. Look for a map of par­tic­i­pat­ing gal­leries in the Anchor­age Press or the Anchor­age Dai­ly News the day before.

Black Tail Rocks is a very airy climb that stretch­es to 4,446 feet above Eagle Riv­er, a town locat­ed just north of Anchor­age. It’s a jour­ney that involves only a min­i­mal amount of hand-over-hand scram­bling; you’ll be fol­low­ing a trail for most of the 4‑mile, 2,750-foot hike. And you’ll have a fine view from the top, look­ing up the length of the seclud­ed Mead­ow Creek Val­ley and well into the deep inner reach­es of the Chugach Mountains.

Found­ed in 2001, the Anchor­age Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val will be host­ing its 16^th annu­al cel­e­bra­tion of inde­pen­dent film in Anchor­age this Decem­ber. Attend­ed by film­mak­ers and cin­e­ma-lovers from all over the US and the world, the fes­ti­val seeks to sup­port new media and inde­pen­dent film­mak­ing in Alas­ka and beyond. Fes­ti­val-goers are treat­ed to the oppor­tu­ni­ty to watch films not-yet-released or that won’t be released in Alaskan the­aters, plus  ...more

This restau­rant in Gov­ern­ment Hill offers a mix of Lao, Thai, and Viet­namese cui­sine — and deliv­ers big on both fla­vor and por­tions. The sig­na­ture dish­es are the phở dish­es, which come in huge bowls, and the Pad Thai, which is mild in heat and slight­ly sweet. You can also order from a delight­ful selec­tion of cur­ries and stir-fries.

The Sul­li­van Are­na opened in Feb­ru­ary of 1983 and since that time has been a main­stay in the enter­tain­ment scene in Anchor­age. The Sul­li­van Are­na is designed to be a mul­ti-use facil­i­ty, com­plete with an Olympic-size ice rink, with an insu­lat­ed floor cov­er­ing for bas­ket­ball, con­certs, and trade shows. 

It’s not as dif­fi­cult as you might think to hike to stand atop the pre­cip­i­tous, gul­ly-scarred face of Bear Point. But it’s not easy, either. The 2‑mile hike ascends 2,100 feet and can be tricky. But your reward is an amaz­ing view in all direc­tions, from the Kenai Penin­su­la to Denali and the Chugach Moun­tains to Matanus­ka Peak.

If you like to fish for Sil­vers and Kings with a bob­ber and eggs, Ship Creek’s mouth is a great option. Though you may have to deal with a lit­tle bit more mud along the banks, bring a pack­able chair, and once you’re about 100 meters north of the road, you can claim a grassy area to set­tle in.

Sonya Kel­li­her-Combs was raised in the North­west Alas­ka com­mu­ni­ty of Nome. Her Bach­e­lor of Fine Arts degree is from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alas­ka Fair­banks and Mas­ter of Fine Arts is from Ari­zona State University.

Offers a lot of tech­ni­cal fea­tures inter­spersed through­out a smooth run.

This is a great side trail that becomes a salmon view­ing plat­form, with bench­es for sit­ting as well as an infor­ma­tion­al plaque.

Phone: (907) 277‑4567 Address: 5000 West Int’l Air­port Rd, Anchor­age, AK Hours: Sun — Sat 5:30am — 1:30am

The term ​“griz­zly” in its name refers to ​“griz­zled” or grey hairs in its fur. These pow­er­ful hunters of the Norther are nor­mal­ly soli­tary, active animals.

The sweep­ing view of Pot­ter’s Marsh south of Anchor­age is a fam­i­li­er one to Alaskans as they leave the city.

This is part of the Hill­side Trail Sys­tem. It is one of the trails that is groomed for ski­ing in win­ter. There is access to this trail avail­able via the Upper Hill­side Trail­head and the Gasline Trail.

Dat­ing back to 1650, the park is the area’s old­est con­tin­u­ous­ly inhab­it­ed Athabaskan set­tle­ment. View the col­or­ful Spir­it Hous­es built over the graves of the deceased, along with an Ortho­dox Chris­t­ian Cross — a cus­tom that came from the meld­ing of the cultures.

Lim­it­ed on street park­ing is avail­able along Delaney Street. Play equip­ment suit­able for 5 – 12 year olds.

Goose Lake is locat­ed in cen­tral Anchor­age, near the uni­ver­si­ty dis­trict. You’d nev­er know you’re in the heart of Anchor­age as you view Pacif­ic loons nest­ing at the far end of the lake from mid-May to mid-September.

From the most inti­mate and per­son­al scale up to a grand archi­tec­tur­al set­ting, beads pro­vide tiny cel­lu­lar build­ing blocks with which to explore an infi­nite vari­ety of forms and patterns.

Make sure to look both ways before cross­ing the street. Wheel planes use this road to taxi over to the grav­el strip locat­ed on the north side of the map. This road is pri­mar­i­ly for access to hang­ers, wheel plane park­ing, and the rest of Lake Hood.

Here’s anoth­er great stop to take in the scenic beau­ty of the moun­tains and the Tur­na­gain Arm. Here you can access the Bird to Gird paved mul­ti use path­way. From this spot it’s a six-mile jour­ney down the trail, which fea­tures stun­ning views and inter­pre­tive signs. Take a walk or a bike ride to Gird­wood for a bite to eat. And don’t for­get to look for Bel­u­ga whales a few hours before high tide (as they come in with the tide to feed on the…  ...more

The wolf occurs through­out Alas­ka. Their range includes about 85 per­cent of Alaska’s 586,000 square-mile area.

The sculp­ture is a focal point which allows vis­i­tors to ori­ent them­selves in the large space. To achieve this, I placed a large three dimen­sion­al glass relief at the head of the esca­la­tors and stairs.

Locat­ed at the north­west cor­ner of Westch­ester Lagoon, and next to the Coastal Trail and Westch­ester Bike Path, the playground’s group­ings of equip­ment cre­ate a bril­liant play envi­ron­ment that is fun and challenging.

Elliott is a well­known carv­er, who began carv­ing when he worked in min­ing jobs in Nome. Emma is a doll­mak­er and she and Elliott worked togeth­er to cre­ate the whale­bone fig­ures in this exhibit.

Ted Stevens Anchor­age Inter­na­tion­al Air­port offers out­door pet relief areas at both ter­mi­nals. Signs pro­vid­ing direc­tions to these areas can be found on the curb­side adja­cent the bag­gage claim doors.

Accessed from either the Jodh­pur park­ing lot or the cor­ner of Kin­caid Rd. and Jodh­pur St. (where there is a con­ve­nient pullout).

Bronze stat­ue of a Bush Pilot

Known as Alaska’s Play­ground, the Kenai Penin­su­la is one of the state’s most beau­ti­ful and acces­si­ble areas. A wealth of roads and trails offers the poten­tial for amaz­ing wildlife view­ing: birds, seabirds, whales, bears, moose, and cari­bou are all here. Of course, these crit­ters don’t just mag­i­cal­ly appear when you walk by. So we con­sult­ed long­time wildlife biol­o­gists to put togeth­er an audio guide to three dozen hot spots that offer the best…  ...more

Ron Senunge­tuk grew up in Wales, Alas­ka where he learned tra­di­tion­al ivory carv­ing and then con­tin­ued more for­mal art study at Mt. Edge­cumbe High School in Sit­ka. He pur­sued wood­work and met­al-smith inter­ests at School for Amer­i­can Crafts­men of the Rochester Insti­tute of Technology.

The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail is one of Anchorage’s great­est assets, pro­vid­ing exer­cise oppor­tu­ni­ties cou­pled with spec­tac­u­lar views. But most peo­ple who come here don’t embrace the easy access to the coast — and it’s sim­ple to fol­low one of the many side trails down to the beach where miles of sand are avail­able for walk­ing, pic­nics, and watch­ing the sum­mer sun set over The Sleep­ing Lady. Where To Go The eas­i­est access points to the…  ...more

Ted Stevens Anchor­age Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ANC) Lost and Found office is locat­ed next to the pas­sen­ger screen­ing area across from the esca­la­tors. If you lost an item in an ANC ter­mi­nal, park­ing garage, or shut­tle bus, please vis­it our office or call (907) 266‑2623 for assistance.

This local dog park, locat­ed near Alas­ka Pacif­ic Uni­ver­si­ty, is a pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion. There are both on-leash and off-leash trails, depend­ing on your pref­er­ence, as well as great places to throw a fris­bee or ball.

Dri­ving north from Anchor­age isn’t as instant­ly dra­mat­ic as going south, but with­in an hour you’re immersed in stop-and-shoot scenery. The Glenn High­way runs north­east to agri­cul­tur­al Palmer, then twists east along the Matanus­ka Riv­er Val­ley, sand­wiched between coastal and inte­ri­or mountains.

Take a hike along Cal­i­for­nia Creek and enjoy the qui­et, wood­ed path. You’ll find the Trail­head on Crow Creek Road near Cal­i­for­nia Creek.

This spec­i­men, although no con­clu­sive tests were per­formed, is prob­a­bly a true albi­no. No col­oration was present on any part of the animal.

This great spec­i­men was har­vest­ed on April 20, 1997 by Anchor­age res­i­dent Will Gay. Mount­ed by Dan Fos­ter at Fos­ter’s Taxi­dermy in Wasil­la, AK. The bear has a skull score of 30 ¹⁰⁄₁₆ inches.

Alaska’s pre­mière shop­ping des­ti­na­tion. Anchored by JCPen­ney, this 5‑level shop­ping cen­ter hous­es options like Apple, Michael Kors, lul­ule­mon, Sepho­ra & 100 oth­ers, along with local shops and bou­tiques like Alas­ka Wild Berry Prod­ucts and Once in a Blue Moose. 

This trail is an off­shoot of the South Fork Trail that leads to Eagle and Sym­pho­ny Lakes. It pro­vides some awe­some views of the Eagle Riv­er Val­ley and South Fork Eagle Riv­er as it works its way up into the hang­ing val­ley perched above the Eagle Riv­er Val­ley floor. The final des­ti­na­tion for most hik­ers, near the end of the val­ley, is the hid­den Hang­ing Val­ley Tarn, nes­tled in a seclud­ed cirque. This is an excel­lent camp­ing area gar­land­ed with…  ...more

With­out hes­i­ta­tion, the Bird to Gird is the most beau­ti­ful bike path in West­ern Alas­ka. This trail is 6 miles one way or 12 miles round trip; either way, the paved ride hugs Tur­na­gain Arm and con­nects three com­mu­ni­ties (Gird­wood, Bird and Indi­an). It’s per­fect for any lev­el bik­er — whether you just want to just cruise, go fast on a moun­tain bike, or expe­ri­ence the trail as a tourist (or even as a curi­ous local). It’s a shared trail, so you’ll  ...more

Three Anchor­age artists were asked to paint their ​‘vison’ of what the Anchor­age Air­port of the Future would look like.

When was the last time you went to your local hos­pi­tal for art­work? At the Alas­ka Native Med­ical Cen­ter you can find gor­geous arts and crafts by Native Alaskan artists on every floor.

This 64.3 acre park has lots to offer with open fields, ski­jor­ing trails, a sled­ding hill, one soc­cer field, fish­ing dur­ing des­ig­nat­ed sea­sons, and a fish view­ing plat­form that is best dur­ing the mid to late summer.

For lake­side adven­tures of all kinds — with canoe trails, pike fish­ing and wildlife view­ing near­by — try this 22,500-acre mul­ti-use park out­side Wil­low, fea­tur­ing 131 lakes and a net­work of trails. Its 13 pub­lic use cab­ins range from places that offer motor­boat access, to vehi­cle park­ing, to true wilder­ness refuges reach­able only by canoe or ski trail. Win­ter cre­ates a snow-sport mec­ca for cab­in users too — ski­ing, Nordic skat­ing, snow bik­ing and  ...more

Leg­endary mush­er and char­ter inductee George Att­la, the ​‘Hus­lia Hus­tler’, cut the rib­bon at the cer­e­mo­ny to present the display.

AWCC is a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to pre­serv­ing Alaska’s wildlife through con­ser­va­tion, pub­lic edu­ca­tion, and qual­i­ty ani­mal care.

The mechan­ics of the decend­ing planes plans flight, as visu­al­ized and con­truct­ed with the ear­ly mate­ri­als of air flight: wood and stretched fabric.

Locat­ed about four miles south on the west­ern shore of Eklut­na Lake inside Chugach State Park, the new, spa­cious Koka­nee Cab­in offers back­coun­try pad­dling and ski­ing with a strong wilder­ness vibe. Off the trail sys­tem and reach­able only by trav­el­ing across the lake, the cab­in is sur­round­ed by for­est that’s seen almost no human use. With this iso­la­tion, it’s a place that asks for self-suf­fi­cien­cy and gives soli­tude, plus a taste of what it might  ...more

You’ll find even more play­grounds that take advan­tage of the unique assets of their loca­tions. Here’s a list of our top picks!

The dri­ve to McCarthy and Ken­ni­cott isn’t your run-of-the-mill road trip. It’s 7 – 8 hours from Anchor­age, with the last 61 miles-between Chiti­na and the Ken­ni­cott Riv­er-on an his­toric, grav­el road. Not all rental vehi­cles are allowed on the McCarthy road, so check with your rental agency before you travel.

Some peo­ple elect to fol­low the ridge­line fur­ther back and that can take you to many more peaks, and views.

Now it’s time to go over some basics. For­tu­nate­ly, we do have rules to abide by.. but hear me out!

Taxi­cabs are avail­able at both Ter­mi­nals of the Ted Stevens Anchor­age Inter­na­tion­al Airport.

Don’t for­get to look up as you trav­el in moun­tain­ous ter­rain because you nev­er know when a group of sheep will make their appearance.

Masks from Nuni­vak Island often have a cen­tral ani­mal fig­ure sur­round­ed by one or more rings with styl­ized appendages insert­ed around the rings. Nuni­vak Island mask carv­ing tra­di­tions con­tin­ued after mis­sion­ary influ­ence, as they were no longer made for wearing.

Coiled Bas­ket made of pine needs

It’s a stretch to call this a ​‘beach’. It’s more like an over­sized grav­el bar on the edge of Camp­bell Creek. But you can dri­ve to with­in 100 yards and hang out by the water. Park at the lot off Camp­bell Airstrip Road, walk to the bridge on the down­stream side. It’s a fun place to skip rocks, wade, and hang out to the relax­ing sound of the creek rush­ing by. It’s a nice alter­natve to Goose Lake and oth­er beach­es team­ing with kids. Here, there…  ...more

Home­stead­ers. Entre­pre­neurs. Pho­tog­ra­phers. This petite, but very well-done muse­um in mid­town Anchor­age offers engag­ing proof of how the state of Alas­ka has been shaped — and is still being shaped — by a diverse com­mu­ni­ty. It’s open 1pm — 6pm Sun­day through Thurs­day year-round (closed Fri­day and Sat­ur­day for the Jew­ish Sab­bath). It takes only 15 min­utes to see the exhibits, but you can also watch a 90-minute video about War­ren Met­zk­er, a legend  ...more

Trail head begins by tra­vers­ing pri­vate land, but an ease­ment has been pro­vid­ed for such. Easy to bike, ski, run or walk to mild slope with a wide sides, mak­ing is safe from avalanch­es in the win­ter. Should you choose to turn left at the start, you can go to Flat Top as an alter­na­tive route or Peak 2 or 3, depend­ing how far down you go down the trail before turn­ing left. Ptar­ma­gan Peak would be a more promi­nate peak just before the Rab­bit creek  ...more

Over 275, avi­a­tion only exhibitors fea­tur­ing the lat­est tech­nol­o­gy, state-of-the-art prod­ucts, new inno­va­tions and com­pre­hen­sive safe­ty con­fer­ence. Indoor & Out­door Sta­t­ic Dis­plays fea­tur­ing every type of air­craft – sport, gen­er­al avi­a­tion, vin­tage, exper­i­men­tal, com­mer­cial, cor­po­rate and mil­i­tary. The Alas­ka State Avi­a­tion Trade Show is about fly­ing in Alas­ka com­plete with a fron­tier flair. Dis­cov­er indus­try trends. Learn about new…  ...more

Beer steins, hats, hub caps, and license plates all hang from the rafters and walls of this fun restau­rant. Sure, its chaot­ic, crowd­ed, cramped, and loud. But you’ll find one of the best steaks in Alas­ka, if not the entire coun­try, as well as great seafood and appe­tiz­ers, often made with Cajun/​creole seasoning.

Despite hav­ing a brown bear in the state of Alas­ka, we actu­al­ly have three sub-species; Griz­zly Brown Bears, Coastal Brown Bears, and the Kodi­ak Brown Bear.

A free air­port shut­tle bus takes pas­sen­gers to the South (Domes­tic) Ter­mi­nal, North (Inter­na­tion­al) Ter­mi­nal and Rental Car Facil­i­ty dai­ly, every 15 min­utes. Air­port shut­tle bus ser­vice to/​from the Park, Ride & Fly Lot (i.e. for extend­ed stay park­ing) is pro­vid­ed on-cal­l/on-demand.

With excep­tion­al­ly easy access for fam­i­lies, Yudit­na Creek cab­in may be one of the most ver­sa­tile back­coun­try cab­ins in the state, whether cycling, ski­ing or hik­ing. Locat­ed at the end of a three-mile trip down a most­ly flat trail along Eklut­na Lake into the heart of Chugach State Park, the cab­in offers a per­fect base for all-day adven­tures in a spec­tac­u­lar moun­tain valley.

Smok­ing is per­mit­ted in des­ig­nat­ed smok­ing areas on the com­mer­cial curb of the South Ter­mi­nal and North Terminal.

It’s a golfer­’s dream: Hit­ting a straight tee shot down a lush green fair­way, with snow-capped peaks climb­ing high around you. This pub­lic course makes it come true, com­bin­ing stun­ning scenery with chal­leng­ing golf. As you play, you’ll take in views of the Chugach Moun­tains, Mt. McKin­ley, Cook Inlet, and the Anchor­age sky­line. But don’t get too dis­tract­ed: the 6,600-yard course, designed by renowned archi­tect Bill New­comb, includes blind tee…  ...more

Phone: (907) 277‑4567 Address: 441 B St. Hours: Sun 9am — 5pm, Mon — Fri 8am — 5pm, Sat 9am — 5pm 

This 191.7‑acre Anchor­age park, which was cre­at­ed in 1994 as Munic­i­pal ded­i­cat­ed park­land, is high­ly val­ued for its wildlife habi­tat, coastal tide­lands and recre­ation­al val­ue. The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail runs through it and the area has spec­tac­u­lar views of the inlet and sur­round­ing moun­tain ranges. You can spot whales in the inlet and watch the jets land and take off from the Ted Stevens Inter­na­tion­al Air­port. Point Woron­zof got its name…  ...more

A short dri­ve from 5^th Ave, you’ll find this great dis­play of Anchorage’s nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment, which coex­ists along­side the indus­tri­al port and rail areas that sup­ply much of south­cen­tral Alas­ka. There are hard­ly ever any peo­ple here, mak­ing this a great place, close to down­town, to get a moment of solitude.

Ruby Eningowuk, an Inu­pi­aq artist, prefers to make items that will be used rather than sim­ply collected

The float­plane base was orig­i­nal­ly two sep­a­rate lakes: Lake Hood, to the west, was the orig­i­nal base and Lake Spe­nard, to the east, was for bathing and swim­ming. In 1940, the canal was dredged out to expand the water­way and cre­ate one uni­fied body of water. The addi­tion of lights on the island in the mid­dle illu­mi­nat­ed the waterway’s night­time operations.

This hike is pop­u­lar in spring for those look­ing for an aer­o­bic work­out. It is very steep, but offers secure foot­ing. One of many high­lights along the scenic Seward High­way, Bird Ridge Trail climbs 3,000 feet in a lit­tle more than a mile to mag­nif­i­cent views of the fjord-like Tur­na­gain Arm. 

Coy­otes are anoth­er mem­ber of the canid fam­i­ly resid­ing at the AWCC. They are dubbed the most vocal of the canids and are some­times referred to as the ​“song dog.” Coy­otes aver­age in size from 30 to 40 pounds, males typ­i­cal­ly weigh­ing more than females.

Steep moun­tain walls, moun­tain peaks, beau­ti­ful val­leys and streams, mature Sit­ka spruce for­est, and areas rich in wildlife pro­vide plen­ty of enjoy­ment. Dall sheep can some­times be seen graz­ing. Use binoc­u­lars to scan grassy fin­gers below ridges across the val­ley, espe­cial­ly dur­ing spring and sum­mer mornings.

Locat­ed in the South ter­mi­nal, Lev. 2, Food court

Join this annu­al com­pe­ti­tion host­ed in Down­town Anchor­age at Ship Creek where anglers cast their line for a prize-win­ning King Salmon. It’s one of Anchorage’s most excit­ing events — come and watch, or cast your own line. Vis­i­tors and locals can par­tic­i­pate! Rent all the equip­ment you need and pur­chase a license from The Bait Shack.

If you’re look­ing for a wild oasis that’s just a 15-minute walk from down­town Anchor­age, look no fur­ther than Westch­ester Lagoon (also known as Mar­garet Eagan Sul­li­van Park). One of the city’s most pop­u­lar places, this is where locals come to play, as it has some­thing for every­one. You’ll find access to great trails and wildlife, as well as year-round activ­i­ties and events for the entire family. 

This trail is part of the Hill­side Trail Sys­tem. It is groomed in win­ter for cross-coun­try skiers. You can gain access to this trail via the Pow­er­line, Gasline and Sil­ver Fern trails. 

This 90-room, down­town hotel is with­in walk­ing dis­tance of the Anchor­age Muse­um, Egan Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, the down­town Saturday/​Sunday mar­kets and lots of shop­ping and restau­rants. Rooms have views of Mount Susit­na, Cook Inlet or the Ship Creek Val­ley. Perks include free break­fast, free park­ing, gym, free Inter­net and free shut­tles to/​from the air­port and rail­road sta­tions. Be sure to check out the on-site Slip­pery Salmon Bar & Grill,…  ...more

Cer­ti­fied by the U.S. Track and Field Asso­ci­a­tion, this annu­al marathon is run against the gor­geous back­drop of the Alaskan wilder­ness. Peo­ple come from far and wide to par­tic­i­pate: all 50 states and some 15 coun­tries. And if you’re not up for the full 26.2, you can still be a part of it by run­ning the half-marathon, the 4- mile race, the 1.6‑mile youth race, or the marathon relay.

It’s impos­si­ble to dri­ve Tur­na­gain Arm with­out notic­ing the mas­sive green moun­tains on both sides of the Inlet. The hulk­ing moun­tain which dom­i­nates this stretch of road between Bird and Gird­wood is Pen­guin Peak​.In ear­ly Spring, avalanch­es thun­der down its slopes. Most years, the deposits are deep enough to shut down the high­way for hours, frus­trat­ing motorists. In sum­mer, the delays are of a more cheer­ful nature — as dri­vers stop to photograph…  ...more

Along a his­toric trav­el route that dates to the Gold Rush era, these four pub­lic use facil­i­ties offer peo­ple a flat walk to a seclud­ed river­ine wilder­ness only an hour walk from a trail­head that’s an easy dri­ve from town. Man­aged by the Eagle Riv­er Nature Cen­ter, the three yurts and one cab­in are per­fect those who want to hike and explore the Eagle Riv­er cor­ri­dor, known both for its wildlife — bald eagles, brown and black bear, moose — and  ...more

Don’t be fooled by the name of this park — you can’t actu­al­ly swim here. The beach was once a place for aquat­ic recre­ation, but now serves as a nice place to enjoy after­noon pic­nics and watch the air­planes take­off and land at Lake Hood, the world busiest float plane base. These float­planes can take you into remotes parts of Alas­ka to expe­ri­ence fish­ing, bear view­ing and sightseeing.

If you’d like to explore a snow-bound trail sys­tem through a majes­tic rain for­est that gets lit­tle vis­i­ta­tion in win­ter, try out Bird Val­ley in Chugach State Park south of Anchor­age off the Seward High­way. You and the fam­i­ly can stroll, ski, snow­shoe or snow-bike for hours through a serene and almost sur­re­al set­ting of tow­er­ing trees with an occa­sion­al stu­pen­dous view of Pen­guin Peak and Bird Ridge.

(907) 266‑2437 — South Ter­mi­nal; (907) 266‑2657 — North Terminal

Site Sum­mit, locat­ed in Arc­tic Val­ley at near­ly 4,000 feet atop Mt. Gor­don Lyon, was once home to a Nike Her­cules mis­sile bat­tery, part of the ​‘Rings of Steel’ mis­sile defense sys­tem that sur­round­ed major U.S. cities from pos­si­ble Sovi­et mis­sile attacks dur­ing the Cold War.

Near­ly 1,000 float­planes are parked all over the lake. Because Lake Hood sees about 200 dai­ly flight oper­a­tions, traf­fic could become rather busy. To pre­vent haz­ards on the water, the FAA has estab­lished traf­fic pat­terns so pilots can avoid inter­fer­ing with oth­er planes.

The robe is called the 1964 Earth­quake robe because it com­mem­o­rates the Good Fri­day earth­quake, which Rofkar expe­ri­enced first-hand.

Before we get start­ed, cari­bou and rein­deer are the same species. In Alas­ka we refer to domes­ti­cat­ed indi­vid­u­als in this group as rein­deer while a com­mon name used for their wild coun­ter­part is caribou.

Please check with your spe­cif­ic air­line’s tick­et counter cus­tomer ser­vice agent to request wheel­chair ser­vice for depart­ing flights.

This sculp­ture is based on the shape of a Kore­an tra­di­tion­al pago­da, har­mo­niz­ing two cities, Anchor­age and Incheon Met­ro­pol­i­tan City, Korea, in a noble statue.

If you need a cup or trav­el mug for your Alas­ka adven­tures, they also car­ry those, so you’ll be caf­feinat­ed and ready to go home or to the Last Frontier.

To enjoy a scenic dri­ve just a few min­utes from down­town Anchor­age, head north to mile 6.1 on the Glenn High­way. From here, you can head up the steep and wind­ing, Arc­tic Val­ley Road. The dri­ve itself is only 45 min­utes, but once you get there, you’ll want to spend more time pho­tograph­ing and exploring.

There are parks, play­grounds, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for salmon view­ing along the way. You may also see locals fish­ing or tak­ing a float down Camp­bell Creek when the water is high enough.

The Ship Creek Trail itself begins at the Alas­ka Rail­road depot on the north side of Anchor­age and trav­els east from down­town for 2.6 miles to end at Tyson Ele­men­tary School in the city’s Moun­tain View neigh­bor­hood. The paved trail fol­lows its name­sake creek for near­ly its entire length, cross­ing it a few times.

The bald eagle, our nation­al sym­bol, is stag­ing a come­back, from few­er than 3,999 birds (1,000 nest­ing pairs) ini the 1970’s to over 6,000 adults (3,000 nest­ing pairs) in the con­ter­mi­nous 48 states.

Old­er books might have referred to this as the old John­son Trail, but anoth­er trail of the same name on the Kenai Penin­su­la made it too con­fus­ing for them to both keep their names. This trail is the first of the trails avail­able for hik­ing in the spring. It fol­lows the high­way, with mild ele­va­tion gains to allow awe­some views of the Tur­na­gain Arm. 

This con­ve­nient earth­en bridge pass­es over two tun­nels, which allow dogsleds to cross the Camp­bell Creek Trail with­out tan­gling with bik­ers, skiers, or hik­ers, depend­ing on the season.

This is one spot you don’t want to miss. July through Sep­tem­ber you’ll wit­ness a spec­tac­u­lar run of Sil­ver Salmon. Fish­er­men from all over the world come into Alas­ka to cast a line here. There will be hun­dreds of peo­ple com­ing and going from Bird Creek on any giv­en day. In their hands will be the days boun­ty; a nice big sil­ver salmon that is deli­cious when smoked and even bet­ter when grilled and coat­ed with lemon and a hon­ey mus­tard glaze.…  ...more

The park was orig­i­nal­ly called McKin­ley View Park. In 1997 the com­mu­ni­ty request­ed the name be changed to Suzan Nightin­gale McK­ay Memo­r­i­al Park.

The dis­tinc­tive style of ivory carv­ing from Nuni­vak Island fea­tures styl­ized ani­mals, with pierced open­ings and min­i­mal red and black engraved features.

This new, log cab­in comes with an airy inte­ri­or space, a child-safe sleep­ing loft, two cov­ered porch­es and view of Eklut­na Lake. Locat­ed down a flat trail about 650 yards from year-round park­ing, the cab­in bal­ances a bit of soli­tude with easy access and ample recre­ation. Great for families.

This trail is a good one for run­ners with dogs. Dogs must be on a leash when on the trail and open fires are pro­hib­it­ed. This is a beau­ti­ful trail any time of year and is easy and a good trip for the whole fam­i­ly. Please be sure to avoid the water because there are beavers in the area and it is pos­si­ble to get beaver fever aka Giardiasis.

Locat­ed at the back of Eklut­na Lake, Seren­i­ty Falls is one of Alaska’s largest huts. With an enor­mous bank of win­dows fac­ing the falls and a moun­tain so high as to near­ly block the sky, the place feels as though you have crossed into the alpine realm. Yet it’s a rel­a­tive­ly easy 12-mile hike or bike along the wide, flat Eklut­na Lake­side Trail, mak­ing it a great choice for fam­i­lies with kids or large groups.

This project rep­re­sents Carther’s largest sin­gle piece yet under­tak­en. It con­sists of nine tow­ers of glass, col­lec­tive­ly adding up to 42 meters (130 feet) of span and reach­ing to 8 meters (26feet) at its high­est point.

Sky­cap ser­vices are not cur­rent­ly offered by any air­line; how­ev­er, porter ser­vices are avail­able to all pas­sen­gers on the depar­ture lev­el at the South Terminal.

Access to Abe’s Trail is via the Cal­i­for­na Creek/​Beaver Pond Trail North Access. This is a steep climb that affords nice views of the Cook Inlet and Gird­wood area.

The bronze Cap­tain Cook Mon­u­ment has the famed explor­er stand­ing on a large wood­en deck, look­ing out to sea — toward the route he used when he explored Cook Inlet in 1778 aboard HMS Res­o­lu­tion. Cap­tain Cook nev­er actu­al­ly reached Anchor­age, but he sent his ship’s mas­ter, William Bligh (known more famous­ly for his inspi­ra­tion of mutiny on the HMS Boun­ty). Cook failed to find the North­west Pas­sage in the inlet, so he was hap­py to leave the…  ...more

The pre­mier spot to view wild Dall sheep in Alas­ka (and maybe the whole con­ti­nent) looms over one of the state’s busiest high­ways only 20 miles south of Anchorage.

Dri­ving non-stop from Anchor­age to Homer would take a good 4.5−5 hours. How­ev­er, you’ll find plen­ty of rea­sons to pull over on the dri­ve south: Wildlife often appears along the road­side. Pull­outs offer pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of whales, waves, and vol­ca­noes. Trail­heads lead to fab­u­lous alpine and ocean views. Restau­rants offer lunch breaks beyond the usu­al fast-food fare. Enjoy­ing all the scenery and activ­i­ties along the way could eas­i­ly stretch this  ...more

It gets its name from the scores of young bik­ers who take part in the Nordic Ski Association’s ​“Mighty Bike” pro­gram dur­ing the summer.

Camp­bell Creek Park, these salmon-view­ing decks and walk­ways are a great place to spot bright red sock­eye and king salmon in mid to late July. You can access a small park­ing area at Folk­er Street & E 46^th or, of course, via the Camp­bell Creek Trail.

At its peak, the Inde­pen­dence hard-rock gold mine was home to 206 work­ers and 16 fam­i­lies who lived high above tree line. Dig­ging and blast­ing, these work­ers recov­ered 140,000 ounces of gold before the mine shut down in the wake of World War II. There are 1.5 miles of paved walk­ways through­out the site, with infor­ma­tion­al plac­ards for a self-guid­ed tour. 

Sylvester is a sculp­tor with art­work in per­ma­nent col­lec­tions in Anchor­age and at the Smithsonian.

Café Del Mun­do uses high-qual­i­ty cof­fee beans from Kenya, Suma­tra and Columbia.

This sec­tion of trail used to be known as the ​“Ridge Trail,” and has some of the best view­points of both the Chugach Moun­tains and Cook Inlet.

This ath­let­ic cen­ter in down­town Anchor­age’s Hotel Cap­tain Cook offers sep­a­rate work­out facil­i­ties for men and women, as well as sep­a­rate steam, sauna, sun room and lounges. Shared facil­i­ties include pool, Jacuzzi, rac­quet­ball courts, aer­o­bics room and cir­cuit train­ing room. From 6 am to 8 pm, the Club offers fit­ness and yoga class­es, and guests can also book Swedish, sports or deep-tis­sue mas­sages. Hours 6am to 8pm dai­ly. For hotel guests, or…  ...more

Enjoy atten­tive ser­vice and fun, com­mu­nal seat­ing options at this Asian Fusion find tucked away in the Alyeska Resort. Sushi lovers will appre­ci­ate the cre­ativ­i­ty and qual­i­ty of the menu, but will also be tempt­ed by the ben­to box­es, steak, and lob­ster offerings!

A squir­rel’s diet con­sists of seeds, conifer cones, nuts, fruits, and fun­gi. They occa­sion­al­ly feed on inver­te­brates and small ver­te­brates, such as insects, bird eggs and baby birds.

This sec­tion of trail cuts along the back side of the Kin­caid Sand Dunes, an area that is open to ATV use from Wednes­day through Sunday.

This doll by Car­o­line Penayah is wear­ing the tra­di­ton­al one-piece gar­ment called a Qal­l­e­vak worn by women and chil­dren of Saint Lawrence Island.

The Idi­tar­od Nation­al His­toric Trail is Alaska’s sole Nation­al His­toric Trail. This net­work of 2,300-mile win­ter trails evolved to con­nect Alaskan Native vil­lages, estab­lished the dog-team mail and sup­ply route dur­ing Alaska’s Gold Rush, and now serves as a vital recre­ation and trav­el link.

For a while in the 1990s, planes weren’t the only winged things tak­ing off from the lake. Swarms of water­fowl would inter­fere with flight oper­a­tions in and out of the air­port. A task force in charge of reduc­ing the bird pop­u­la­tion tried many expen­sive options, but final­ly found a sim­ple solu­tion. They put three farm pigs — named Curly, Lar­ry, and Moe — on the island that sep­a­rates the Take­off and Taxi Lanes, to destroy as many nests and devour as…  ...more

But­ton robes are among the most vis­i­ble and impor­tant cer­e­mo­ni­al gar­ments worn by peo­ples of the North­west Coast. These wool blan­ket fab­ric robes have a promi­nent crest on the back and are made by artists up and down the coast from Wash­ing­ton to Alaska.

Locat­ed on the third floor of The Hotel Alyeska, at the top of the Grand Stair­case, the Auro­ra Bar & Grill offers great views and great drinks. Alas­ka Amber is $5, Bai­leys and cof­fee is $7. The wide selec­tion of sin­gle-malt scotch starts at $7 for Sheep Dip and shoots up to $32 for 25-year-old Macallan. While not exact­ly a locals’ hang­out, it’s the sec­ond-best place to meet peo­ple who don’t live in Gird­wood. (The best place is the hot tub…  ...more

Hoover had become known for mask­like trip­tych pan­els that unfold to show hid­den rela­tion­ships between humans, ani­mals and the world of spirits.

Out­door farm­ers mar­ket in the park­ing area of the North­way Mall

The Atwood Mil­i­tary Lounge is open dai­ly from 0800 to 2400. Mil­i­tary I.D. is required. Snacks, drinks and a play­room for chil­dren are avail­able. For more infor­ma­tion call (907) 248‑2535 or email asymcalounge@​yahoo.​com.

Ready for a chal­lenge? Though tech­ni­cal­ly not part of the sin­gle track com­plex, this long trail in Kin­caid Park snakes along the edge of the bluff, and is best rid­den only by advanced bik­ers. The views are stun­ning at points, but with tall grass, logs, and roots crowd­ing the trail it’s best to keep your eyes on the busi­ness at hand. Take care not to slide off the edge on a few sandy sec­tions where more than one expe­ri­enced bik­er has slipped…  ...more

Made of Win­ter bleached seal­skin and seal intestine.

This is a series of pieces by Dana Bous­sard. The series con­tins a total of 14 paint­ed and pieced car­pet pan­els, each depict­ing a dif­fer­ent ani­mal but all have a sim­i­lar ​‘U’ shaped design ele­ment at the bottom.

Take the trail on the right hand side of the road a mile or two before Alpen­glow Ski resort. The area is forest­ed and heads down­ward two miles pri­or to reach­ing Ship Creek. There is a branch that goes straight and fol­lows the road that many kids use for sled­ding in the win­ter, and it will take you to the Arc­tic Val­ley road in a cou­ple of miles where par­ents await to pick them up. How­ev­er, hik­ers take a left after a mile and this trail…  ...more

Made of alder wood, com­mer­cial paint, cop­per, abolone

Fair­banks, Alaska’s sec­ond-largest city, is a for­mer gold-rush town with a cut­ting-edge uni­ver­si­ty-and it still holds onto its fierce­ly inde­pen­dent roots. Tour old gold mines, take a his­toric river­boat cruise, or just wan­der around downtown.

Moose are the largest mem­ber of the deer fam­i­ly, and the Alaskan Yukon Moose is the largest of the moose fam­i­ly. At birth, calves typ­i­cal­ly weigh approx­i­mate­ly 25 pounds.

The Knik Glac­i­er snakes out of the Chugach Moun­tains, tum­bling into an ice­berg-stud­ded lake that feeds the Knik Riv­er. Expe­ri­ence the glac­i­er up close on an ATV tour from Palmer, or a flight­see­ing trip (with option­al land­ings on or near the glac­i­er) from Anchor­age or Palmer. Flights are as short as 90 min­utes round-trip, mak­ing it one of the most acces­si­ble and impres­sive glac­i­ers from Anchorage. 

This trail is one of many that make up the Hill­side Trail System.

In the cold and dark heart of win­ter, in the slight­ly twist­ed, yet bril­liant mind of a local DJ, an ember slow­ly burned. How long, how hot, who knows? What we do know is that the ember grew into a flame and once released, grew legs, antlers and much more…A leg­end was born. In a small office, not far away, a com­mu­ni­ty fes­ti­val strug­gled. After stag­ger­ing debt was paid off thanks to com­mu­ni­ty sup­port, it was time to give Rondy back to the…  ...more

The Alas­ka Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Cen­ter is also home to a vari­ety of birds.

This clear­ing at the edge of town once func­tioned as a fire­break between Anchor­age and its neigh­bor­ing for­est. At oth­er times, it act­ed as an airstrip, a golf course and even a makeshift hous­ing devel­op­ment, when peo­ple lived here dur­ing the 1940s boom in apart­ments cre­at­ed out of old bar­racks. Today the Park Strip — just one block wide but 13 blocks long — is home to ball fields, a gym, ice rink and a giant steam…  ...more

Elk were orig­i­nal­ly brought up in the 1920’s as a herd­able & ranch­able ani­mal. Our re-intro­duc­to­ry efforts took place in the 1950’s, and were large­ly unsuc­cess­ful on the main land of Alaska.

If you only have a lit­tle expe­ri­ence doing off-trail hik­ing, then this scenic 5‑miler will help you get a bit more under your belt. Begin­ning on Rab­bit Creek Trail, in the Front Range just above Anchor­age, this hike vis­its a sur­pris­ing­ly expan­sive and scenic plateau that remains hid­den from sight until you actu­al­ly climb to it. 

This water tow­er is the most dis­tin­guish­able land­mark in the Gov­ern­ment Hill neigh­bor­hood. You can see it from down­town, stand­ing well above any oth­er sur­round­ing struc­tures. A lit­tle bit of insid­er triv­ia: the tow­er no longer sup­plies water but is used today as a radio tower.

The name says it all – dur­ing the win­ter months at least. The trail is off lim­its once snow flies, but as soon as the snow is gone in the spring, recre­ate to your heart’s con­tent. This net­work of win­ter­time dog mush­ing trails offers a wide array of options through­out the sum­mer. With a lit­tle cre­ativ­i­ty you can put togeth­er out­ings from 1.4 to 12+ miles. Do be aware that mush­ers some­times train their teams here with wheeled bug­gies. If you…  ...more

To explore the road less trav­eled, take the Old Glenn High­way to Palmer, a back road that feels like old Alas­ka. This 19-mile coun­try road cuts through the heart of Alaska’s farm­land and is a scenic, qui­et alter­na­tive between Anchor­age and Palmer. The road access­es state parks and recre­ation areas, pet­ting zoos, and hik­ing trails and pass­es through pic­turesque ter­rain: pas­toral coun­try­side beneath the Chugach Moun­tains and Pio­neer Peak. The…  ...more

Cre­at­ed by a local high school stu­dent as his Eagle Scout project, this scale mod­el of our solar sys­tem is a great way to explore Anchor­age. Tak­ing the walk, you expe­ri­ence the rel­a­tive size of the plan­ets and their dis­tance from the Sun. The scale was cho­sen so that a leisure­ly walk­ing pace mim­ics the speed of light. On this scale, each step equals the dis­tance light trav­els in one sec­ond (300,000 kilo­me­ters or 186,000 miles). It should…  ...more

The col­laged imagery poet­i­cal­ly depicts real land­scapes and both nat­ur­al and man-made ele­ments of the environment.

Denise Wal­lace’s jew­lery, with its mov­able and con­cealed parts, draws on the thems of con­cel­ment, awak­en­ing, and transformation.

Part of the Abbott Trail Sys­tem, this is a well-defined access trail that drops before cross­ing the South Fork Camp­bell Creek and inter­sect­ing with the Spencer Loop. (Go left, cycling clockwise.)

Acces­si­ble from both the Camp­bell Creek Green­belt Trail and Lake Otis Park­way, this cen­tral­ly locat­ed park got a seri­ous facelift to its play­ground in 2013.

This may be Anchorage’s most eccen­tric park: It’s home to a beguil­ing mix of ten­nis courts, the Anchor­age Curl­ing Club, and a Square Dance Club.

W on D st., right on Loop Rd, left on Otter Lake Rd

Locat­ed at the Anchor­age Air­port, Nor­ton Sound Seafood House is your last chance before board­ing for Alaskan salmon, hal­ibut, or king crab, fresh in sea­son. Pre-secu­ri­ty din­ing area draws a local crowd.

Park­ing at Ted Stevens Anchor­age Inter­na­tion­al Air­port is pro­vid­ed by Repub­lic Park­ing. Cred­it and Check cards are now accept­ed as pay­ment for park­ing fees at the Airport.

This is part of the Hill­side Trail Sys­tem. It is one of the trails that is groomed for ski­ing in win­ter. You can access this trail via the Pow­er­line, Gasline, Denali View, and Gold­en Grass Trails.

Due to its unique archi­tec­ture, this has been called the ​“Upside Down Build­ing.” Notice how the pipes on the out­side sup­port the invert­ed struc­ture. The float­plane take­off lane is right in front of the build­ing, and there’s pub­lic park­ing, mak­ing this a con­ve­nient place to watch planes take off and land.

This is a pop­u­lar stop as you trav­el the Seward High­way. Here you’ll find 180 degree views of Tur­na­gain Arm with spot­ting scopes and inter­pre­tive signs. Look for bel­u­ga whales rolling in the surf, often seen from mid-July to August fol­low­ing the salmon run. And, try and catch the bore tide, and incom­ing tide that stretch­es the entire width of Tur­na­gain Arm and can be up to six feet high.

In the 1940s and 50s, the men work­ing in the coal, oil and lum­ber indus­tries around Alas­ka had only one place to come spend their mon­ey and blow off steam: 4^th Avenue, where the string of drink­ing estab­lish­ments became known as the world’s longest bar (a nick­name, leg­end has it, giv­en by a vis­it­ing Bob Hope). Also mak­ing its home on the street is a log cab­in cre­at­ed in Homer dur­ing the 1950s, which was imme­di­ate­ly tak­en down and reassem­bled in…  ...more

Three Anchor­age artists were asked to paint their ​‘vison’ of what the Anchor­age Air­port of the Future would look like.

Your best ref­er­ence for deter­min­ing if an item is allow­able is to vis­it the TSA Web­site which specif­i­cal­ly out­lines what can and can­not be tak­en on your flight.

Reach­ing the sum­mit of Avalanche Moun­tain takes a con­sid­er­able amount of effort: a 5.5‑mile hike up Pow­er­line Trail fol­lowed by a 1.5‑mile off-trail scram­ble. But this 3,200-foot climb — which begins at the Glen Alps park­ing area, just 10 miles from down­town Anchor­age — takes no moun­taineer­ing skills. If you feel at all com­fort­able hik­ing and climb­ing over some loose stones and boul­ders, you should find this to be a very grat­i­fy­ing adventure.  ...more

Alas­ka has des­ig­nat­ed a One Per­cent for the Art Pro­gram, mean­ing 1% of all pub­lic con­struc­tion bud­gets is being spent on pub­lic art installations.

This Anchor­age library is much more than a spot for locals to check out books — it’s one of the most spec­tac­u­lar build­ings in Anchor­age and a true des­ti­na­tion for vis­i­tors. With a large sec­tion of Alaskana, gor­geous art­work, and numer­ous events, it’s a great place for trav­el­ers to get a bet­ter sense of the state. Free wi-fi, pub­lic com­put­ers, and lap­tops for rent offer are oth­er resources you can find here.

This is part of the Hill­side Trail Sys­tem and is open all year long. This is one of the Hill­side trails that is groomed for ski­ing. It is a short con­nec­tive trail and there is access to it via the Pow­er­line, Gasline, South Fork Rim, Blue­ber­ry Hol­low, and Denali View Trails.

For an easy, scenic walk in Anchor­age, check out the Chester Creek Trail. The 4‑mile-long path, which runs from Westch­ester Lagoon to Goose Lake, is not only flat, but also paved, mak­ing for an easy stroll. And though it pass­es close to neigh­bor­hoods, the trail is part of the city’s ​“green­belt” — a wood­ed area that makes you feel like you’ve left the city behind.

Video, audio and rare arti­facts con­verge to cre­ate an unfor­get­table overview of Alas­ka Native cul­ture. Mar­vel at 600 Alas­ka Native objects on loan from the Smith­son­ian Insti­tu­tion, includ­ing a Tlin­git warrior’s hel­met, Inu­pi­aq whale hunt­ing tools, and a hand-sewn Yup’ik par­ka made from 93 ground squir­rels. Hear Alas­ka Native lan­guages and see glimpses of con­tem­po­rary life.

One of the most pop­u­lar fam­i­ly sled runs in Anchor­age yawns down the hill just north of the Kin­caid Out­door Cen­ter chalet. Built beside berms that once pro­vid­ed tac­ti­cal cov­er for activ­i­ty in a 1950s mis­sile base, the sled area includes some steep drops into a gul­ly on the back­side. This decent­ly long run fea­tures stun­ning views of Denali and the Alas­ka Range on clear days.

This com­fort­able bud­get hotel offers four lev­els of rooms, from basic sin­gles to large suites per­fect for fam­i­lies. With all, you’ll get a per­son­al and local expe­ri­ence – plus you’ll be locat­ed just a short walk to Lake Hood, home to the world’s largest float­plane base.

Mid­town Anchor­age is locat­ed between the Air­port and Down­town Anchor­age, there­fore this hotel gives you con­ve­nient access to both. The stu­dio suites are ful­ly equipped with a refrig­er­a­tor, cof­fee mak­er, and microwave. Dur­ing your down time, enjoy the indoor pool and fit­ness center.

Set in the heart of down­town, this afford­able home base puts you with­in walk­ing dis­tance of the city’s attrac­tions for a great price. Return to the hotel restau­rant for South­ern-inspired food and live music on the weekends.

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

Bas­ket­ball is big in Alas­ka, whether you’re in Anchor­age or the small­est vil­lage. The Old City Gym, where the Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter is now, was where all the action used to be, and dur­ing Fur Ron­dezvous it would play host to a statewide bas­ket­ball tournament. 

This Springhill Suites sits at the edge of Uni­ver­si­ty Lake, sur­round­ed by for­est and the Chugach Moun­tains in the dis­tance. It is easy to for­get you are in the city at all. The hotel itself has a style that is both mod­ern and earthy, and the rooms are almost 25 per­cent larg­er than the aver­age hotel room. From your hotel, explore Anchorage’s miles of paved walk­ing and bik­ing paths. There is com­pli­men­ta­ry shut­tle ser­vice to near­by hos­pi­tals and  ...more

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

The non-prof­it Alas­ka Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry fills a spe­cial need for sci­ence edu­ca­tion in Alas­ka. No oth­er orga­ni­za­tion in the state edu­cates exclu­sive­ly on Alaska’s unique geo­log­i­cal, cul­tur­al, and eco­log­i­cal his­to­ry. Largest exhibits of rocks, min­er­als and excit­ing rare fos­sils in the state. Learn about North Amer­i­ca’s old­est duck­bill dinosaur found in the local Tal­keet­na Moun­tains, as well as our major dinosaur dis­cov­er­ies of the 90s.…  ...more

Access the Beaver Dam Trail across Camp­bell Airstrip Rd from the Camp­bell Tract park­ing area. You’ll head off into a for­est of ancient aspen trees and shoul­der height rose bush­es. This is a favorite hang­out spot for the local moose because the browse is so acces­si­ble. Dur­ing late sum­mer and into the fall you’ll also find copi­ous amounts of rose­hips, an abun­dant nat­ur­al vit­a­min C ​‘pill’. Min­ers were known to eat a hip or two a day to ward off…  ...more

Vis­it and snug­gle real Idi­tar­od sled dogs with their mush­er on this unique sum­mer­time tour. After tour­ing their ken­nel, you’ll har­ness up and explore trails along Gird­wood’s moun­tains which offer spec­tac­u­lar views while your guide offers fas­ci­nat­ing gold min­ing his­to­ry in the area.

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

It’s hard to under­state the impact of the oil indus­try on Alaska’s econ­o­my. Look­ing at the down­town Anchor­age sky­line many of the tallest build­ings were built by oil com­pa­nies, includ­ing Alaska’s tallest build­ing, the Cono­coPhillips building. 

Feel the excite­ment of the world-famous Fur Ren­dezvous Dog Sled Races with May­or Dan Sul­li­van. The 60’s were an excit­ing time for Rondy races, with leg­ends George Att­la and Ronald Lom­bard bat­tling for first place year after year.

Get around Anchor­age like the locals — take Peo­ple Mover! These clean, reli­able bus­es are an easy and inex­pen­sive way to get to and from the air­port or around town to see the hot spots.

This afford­able small inn in down­town Anchor­age is a great perch for explor­ing the city at a relaxed pace. Locat­ed just steps away from the rail­road depot, there’s no need for a car — you can walk to shops and gal­leries, the Anchor­age Muse­um, or the week­ly Anchor­age Mar­ket & Fes­ti­val. You have easy access to the hik­ing and bik­ing on the scenic Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, or can walk down the bluff to the train depot and the Ship Creek area,…  ...more

An archery range with tar­gets open to the pubic winds through for­est about a quar­ter mile from the Kin­caid Sta­di­um off Rasp­ber­ry Road, with entrances off the for­mer World Cup Start Area. The facil­i­ty also fea­tures sev­er­al tar­get ranges open only to mem­bers of the local archery organization.

This down­town Anchor­age insti­tu­tion stores and process­es salmon, hal­ibut, crab, shrimp and more. They can smoke, can, or freeze your own catch­es for the trip home, or you can pick up fresh or frozen gourmet gift packs from their retail counter. On request they can also delay ship­ment until you’re back home.

Scores of opti­mistic gold prospec­tors stam­ped­ed north to Alas­ka after 1880, see­ing the Last Fron­tier as a place of poten­tial wealth, great adven­ture and a sec­ond chance. Extract­ing gold from Alaska’s rugged ter­rain amid bru­tal ele­ments was hard work — and could be dead­ly for the unpre­pared. This exhib­it tells min­ers’ sto­ries using pho­tographs, arti­facts and, of course, gold.

With a lob­by designed to resem­ble a lodge, and staffers who have been here since its open­ing in 1999, this hotel feels very local despite being part of the nation­al chain.

After a very short peri­od of pas­sen­ger ser­vice these large sin­gle pilot air­craft paved the way for car­go oper­a­tions through­out Alas­ka. This Pil­grim hauled every­thing from cat­tle into the Mat-Su Val­ley, asphalt for build­ing run­ways dur­ing WWII and fish totes off the beach­es enroute to the canneries.

This all-suite, extend­ed-stay hotel offers space and ameni­ties that make it great for famil­lies. There’s even a gro­cery-shop­ping ser­vice avail­able to stock your fridge. And from Mon­day-Thurs­day you’ll find an evening recep­tion offer­ing light din­ner and free beer and wine.

You’ll find 24-hour ser­vice and any­thing you need to feel at home at this new­ly redesigned 148-suite hotel in mid­town Anchor­age. Here, you’ll be close to both the air­port and down­town, as well as the locals’ favorite ski slopes at Hill­top (which offers year-long recre­ation­al options). Also enjoy an indoor pool and whirlpool, plus an exer­cise room.

Sen­a­tor Mark Begich, who’s wife owns the Kim­ball Build­ing, recounts the his­to­ry of this his­toric build­ing and what Anchor­age was like back in the ​“tent city” days, as well as how Anchor­age has grown. 

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

In Alas­ka, most whale species don’t have teeth. Instead they grow up to 13-feet-long ker­atin plates, or baleen, which act like a giant sieve to cap­ture plank­ton. Iñu­pi­aq whalers dis­cov­ered the won­der­ful prop­er­ties of this stur­dy, frost-resis­tant mate­r­i­al. They used heat or urine to soft­en the baleen, then turned it into fish­ing nets, lash­ing and sled run­ners. Sleds like this ear­ly 20^th cen­tu­ry ver­sion were used to trans­port seals from icepack…  ...more

This is a flat and easy trail. There is no bridge at South Fork Eagle Riv­er like you would expect. This is a nice ski trail as well. The trails con­tin­ue on to the oppo­site side of river.

The trail­head to this Abbott Trail Sys­tem route is locat­ed near the top of Abbott Road. The first is behind Ser­vice High School at the east end of the oval run­ning track. Stay on the dirt trails and cycle counterclockwise. 

This small-town cof­fee shop fea­tures couch­es, com­fort­able tables, and a fire­place, along with top-qual­i­ty cof­fee, tea, and baked goods. It’s def­i­nite­ly a local hang­out: friends chat, teens do their home­work, and the baris­tas know most everyone.

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

New York artist Rock­well Kent and his 9‑year-old son spent the win­ter of 1918 on Fox Island near Seward. They were thrust out of their com­fort zone, liv­ing in a goat shel­ter that was a 12-mile boat ride from the near­est vil­lage. Kent paint­ed this scene near­ly 50 years lat­er from sketch­es of that adven­ture. The redemp­tive glow of the sun and two human fig­ures reflect his emo­tion­al jour­ney in the Alas­ka wilderness.

Anchor­age is used to deal­ing with all kinds of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, from earth­quakes and vol­ca­noes to snow­storms and for­est fires. But Sep­tem­ber 11, 2001 brought with it new chal­lenges, includ­ing a Kore­an air­plane head­ing to Anchor­age broad­cast­ing a sig­nal say­ing they were hijacked. Then-may­or George Wuerch describes the city’s response. 

Din­ers at Anchorage’s two Olive Gar­den loca­tions find a wel­com­ing ​“fam­i­ly-around-the-kitchen-table” atmos­phere and deli­cious Ital­ian cui­sine: famous but­tery bread­sticks, zesty sal­ad, soups, and both mod­ern and tra­di­tion­al entrees. These north­ern-most Olive Gar­den restau­rants are some of the few that also fea­ture Alas­ka salmon. On the go? Olive Gar­den also fea­tures online to-go order­ing and catering.

Great, local Anchor­age book store that is also stocked with a stel­lar selec­tion of used DVDs and Blu-Rays, and thou­sands of CDs and LPs. In front, they have a huge Alas­ka sec­tion. Grab hik­ing books, Alas­ka his­to­ry, nov­els writ­ten by Alaskan authors and more.

Inu­pi­aq artist James Kive­toruk Moses grew up hunt­ing, trap­ping and work­ing as a rein­deer herder. In 1953, a knee injury made his tra­di­tion­al sub­sis­tence lifestyle impos­si­ble, so he began his cel­e­brat­ed art career. This paint­ing illus­trates a dance com­pe­ti­tion between two men dur­ing Mes­sen­ger Feast, a month-long festival.

Step into the under­world of Anchor­age — a hid­den gath­er­ing of ghosts and spir­its — on this walk­ing tour through some of the city’s most haunt­ed sites. It’s the most unsu­al per­spec­tive you can get of Alaska’s largest metropolis.

Run­ning through the heart of Gird­wood, Glac­i­er Creek is a pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion. You can fish, pack­raft, or sim­ply stop and admire the view on your walk through Gird­wood. You can also take the Gird­wood por­tion of the Idi­tar­od Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Trail along­side the creek. Most of the fish you’ll find in Glac­i­er Creek are Pink, Coho, and King Salmon. You might also find some Steel­head Trout and Dol­ly Varden.  ...more

The nation­wide ice cream chain has sev­er­al loca­tions in Anchor­age and one in Eagle Riv­er. You’ll find the same great ice cream here, made fresh on site with cre­ative fla­vors. It’s a treat on hot sum­mer days and even in sub-zero winters!

Once you cross over the creek, you can go over the ridge (steep but fast) or around to left.

You’ll find this hotel stocked with ameni­ties like a concierge ser­vice, an on-site restau­rant with room ser­vice, and a full-ser­vice bar. Stay on the upper floors for some great moun­tain views. 

With a check-out time of 1pm and accom­mo­da­tions for late-night check-ins, this hotel offers com­fort and flex­i­bil­i­ty. Plus, you’ll be locat­ed just min­utes from the airport.

Not only is the Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter a world-class per­for­mance hall for music, plays and opera, but it also is where may­or Dan Sul­li­van was sworn into office. Join him on stage with his father, for­mer may­or George Sul­li­van, and every oth­er liv­ing mayor. 

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

The designs on the six columns sup­port­ing the atri­um ceil­ing are inspired by an ancient Yupik Eski­mo arrow quiver, dis­cov­ered on Kodi­ak Island in 1850 and now dis­played in a Dan­ish muse­um. The geo­met­ric designs by the Ptarmi­gan Grill on the first floor lob­by are based on a motif found on a Tlin­git rat­tle top basket.

Hill­top Ski Area is locat­ed just 15 min­utes from down­town Anchor­age; this 30-acre win­ter recre­ation­al area offers plen­ty of win­ter sports options. With a base ele­va­tion of 486 feet, Hill­top gets between 12 and 30 inch­es of nat­ur­al snow annu­al­ly (in addi­tion to man­made snow). About 80 per­cent of its trails are rat­ed easy, 10 per­cent inter­me­di­ate, and 10 per­cent advanced. So grab your skis or snow­board and hit the slopes.

It’s more than just a ride when you trav­el with Seward Bus Lines. Their trips to Seward and Whit­ti­er offer con­ve­nient con­nec­tions for cruise ship pas­sen­gers-sav­ing them about 50% of what tran­sit would cost through cruise­lines. They have 14-pas­sen­ger vans and larg­er, 22-pas­sen­ger bus­es, with room for two pieces of checked bag­gage and one car­ry­on. Extra lug­gage is $5 a piece. Seward Bus Lines has dai­ly depar­tures to Seward in the sum­mer and run…  ...more

Explore down­town Anchor­age of the late 60’s, a time when JC Pen­ney was the cool new hang­out and the lights of the city faci­nat­ed a young Mark Begich. Fol­low him as he explores down­town with his camera.

This pan­el depicts the Yupik Eski­mo leg­end of a huge eagle bear­ing a native hunter on a jour­ney. The pan­el was designed from an orig­i­nal, which hangs in the State Muse­um of Alas­ka in Juneau. James Kive­toruk Moses, an Eski­mo artist, was born in 1900 in Cape Espensberg.

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

15 sto­ries of unob­struct­ed views….This is IT. Just blocks from down­town Anchor­age, the Inlet Tow­er Hotel and Suites is your door­way to down­town. Our icon­ic high rise prop­er­ty fea­tures breath­tak­ing views of the Chugach Range, Cook Inlet, and Anchorage.

Phone: 907−243−4118 Address: 6121 S Air­park Place, Anchor­age, AK Hours: Mon — Sat 5:30am — 2:00am

This com­fort­able 128-room hotel close to the air­port is a sol­id choice for those arriv­ing to or depart­ing from Anchor­age. Plus, you’ll be close to Lake Hood, the world’s largest float­plane base.

Con­ve­nient shut­tle pro­vid­ing trans­porta­tion from mid-town area hotels to the Log Cab­in Vis­i­tor Cen­ter in Down­town Anchorage.

22.4 acre­sOpen space.

Sit down to a pleas­ant meal in the Juno restau­rant or enjoy a cock­tail before turn­ing in for the night. Chef Alex pre­pares Alaskan and Amer­i­can bistro fare, and their seafood chow­der, salmon melt sand­wich and cobb sal­ad are pop­u­lar with locals. The restau­rant serves break­fast, lunch, and dinner.

Site Sum­mit, locat­ed in Arc­tic Val­ley at near­ly 4,000 feet atop Mt. Gor­don Lyon, was once home to a Nike Her­cules mis­sile bat­tery, part of the ​‘Rings of Steel’ mis­sile defense sys­tem that sur­round­ed major U.S. cities from pos­si­ble Sovi­et mis­sile attacks dur­ing the Cold War. Acti­vat­ed in 1959, the bat­tery was home to the sur­face-to-air Nikes and the Sol­diers who main­tained them until 1979, when the mis­siles became obso­lete and the site, one…  ...more

Whether you’re book­end­ing your cruise with a few nights in Anchor­age, or mak­ing the city your launch­ing pad for adven­tures in the Kenai Penin­su­la and beyond, this most­ly-suites hotel offers reli­a­bil­i­ty, con­ve­nience and an easy walk to one of the most charm­ing parts of the city. Free 24-hour shut­tle to and from the air­port or the train station.

Road-trip­ping across Alas­ka makes for an epic vaca­tion — and that ​“epic” fac­tor just goes up when you do your trip in a clas­sic VW bus from this Anchor­age-based oper­a­tor. Out­fit­ted with many of the home-on-wheels com­forts of a tra­di­tion­al RV, these rentals offer a nim­ble way to road trip.

Stop by Griz­zly’s Gifts for a wide selec­tion of Alaskan prod­ucts; Ulu knives, T‑shirts, stuffed ani­mals, and more.

This short wood­en bridge cross­es a pop­u­lar salmon fish­ing creek. Down­riv­er you’ll see deep chan­nels that the creek has carved into the mud flats. In late sum­mer, salmon migrate up to the estu­ary to spawn.

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

Out­side is a sled dog stat­ue des­ig­nat­ing the start­ing line of the Rondy World Cham­pi­onship Sled Dog Races and the Idi­tar­od, but don’t stop there — step inside to the Dog Mush­ing Hall of Fame & Rondy Head­quar­ters! Learn about the state Sport of Alas­ka that has cap­ti­vat­ed the world for decades: his­to­ry, races, dogs and mush­ers. Check out con­tem­po­rary high tech sprint sleds, hand-made wood­en sleds or freight sleds once used by Arctic…  ...more

Two small air­line com­pa­nies began oper­a­tions near­ly 80 years ago and grew into the world class air­line known today as Alas­ka Air­lines. This exhib­it speaks to the per­se­ver­ance and per­sis­tence of those ear­ly avi­a­tion com­pa­nies to over­come obsta­cles and deal with the unusu­al­ly harsh Arc­tic envi­ron­ment to pro­vide ser­vice to com­mu­ni­ties through­out Alaska.

Alas­ka Moun­taineer­ing and Hik­ing (AMH) is an Anchor­age insti­tu­tion that has been in busi­ness for over 30 years. AMH, offers a large selec­tion of out­er­wear and base lay­ers that are designed for tough win­ter con­di­tions. These are the guys who out­fit climbers seek­ing to sum­mit Denali, so they are experts.

This is the place begin­ner rock climbers go to practice.

Phone: 907−562−4595 Address: West­over Avenue Build­ing 5800, Elmen­dorf, AK (base access required) Hours: Mon-Sat 9am — 7pm, Sun 10am — 7pm 

The Muse­um’s P‑40 is a true bat­tle­field arti­fact with the foren­sic evi­dence main­tained as it was on that fate­ful day, June 4, 1942 when the Japan­ese Impe­r­i­al Navy attacked the Aleut­ian Islands. This air­craft marks the begin­ning of a 15 month bat­tle by US and Cana­di­an Forces to regain con­trol of the Aleut­ian Islands from the invad­ing Japan­ese forces.

Enjoy down­town’s best view of Denali and learn about how vital the Port of Anchor­age is to the city and the state. Whether it is the cars we dri­ve, the food we eat or the clothes we wear, almost 80% of Anchor­age’s goods come via the port. 

Open play­field, nature trails for walk­ing in the sum­mer and ski­ing and ski­jor­ing in the winter

This 148-room hotel offers the con­ve­nience of stay­ing near the air­port and more. The recent­ly redesigned lob­by offers cof­fee, media pods, and a cock­tail bar so you can relax and recharge. There is also an onsite restau­rant that serves break­fast and din­ner called The Bistro. You’re also only a few min­utes away from great hik­ing and bik­ing trails so get­ting out­doors is easy. 

This is part of the Abbott Trail Sys­tem. The trail­head is the north­ern park­ing lot of the Hill­top Down­hill Ski Area. To enter the Spencer Loop, cycle down a dirt road and take the sec­ond trail to the right.

Every Fri­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day in sum­mer, more than 100 ven­dors sell a wide vari­ety of Alaskan-made goods and food from all over the world. Whether you’re in the mar­ket for a valu­able keep­sake or a last-minute sou­venir, you’ll like­ly find what you want here. You’ll find sou­venir T‑shirts, furs, painters and pho­tog­ra­phers sell­ing their work, hand­made jew­el­ry, and more. Music and dance per­for­mances keep the mar­ket lively.

Learn about marine ani­mals from South­east Alas­ka waters. Fea­tured crea­tures include the sun­flower sea star, which is the largest and swiftest sea star in the north Pacif­ic Ocean — they can scut­tle 5 to 10 feet per minute. The touch tank is just one of 80 sci­ence exhibits in the hands-on Imag­i­nar­i­um Dis­cov­ery Center.

Show off your adven­tur­ous Alaskan vaca­tion to every­one back home. Just grab your cam­era – whether stand-alone or cell phone – and Pic­Tours Alas­ka will shut­tle you to cool spots in and around Anchor­age. Get pho­to tips, light up social media with fab self­ies, and have a fun, engag­ing time with the whole family.

See Anchor­age in a whole new way aboard the only par­ty bike in Alas­ka! Ride this unique, open-air vehi­cle, and take in the city by your­self or in a group. It’s elec­tric and per­fect for most age and abil­i­ty lev­els so ped­al or sit back and relax with food and drinks you bring or pick up along the tour.

The Wild­flower is easy walk­ing dis­tance from all the sights, shops and restau­rants of down­town Anchor­age. The 1940s home is a white, two-sto­ry salt­box house with three col­or­ful lodg­ing options: two suites, and one stan­dard room.

Delaney Park Strip, in down­town Anchor­age, is a great place to fly a kite, play fris­bee or soft­ball, or even ride a dog sled in the win­ter. But in Anchor­age’s ear­ly years it was used as an airstrip. Lis­ten to the sto­ry of how an enter­pris­ing bi-plane pilot repur­posed it as such and in 1997 retraced a his­toric flight to Fair­banks that occured exact­ly 70 years prior. 

You know you’re in Alas­ka when you can watch anglers catch salmon just behind your hotel. This prop­er­ty, with­in walk­ing dis­tance of the rail­road depot and trails for strolling, as well a heat­ed indoor pool and exer­cise room.

Robert James Shop­pert, a Tlin­git Indi­an artist, was born in Juneau, Alas­ka in 1947. Schop­pert drew his inspi­ra­tion from Eski­mo and Tlin­git art tra­di­tions, often choos­ing sur­re­al or con­tem­po­rary inter­pre­ta­tion over the more tra­di­tion­al native style. Schop­pert was the art coor­di­na­tor for all the art of the Sher­a­ton Anchor­age Hotel. His com­mis­sioned works are in many pub­lic build­ings through­out Alas­ka and the Pacif­ic Northwest.

This local­ly owned bou­tique hotel fea­tures spa­cious rooms and a south Anchor­age loca­tion near a large shop­ping mall and restau­rants. You’ll also be in a great loca­tion if you’re head­ed toward Gird­wood, Seward, or oth­er points south.

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

Ring­ing the bell for the Sal­va­tion Army out­side JC Pen­ney down­town, for­mer may­or George Wuerch heard old timers’ sto­ries from Anchor­age’s wild and crazy WWII years. Back then, down­town Anchor­age only had one or two paved streets and a pletho­ra of seedy estab­lish­ments lin­ing 4^th and 5^th Avenues. 

The ear­ly cab­in Wacos were the main­stay of flight ser­vices in Alaska’s ear­ly avi­a­tion his­to­ry. Equipped with wheels, floats or skis, these air­craft were at the heart of enabling the devel­op­ment of the state of Alaska.

This muse­um in down­town Anchor­age may house arti­facts that are hun­dreds of years old, but its high-cal­iber col­lec­tion — and its sol­id con­nec­tion to the com­mu­ni­ty — makes it feel like a liv­ing museum.

Anchor­age, Alaska’s cen­ter of com­merce, is the present day head­quar­ters for the Alas­ka Rail­road. The Rail­road was grant­ed the land by the US Con­gress and sold off most of the prop­er­ty in a land auc­tion in 1917. Today, the Rail­road has some 600 acres of land reserves remain­ing in the down­town area of the city. The City of Anchor­age exists because of the Railroad.

Nat­ur­al resources have been cen­tral to Alaska’s eco­nom­ic suc­cess. The fur trade in the late 18^th/​early 19^th cen­turies, gold rush­es in the late 19^th and ear­ly 20^th cen­turies, and oil since the mid-20^th cen­tu­ry have been key in Alaska’s devel­op­ment. The 1968 dis­cov­ery of oil in Prud­hoe Bay, the largest reser­voir of oil in North Amer­i­ca, led to the con­struc­tion of the trans-Alas­ka pipeline.

BAC Trans­porta­tion was start­ed on a whim by two friends who were tired of what they thought were shod­dy limo options in Anchor­age. Eleven years lat­er, the busi­ness has evolved into a large trans­porta­tion com­pa­ny offer­ing air­port and cruise ship trans­fers, bus­ing for cor­po­rate events, cus­tom tour pack­ages and, of course, lim­ou­sines for nights out on the town. They are unique in their direct billing arrange­ments with sev­er­al of Anchorage’s…  ...more

Phone: 907−243−4118 Address: 4555 Inter­na­tion­al Air­port Rd, Anchor­age, AK Hours: 6am — 2:30am every day 

This Boe­ing jet rep­re­sents the tru­ly unique capa­bil­i­ties required of com­mer­cial air­craft to effec­tive­ly oper­ate in Alas­ka while sup­port­ing rur­al com­mu­ni­ties. This air­craft was also instru­men­tal in open­ing up com­mer­cial trav­el to and from the for­mer Sovi­et Union.

The Unit­ed States Con­gress want­ed to open the Ter­ri­to­ry of Alas­ka for eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and rec­og­nized the only way that was going to occur was to con­struct a rail line. Pri­vate sec­tor com­pa­nies attempt­ed to build a rail line but went bank­rupt ear­ly in the process. There­fore, Con­gress adopt­ed the Enabling Act of 1914 which autho­rized the Pres­i­dent of Unit­ed States to locate, con­struct and oper­ate a 1,000 mile rail line in the Territory.

Zip down the 42-foot Mas­ter Blaster water­slide, float lazi­ly through the Nev­er End­ing Riv­er, get tossed around in the wave pool and check out the Sea Drag­on Pirate Ship Play­ground. H2Oasis is Alaska’s only water park, and it’s a hit: open year-round and only twen­ty min­utes from down­town Anchor­age. Alaskans come for some trop­i­cal fun — it’s 84 degrees inside even when the park­ing lot is packed with snow! And in sum­mer months, it’s a great place…  ...more

The Dena’i­na Cen­ter is one of down­town Anchor­age’s newest build­ings, but sur­pris­ing­ly it is one of the first to hon­or the native peo­ple of south­cen­tral Alas­ka. From the names of the rooms in the build­ing, to the art­work on the walls and even the bricks on the side­walk below, the Dena’i­na Cen­ter is full of lit­tle gems. 

Cen­turies before Gore-Tex was invent­ed, Unan­gax hunters stayed dry by wear­ing water­proof parkas made from marine mam­mal intestines. In the 19^th cen­tu­ry, Russ­ian naval offi­cers com­mis­sioned gut capes like this one, pat­terned after their naval uni­forms. A skill­ful Unan­gax seam­stress would need six months or more to sew such a cape.

For Anchor­age vis­i­tors with­out rental cars who want to hike Alaska’s most fre­quent­ly climbed moun­tain, here’s your ride to and from the trail­head. In a nut­shell, this ser­vice pro­vides a 30-mile (low key) cir­cuit tour of Anchor­age and an unguid­ed moun­tain hike.

On Good Fri­day, 1964, one of the largest earth­quakes ever record­ed shook Anchor­age. 4^th Avenue sank one sto­ry under­ground, and those that had offices and shops had to get their things out through sec­ond-sto­ry windows.

Per­ma­nent­ly Closed. Learn about the mas­sive 1964 Earth­quake that rocked Alas­ka. Feel like you’re soar­ing over the rugged ter­rain of the last fron­tier. Get up close to Alaska’s wild ani­mals — from the crea­tures of Arc­tic pack ice to the preda­tors of the tundra.

Good val­ue, qual­i­ty food, and good ser­vice are the main draws at Suite 100. Try the fig and goat cheese or the stuffed fried chick­en, which is com­fort­ing and rich with­out being greasy. Or come just for the great bar, which attracts its own crowd seek­ing good cock­tails and desserts.

This area is accessed from mul­ti­ple trails. Most peo­ple start at the Glen Alps park­ing lot and fol­low the trail toward Willi­waw Lakes. Once you cross over Camp­bell Creek, you can go over the ridge by tak­ing a right where the trail forks (steep but fast) or around to left (eas­i­er, but much longer). Good for hik­ing, snow­shoe­ing or ski­ing. Some even run this trail.

Alas­ka experts work with you to cus­tomize your trip includ­ing award-win­ning lodges, wildlife and glac­i­er tours and a vari­ety of activities.

Don’t let ​“trade show” scare off any non-pilots: Alaska’s biggest avi­a­tion show is more like an inter­ac­tive muse­um. Bush planes, 747s, and mil­i­tary planes and heli­copters are all on dis­play — and every­one can climb into them, which makes this event per­fect for fam­i­lies. A thrilling per­for­mance of the secret F22 Rap­tor usu­al­ly caps off the event.

This tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tion space also offers dra­mat­ic views of the Chugach Moun­tains, the 250-mile moun­tain range that embraces Anchorage’s east­ern edge.The muse­um first opened in 1968 and has expand­ed three times over the past four decades. Anchor­age cel­e­brat­ed the grand open­ing of the museum’s most recent expan­sion, a four-sto­ry west wing with a shim­mer­ing glass façade, in 2010. The stun­ning addi­tion was designed by Lon­don archi­tect David…  ...more

Phone: 907−562−4595 Address: 414 K Street, Anchor­age, AK 99501 Hours: Mon-Fri 8am — 5pm, Sat-Sun closed. 

Kin­caid Park con­tains a fab­u­lous spread of sev­en reg­u­la­tion-size soc­cer fields down the hill to the north of the chalet, plus one beau­ti­ful soc­cer sta­di­um with arti­fi­cial turf to the south. These facil­i­ties are pop­u­lar with leagues and are often reserved for games or tour­na­ments dur­ing Alaska’s sum­mer sea­son. But they are open to pub­lic use when no games or prac­tices are scheduled.

The biggest hunt­ing and fish­ing out­fit­ter store in Anchor­age, Sports­man­’s Ware­house offers all the gear you’ll need at rea­son­able prices.

The large pan­el on the North­west and South­west side­walls is of the drum­mer, a cen­tral fig­ure of the Inu­pi­at peo­ple. The drum­mer sings of a shaman’s jour­ney in med­i­ta­tive state. Lawrence Ulaaq Avakana, an Inu­pi­at Eski­mo artist, was born in Fair­banks and reared pri­mar­i­ly in Anchor­age. Well known through­out the Pacif­ic North­west for both his sculp­ture and hand blown glass con­tain­ers, he describes his work as ​“most­ly realistic”.

This year-round pri­vate lodge sits on an eleven acre 1901 his­toric gold min­ing claim, backed up against the Chugach State Park, and has sweep­ing views of Tur­na­gain Arm and the moun­tains beyond. The view makes the lodge seem very remote, like you have ven­tured into the wilder­ness, yet it is a con­ve­nient 30-minute dri­ve south from the Anchor­age Inter­na­tion­al Air­port. The three-sto­ry lodge has three guest rooms, one on each lev­el, to accom­mo­date up  ...more

See down­town Anchor­age of the 60’s through the eyes of 8‑year-old Dan Sul­li­van. Duck into bars, bar­ber­shops and hotels as he sells copies of the Anchor­age Times for a dime and meet some true Alaskan ​“old-timers.”

With one of the best rates and a cen­tral down­town loca­tion, the Guest­House Anchor­age Inn is a great option for trav­el­ers on a bud­get. But here, afford­able doesn’t mean cheap. In addi­tion to a prime down­town loca­tion (the hotel is with­in walk­ing dis­tance of restau­rants, muse­ums, and shop­ping), you’ll find free air­port and rail­road shut­tles, a fit­ness cen­ter, ample free park­ing, and flat-screen tele­vi­sions in many rooms. Our staff is…  ...more

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Easy­Dis­tance: 0.3 mile­sE­l­e­va­tion Gain: Less than 500ftType: Out-and-Back­This trail is part of the Hill­side Trail Sys­tem. It is groomed in win­ter for cross-coun­try skiers. Access to this trail is avail­able via the Wover­ine Bowl as well as Mid­dle Fork Loop.Features: Kid Friend­ly, Ski­ing, Running

Spruce woods and moun­tain hem­lock groves give way to open tun­dra and jew­el-like alpine lakes.

Flown by most ear­ly Alaskan avi­a­tors the Stear­man is the cen­ter­piece for Pio­neer Hall. Flown on the first res­cue mis­sion to Mt. Denali, on the search for Carl Ben Eielsen and Earl Bor­land and the pri­ma­ry air­craft flown on the Serum Mer­cy flights in Win­ter 31 – 32.

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

Learn about Alaska’s avi­a­tion his­to­ry and the dar­ing bush pilots who opened up the Last Fron­tier. See rare air­craft dat­ing back to WWI, his­toric pho­tographs, arti­facts, maps, news­pa­per accounts, avi­a­tors’ cloth­ing, and films.

At 20,320 feet, Denali (Mt. McKin­ley) is the tallest moun­tain in North Amer­i­ca; so tall, clouds often con­ceal it. But there’s always a great view of it at the muse­um thanks to beloved Alas­ka painter Syd­ney Lau­rence. He cre­at­ed this 13-by‑8 foot paint­ing in 1929 to cap­ture the immen­si­ty of the Last Frontier.

In the 1980’s, when the state and city were flush with oil mon­ey, there was a big push to improve the infas­truc­ture in down­town Anchor­age. These large cap­i­tal projects enabled Anchor­age to host events like the 2001 Spe­cial Olympics. For­mer may­or George Wuerch describes the expe­ri­ence of host­ing that large event and get­ting the chance to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Any fan of a good sand­wich will enjoy this restau­rant that spe­cial­izes in craft­ing deli­cious pitas.

Jump off the trail and comb the beach­es of Anchor­age. At low tide you can touch the dense glacial silt of the mud­flats (but do not walk on them). Unlike sandy beach­es of the south, peb­bles and grav­el left by glac­i­ers coat the shore­line. The lux­u­ri­ous spa qual­i­ty of glacial mud is well known by Alaskans who grow up bathing in its but­tery tex­ture. This silt has been pack­aged and sold as a beau­ty prod­uct around the world.

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

Take out along the north­west shore near Curlew Circle.

JCPen­ney is locat­ed in the heart of Down­town Anchor­age. If you for­got any cloth­ing essen­tials from Home, this is an easy place to stop into and pick up what you need.

Expe­ri­ence the best of remote Alas­ka with a stay at this rus­tic, fly-in lodge locat­ed south of Denali Nation­al Park, with end­less activities. 

First of four air­craft in the first expe­di­tion to cir­cum­nav­i­gate the globe. The Seat­tle nev­er made it out of Alas­ka. It crashed on April 30, 1924 near Port Moller and was recov­ered in 1961 to pre­serve what was left of the airframe.

Dri­ve your own Jeep equipped with a rooftop tent while guides lead­ing the way in a sep­a­rate vehi­cle take care of the details as you go. Along the way you’ll enjoy some of the most icon­ic spots and expe­ri­ences that the 49^th state has to offer.

This mur­al depicts the famous blan­ket toss, orginial­ly designed on a rab­bit pelt. The blan­ket toss was orig­i­nal­ly used to sight whales dur­ing a whale hunt. It is now used dur­ing cel­e­bra­tions and gath­er­ings. Robert Mayokok, an Eski­mo artist, was born in 1903, in Whales on the Seward Penin­su­la. He start­ed out as an ivory carv­er then turned to pen and ink draw­ing on skin and paper.

Climb­ing 16 sto­ries, the full-ser­vice Sher­a­ton Anchor­age Hotel & Spa com­bines 370 com­fort­able rooms with tons of ameni­ties, right in down­town Anchor­age. Step into the light-filled lob­by atri­um to find art­work and a unique jade stair­case. You have access to the 24-hour fit­ness cen­ter locat­ed on the 15^th floor. The fit­ness cen­ter was even includ­ed on the list of Top Ten Gym Views fea­tured on CNN. Final­ly, to unwind from it all, vis­it the  ...more

The ​“Queen of Dago Lake” was the first major air­craft recov­ery accom­plished by the ear­ly muse­um founders and it became the impe­tus for estab­lish­ing a per­ma­nent home for the Museum.

Just on the edge of down­town, this hotel is a pop­u­lar choice for fam­i­lies and busi­ness trav­el­ers who like the big rooms, ameni­ties, and afford­able prices that Clar­i­on Suites is known for. It’s a great deal, with free park­ing and shut­tles, hot break­fast, and a swim­ming pool all includ­ed. And even though it’s part of a chain, there’s a decid­ed­ly Alaskan feel, with pho­tos of Native vil­lage life and Alaskan art. Three-sto­ries tall, the Clarion…  ...more

This Anchor­age insti­tu­tion stores and process­es salmon, hal­ibut, crab, shrimp and more. They can smoke, can or freeze your own catch­es for the trip home, or you can pick up fresh or frozen gourmet gift packs from their retail counter. On request they can also delay ship­ment until you’re back home.

Take out is from Lake Clark and should be a pre­arranged pick up by float­plane along the lakeshore to the west of the river’s mouth. It is pos­si­ble to arrange for a boat to pick you up and trans­port you to Port Alsworth should that be preferred.

Local charm imbues this loca­tion of the nation­al chain, start­ing with the lob­by’s very Alaskan feel. Some rooms offer gor­geous views of the Chugach Moun­tains, and the restau­rant fea­tures a chef with an award-win­ning chili.

You may be in the last fron­tier, but even up here, park­ing can be dif­fi­cult. Luck­i­ly, Anchor­age has plen­ty of park­ing lots and garages man­aged by Easy­Park. Afford­able ($1 per hour), well run, and with loca­tions near the city’s top attrac­tions, these park­ing areas are an eas­i­er option than on-street park­ing — and they’re cheap­er by the hour than meters. (Easy­Park also runs the metered street park­ing, which is free after 6 p.m. and on the…  ...more

Did you know Anchor­age has traf­fic issues? Rush-hour demon­strates this. Between 5 and 6pm just get­ting across town takes half an hour or more. But the Glenn High­way real­ly backs up, espe­cial­ly after work. Thou­sands of com­muters head home to Eagle Riv­er, Palmer, and Wasil­la. Fresh snow slows traf­fic even more. Dur­ing a storm, the trip from Anchor­age to Eagle Riv­er, just 15 miles north, can take an hour. 

Anchor­age’s newest hotel is locat­ed in the mid­town area and offers some great ameni­ties. You’ll find an out­door fire pit and a fam­i­ly-friend­ly gallery, per­fect for relax­ing and get­ting to know fel­low guests. Plus, half of the rooms have liv­ing areas and full kitchens.

A 5,000 seat ath­let­ic are­na and con­cert venue at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alas­ka Anchorage. 

Class II Pack­raft­ing River. 

For­mer­ly a part of a fleet of 14 DC-6’s flown by North­ern Air Car­go this air­craft rep­re­sents the core capa­bil­i­ty for over 50 years to fly­ing car­go to remote alaskan com­mu­ni­ties. DC‑6 air­craft con­tin­ue to pro­vide car­go sup­port to rur­al alas­ka com­mu­ni­ties even to this day.

This pan­el is an abstrac­tion of var­i­ous native art forms as inter­pret­ed by Nerone. It depicts a cari­bou migra­tion through Denali. The artist Gio­van­ni Nerone Cecarel­li was born in Pisa, Italy.

The View Point Trail is also known as the Tour of Anchor­age Trail. It offers gen­tle ter­rain and a touch of soli­tude for those look­ing for an easy trail not far from the city. Because the Camp­bell Tract is adja­cent to Far North Bicen­ten­ni­al Park and Chugach State Park beyond that, it offers a direct cor­ri­dor for ani­mals mov­ing in and out of the Anchor­age bowl so keep an eye out for moose with their young in the spring and be espe­cial­ly mindful  ...more

Val­ue and con­ve­nience are the hall­marks at this mid­town hotel. It’s also a wel­come stop for fam­i­lies, as kids stay for free and pets are welcome.

The his­to­ry of law enforce­ment in the Ter­ri­to­ry and State of Alas­ka is told in exhibits, mem­o­ra­bil­ia and pho­tographs. The muse­um com­mem­o­rates the Alas­ka State Troop­ers and fea­tures a vari­ety of his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ra­bil­ia, includ­ing a restored 1952 Hud­son Hor­net patrol car. A small gift shop is also locat­ed on the premises.