Chugach National Forest Winter Activities

For an oth­er­world­ly encounter with a famous glac­i­er you can’t eas­i­ly approach or even glimpse dur­ing sum­mer, lead the fam­i­ly across frozen Portage Lake to a fan­tas­tic wall of jum­bled, blue ice. Once the lake sur­face has frozen sol­id, peo­ple flock across on foot, ice skates, skis and bikes. 50 miles from Anchorage.

Alyeska Resort is famous for its down­hill ski­ing and snow­board­ing for a rea­son — it’s tru­ly world-class, fea­tur­ing tons of snow, steep moun­tains, and views that stretch on for­ev­er. But there are a ton of oth­er win­ter activ­i­ties that make Alyeska an epi­cen­ter for win­ter adven­ture. Go cross-coun­try ski­ing or snow­shoe­ing on one of the area trails; or head off into the back­coun­try with a guide for some heli- or cat-ski­ing; try a snow­mo­bile excursion;  ...more

Lazy Otter offers clas­sic tours, but this is a water taxi, so they’ll also take you any­where you want to go with­in Price William Sound — or just cus­tomize a tour to what­ev­er you want to see. Maybe that’s glac­i­ers, or whales, — or maybe it’s qui­et time on a seclud­ed beach. Lazy Otter can also help facil­i­tate tak­ing you and your fam­i­ly on a camp­ing trip. You’re not held to any strict sched­ule, either: if, on a day tour, you can spend more time in one  ...more

Fea­tures: Skiing

Con­nect­ed to the mul­ti-use trails and Snow­cat Trail, this recent­ly opened loop is a great way to extend your nordic ski­ing experience.

Known to locals as the Divide Ski Area, this trail was built by ded­i­cat­ed com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teers from the Seward Nordic Ski Club.

The trail fol­lows the south end of Coop­er Lake and ends at Upper Russ­ian Lakes Cab­in, 13 miles from the win­ter trail­head. There is lit­tle ele­va­tion gain or loss on this forest­ed trail.

Access the trails from the end of Alberg Loop. The trails are mod­er­ate to dif­fi­cult for ski­ing and should be skied coun­ter­clock­wise. These are mul­ti-use trails dur­ing the sum­mer and then tran­si­tion to being Nordic only in the win­ter months.

Bear Lake is a pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion for cross coun­try ski­ing (both skate and clas­sic), ski­jor­ing, skat­ing, and snow­ma­chin­ing. Groomed entire­ly by vol­un­teers, the trail fol­lows along the perime­ter of the lake and amounts to rough­ly 5 miles.

This is a triathalon event (not race) that takes place in Seward every spring. It begins with a 3km sec­tion at Mile 12 ski area. For this sec­tion par­tic­i­pants can either snow­shoe, use clas­sic skis or skate skis. Next is a 15 km bicy­cle ride to Seward from Mile 12, end­ing with a 6 km run to a spec­i­fied loca­tion on the Water­front Trail for a picnic. 

Most of the loops in the camp­ground are groomed for cross coun­try ski­ing. Start­ing with the main road into the camp­ground and cross the bridge to see beau­ti­ful win­ter views up and down the riv­er. To access the trails, park before the first road clo­sure gate just off of the Seward Highway. 

An annu­al New Year’s Eve tra­di­tion, the Lumi­nary Ski is a free com­mu­ni­ty event on the Divide Ski Trails (at Mile 12 of the Seward High­way). The trails are lit by can­dle­light, and you can walk, snow­shoe, or ski, depend­ing on your pref­er­ence. Hot cocoa, cider, and a camp­fire are provided.