Chugach National Forest Points of Interest

Turn here for a scenic dri­ve to an off-the-beat­en-path town that sits on the edge of Tur­na­gain Arm. Estab­lished in the 1890’s, it was one of the first gold min­ing towns in Alas­ka. Many of the town’s orig­i­nal build­ings are still stand­ing, includ­ing the Seav­iew Café and Bar. There’s still a hitch­ing post in front of the mer­can­tile, just in case you decide to bring your horse. Hope is also known to have suf­fered the some of the worst damage…  ...more

Locat­ed at Mile 1.0 of the Portage High­way, this site has a short board­walk trail along sev­er­al ponds. It is a good site for observ­ing water­fowl that nest and rear their young in the ponds and riv­er channels.

Oper­at­ed by the non-prof­it Alas­ka Moun­tain and Wilder­ness Huts Asso­ci­a­tion, Man­i­to­ba Cab­in is intend­ed to pro­mote wilder­ness expe­ri­ence and cama­raderie in the spir­it of Euro­pean-style trekking huts. While very pop­u­lar among back­coun­try skiers dur­ing win­ter week­ends, the facil­i­ty often has open­ings dur­ing week­days. Dur­ing the sum­mer, you might have the entire place to yourself.

Katal­la sup­plied the the now-aban­doned Katal­la oil field, which was the first dis­cov­ery of com­mer­cial quan­ti­ties of oil in Alas­ka (1902). The town report­ed­ly had a pop­u­la­tion of 5,000 in 1907 – 1908. Read more here. 

Con­struc­tion of this ear­ly-1900s bridge cost a whop­ping (at the time) $1.4 mil­lion, which earned it the nick­name Mil­lion Dol­lar Bridge. But the bridge quick­ly earned its keep, allow­ing the rail­road to haul cop­per from Ken­ni­cott to the port of Cordova.

This point sep­a­rates Col­lege Fjord and Bar­ry Arm. You can see dead spruce trees which stand as silent tes­ti­mo­ny to the destruc­tion of the 1964 earth­quake. The land sunk more than 6 feet expos­ing the roots to salt­wa­ter and drown­ing the trees.

One of the most spec­tac­u­lar and acces­si­ble glac­i­ers along the rail line, Spencer Glac­i­er also has an inter­est­ing his­to­ry. Lis­ten to find out how it got it’s name and hear tales of what life was like for those who worked in the wilder­ness build­ing the rail line.

These gleam­ing val­ley glac­i­ers perch in the moun­tains above Portage Val­ley, easy to view from high­way pull­outs. They feed the near­by stream sys­tems that har­bor many species of salmon and trout. Tan­gle Pond and Tan­gle Creek are favorite fish­ing spots for locals, and there are lots of places to camp in Portage Val­ley itself.

Grab your optics and let’s take in the 360-degree view here at the start of the Kenai Riv­er, Alaska’s world-renowned salmon fish­ing hot spot. See wildlife up on the hill­sides, song­birds, water­fowl, and the bril­liant ice-blue Kenai Lake and Riv­er. Breathtaking.

Dri­ving from Anchor­age to Whit­ti­er to play in Prince William Sound? You’ll go through Anton Ander­son Memo­r­i­al Tun­nel — the longest (2.5 miles) high­way tun­nel in North Amer­i­ca, and the first designed for ‑40 Fahren­heit tem­per­a­tures and 150 mph winds! The one-lane tun­nel must be shared by cars and trains trav­el­ing in both direc­tions, and it usu­al­ly needs to be aired out in between trips (with jet tur­bine ven­ti­la­tion, anoth­er first!). This unique…  ...more

Tech­ni­cal­ly, Portage is no longer a road­side glac­i­er, as it recedes an aver­age of one foot a day and is now no longer vis­i­ble from the road, but its big blue ice­bergs are often found along the shore of the lake, right in front of the park­ing area. On Byron, ice worms are com­mon, if you get down and look. There are also beau­ti­ful ice caves and rivulets to see, but be care­ful not to walk too far onto the ice of this tempt­ing glac­i­er. You can see…  ...more

Built dur­ing WWII as a top-secret mil­i­tary project, today Whit­ti­er is a great jump­ing-off place to explore Prince William Sound. To con­nect Whit­ti­er with the rest of the Alas­ka Rail­road, dur­ing the war the mil­i­tary con­struct­ed a mas­sive tun­nel. Today the expand­ed tun­nel is the longest com­bined rail and high­way tun­nel in North America.

Kenai Lake marks the begin­ning of the Kenai Riv­er Spe­cial Man­age­ment Area. Estab­lished in 1984 to pro­tect this very impor­tant resource, the 105-mile area stretch­es almost all the way to the city of Kenai. Take a walk to the view­ing decks with infor­ma­tive signs about this area. You will be able to see the Kenai Riv­er along the high­way for the next 10 miles.

Portage Val­ley south­east of Anchor­age at the head of Tur­na­gain Arm offers so many poten­tial adven­tures that you might have to tow a trail­er loaded with gear to sam­ple them all. What will you find here? Bik­ing, hik­ing, pic­nick­ing, fish­ing, pad­dling, wildlife view­ing, poten­tial ice­berg sight­ings — plus a nat­ur­al his­to­ry vis­i­tor cen­ter packed with inter­ac­tive dis­plays about the ecosys­tem of the val­ley and Prince William Sound. It’s like an outdoor  ...more

Sounds Wild: Birds Smell­Tern Lake has lots to offer but few peo­ple use the old Ster­ling high­way to access the bore­al for­est near this lake. Dri­ve into the recre­ation­al area and as you turn left toward the restrooms you will see an old road to your right. You can walk for miles down this road and enjoy the smell of the woods and the sound of the birds.More Information   ...more

These two pho­tographs show the sig­nif­i­cant changes that Schwan Glac­i­er has under­gone in recent years. 

This is a must stop for pho­tos of beau­ti­ful Kenai Lake. The lake was formed from glac­i­er water is a majes­tic blue and green tone. You’ll find sev­er­al park­ing areas along the lake and signs that give you a lit­tle his­to­ry about it.

This very active glac­i­er forms a wall along the fabled Cop­per Riv­er near a his­toric rail­road route that once ser­viced the world’s largest cop­per mine. NOTE: A bridge at Mile 36 of the Cop­per Riv­er High­way is cur­rent­ly (2020) impass­able, with repairs not expect­ed for sev­er­al years. Child’s Glac­i­er is not cur­rent­ly acces­si­ble by road. Con­tact Cor­do­va Ranger Dis­trict for cur­rent venders pro­vid­ing trans­porta­tion options to the far side.  ...more

Stop at the turnout to pho­to­graph this beau­ti­ful hang­ing glac­i­er high on the mountainside. 

In 1899, the Har­ri­man Glac­i­er extend­ed all the way to here, leav­ing only a tight pas­sage through which the ship could fit. Har­ri­man made the gut­sy deci­sion to sail through it, allow­ing them to be the first explor­ers and prob­a­bly the first humans to see this mag­nif­i­cent fjord. The glacial moraine still extends from the shore out to this point and you can see it just 6 feet below the sur­face at low tide.

Take a stroll down the board­walk as it winds along the riv­er. There are sev­er­al inter­pre­tive signs with infor­ma­tion about fish­ing, dall sheep, raft­ing and boat safe­ty. You’ll also find access to Pio­neer Vil­lage where you can pan for gold at Prospec­tor John’s Authen­tic Gold Panning.

Drag­on­flies, the offi­cial Alas­ka state insect, are often found around lakes and ponds hov­er­ing or perched on a long blade of grass at water’s edge. A great loca­tion to look for drag­on­flies is along the edge of the many ponds locat­ed along the Ala­ganik road on the way to the Ala­ganik Riv­er. Turn right at mile 17 on the Cop­per Riv­er High­way and trav­el for about 5 miles to the U.S. For­est Ser­vice board­walk, inter­pre­tive area and boat launching…  ...more

Har­bor seals and sea otters are com­mon sights in the Whit­ti­er Small Boat Har­bor. You might also see salmon enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly leap­ing from the water, a sight that cues locals to run for their fish­ing poles. King salmon run from May through ear­ly-July. From late-July through ear­ly-Sep­tem­ber, a run of sil­ver salmon brings anglers from through­out South­cen­tral Alaska.

It’s free to go this far by car, and you’ll get a pic­ture-per­fect shot of Portage Glacier.

You can find a great over­look that shows off most of the glac­i­er near the 3,880-foot Crow Pass, about three miles from the Crow Pass trail­head in Gird­wood. Anoth­er mile past the pass, and you can approach the edges or toe of the glac­i­er itself, for a more inti­mate expe­ri­ence of its tex­ture, col­ors and gnarled shape.