Road trip: Seward and Glenn Highways!

22 June, 2018, 5 min, 836 words

I had the immense pleasure of hosting my immediate family in Alaska last week. I got to take them on our landmark Aialik trip, and then we set off on a four-day road trip. We spent that time exploring the Seward and Glenn highways at our own very leisurely pace. It was an absolute blast. For the overview, check out this map marking particular highlights.

Road trip planning

Never much for planning our trips in advance, our plan came together just a couple days before we set out. After a very rainy Aialik kayaking trip, we explicitly planned to visit areas where the weather was supposed to be good. Based on the weather forecast, we decided to head toward Wrangell-St. Elias, along the Seward and then the Glenn Highway. Beyond that, though, our plan was roughly "drive places and stop at interesting points." Along those lines, we ended up with a copy of The Milepost, which details every possibly interesting thing along most major highways in Alaska. This was a last-minute addition, and it fundamentally shaped the course of our trip. It is justifiably the "bible" of Alaskan travel – this thing is amazing. In general, it will tell you every turnout, sight, and activity along the road, including comments like "dirt path to the south at mile xxx leads to no views."

The Seward Highway

Along the Seward Highway towards Anchorage (and then back several days later), our favorite stops included:

Tern Lake, where we went on a short boardwalk and admired lots of neat birds.
On our trip out, Moose Pass was celebrating an early equinox, so we meandered through a little tent fair and checked out local art and food.
On the road to Hope, we pulled off on an unnamed unpaved road that took us down to a little cove on Turnagain Arm. It was an amazing lookout, and gave us a great view of those famous mudflats, as we were approaching low tide.
Hope itself was cool too – a tiny little town with a cute museum and good coffee.
The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center was a really great stop for my animal-loving family. Not only are there lots of neat mammals here, but it also attracts tons of eagles and corvids to join the fun. We actually stopped here on our way out and on our way back.
Portage Glacier and the accompanying visitor center were quite cool too! Lots of neat interpretation there, as well as a very well-made video about the area.
Beluga Point! On our first day, we timed our arrival at Beluga Point to catch a bore tide. Bore tide is a phenomenon found in only some areas, where tidal differentials are huge and the passageway for the tide is small. An outgoing tide clashes with an incoming tide, creating a wall of water that sweeps down Turnagain Arm. We caught the bore tide at Beluga Point, though we weren't as lucky with belugas – evasive little creatures.

Less concretely, we traveled along Turnagain Arm at both high and low tides, and I was just stunned at how different the scenery is. High tide brings the water right up to the highway, while low tide gives you miles of dangerous mud flats as far as the eye can see.

The Glenn Highway

The Glenn Highway leads from Anchorage, through Palmer to Glenallen, right at the base of the Wrangells. It's a gorgeous drive, one of the most beautiful across Alaska. As a result, much of what we did here was just sightseeing and admiring. But we did have a hands-down favorite stop: Matanuska Glacier.

Matanuska Glacier is a can't-miss stop. You can get great views of it from the road, but we also spent a couple of hours hiking around on it with some guides. For me, as a guide myself, it was amazing to get a totally different glacier experience than I usually see. It turns out that kayaking in front of a glacier and walking on top of it offer entirely different perspectives. Plus, just as I discussed before, different glaciers just have different characters. Matanuska and Aialik? Totally different beasts.

Once we made it to Glenallen, we made just a couple more stops before heading back home to Seward. The first was a stop at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park visitor center. It's very well designed and does a great job of stealthily teaching you a lot about the park. We also spent about an hour here flipping through wildflower books trying to identify some flowers we'd seen elsewhere, and the rangers were helpful with that too. Other than that, the Aspen Interpretive Trail was a great (if mosquito-infested) walk right near town.

In summary

Alaska is huge, and I'm so glad I got to explore part of it with my amazing family. I can't wait to spend more time exploring this amazing state in the future, too!