Glacier View Points of Interest

Prospect­ing in ear­ly Alas­ka meant col­or­ful char­ac­ters and remote liv­ing. Moun­tain pass­es were often the best routes for men hik­ing hun­dreds of miles to reach gold. Most min­ers owned at least one gun. And they shot to kill.

The Matanus­ka State Park is the best place for a free view of the Matanus­ka Glac­i­er. You won’t be able to walk up to the glac­i­er (that’s at Mile 102), but this well-devel­oped site offers plen­ty of park­ing, overnight camp­ing, pub­lic restrooms, and excel­lent glac­i­er views and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties. You’ll also find: A half-dozen inter­pre­tive signs about glac­i­ers, ice crea­tures, spruce bark bee­tles. Great view­points with tele­scopes. A…  ...more

In the 1950s, an Anchor­age fam­i­ly worked tire­less­ly at their dream of build­ing a ski resort here at the base of Gun­sight Moun­tain. They built a small chalet and erect­ed a rope tow. But financ­ing was always a prob­lem. Busi­ness did not boom. Today, the chalet is all that’s left of their efforts.

Gee is a dog mush­ing term for turn right. Idi­tar­od mush­er Zack Steer owns Sheep Moun­tain Lodge and trains his team in this area. Spec­tac­u­lar col­ors on Sheep Moun­tain itself are from iron stains on ancient vol­canic soils.

Peo­ple love to pull off here and shoot a pho­to beside this clas­sic sign. A local the­o­ry on the creek name is that the crusty, old sour­dough who lived down near the creek used mules for guid­ing hunts. These mules pur­port­ed­ly escaped a lot, so the ass­es were always by the creek. Who knows? But it’s a clas­sic pho­to for the friends back home.

It’s only a small pull-out on the side of the high­way, but this is the clos­est view­point of the Matanus­ka Glac­i­er. If you don’t have a pow­er­ful zoom on your cam­era, or just want to get a great look at the ice, this is the spot. There’s only room for about six cars and the feel is a bit more rus­tic than the offi­cial state rec site a mile to the west, but you’ll be perched on a bluff over­look­ing the glac­i­er. Dis­tance 103.3 miles north of…  ...more

On the north side of the bridge is a turn out with good access to Cari­bou Creek Bridge. It’s a good spot to stretch your legs, let the kids skip rocks, or con­tem­plate flow. As Thore­au said ​“He who hears the rip­pling of rivers utter­ly despairs of noth­ing!” If you’re a riv­er run­ner, this is the launch for the Lion’s Head white­wa­ter run. Class III and Class IV water awaits, and you can run this with Nova Guides.

Be care­ful, it’s easy to miss this turn-off as you drop down the hill, but look out for the sign ​“Cari­bou Creek Recre­ation­al Area.” This sel­dom-used camp­ground is a qui­et place to camp, away from high­way noise. It has fire rings and pic­nic tables, and there’s a trail to the creek. It’s a one-mile walk to the water. It’s a nice stream and it’s part of the State Recre­ation­al Gold Min­ing Area. So bring a pan and try your luck!

Keep your eyes open for rocks on the road above Long Lake. Alas­ka Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion clears boul­ders off the high­way in this slide area every day of the year, but you could still col­lide with one if you come around a cor­ner too fast. On the oth­er hand, don’t linger under this crum­bling bank!

This is the Glac­i­er View School, where rough­ly 40 stu­dents are enrolled in K‑12. These stu­dents have an awe­some view of the glac­i­er and their play­ground makes for a great spot for the fam­i­ly to get out and run around. What’s it like to be a stu­dent here? There are five teach­ers, so there’s one teacher for every 8 stu­dents! But sports are lim­it­ed — a co-ed vol­ley­ball team and cross coun­try run­ning and ski­ing. Go Wolver­ines! Dis­tance 104 miles…  ...more

A good dirt road, with plen­ty of pull-outs, leaves the main high­way on the south side of the road. The ​“Alas­com Road” runs four miles across the val­ley floor. There are sev­er­al lakes, stocked with trout and grayling, for fish­er­men, and plen­ty of camp­ing spots. It’s qui­et, and there’s great canoe­ing and bird watch­ing on the lakes. It’s a pop­u­lar week­end des­ti­na­tion for Anchor­age folks, so you might not be alone. And in the fall, you’ll see plenty  ...more