Alaska Points of Interest

Get a close-up look at one of the world’s engi­neer­ing mar­vels. Here you will find infor­ma­tion­al dis­plays about the pipeline and an exam­ple of a pig, the device used to clean and inspect the inside of the pipeline.

One of the most inter­est­ing nat­ur­al fea­tures near Juneau, this spec­tac­u­lar water­fall plunges about 377 feet down the rugged moun­tain­side into Menden­hall Lake about three-quar­ter miles south of the active face of Menden­hall Glacier.

Some­times you just want to be amazed. The over­look at the Glen Alps trail­head of Chugach State Park on the Anchor­age Hill­side offers a grand front-row seat on the forces of geol­o­gy as well as one of the best post­card views any­where. Like — how about a three-vol­cano vista? Or the pro­file of Denali, Forak­er and Hunter in a sin­gle glance? Plate tec­ton­ics at your feet? The sky­line of the biggest city with­in 1,000 miles?

Where else can you walk to the end of Main Street and find your­self at the con­flu­ence of three wild rivers, over­look­ing a 20,000-foot peak? Close to down­town, this large, riv­er-cen­tered park offers wide open, untouched spaces, along with great panoram­ic view of the Alas­ka Range.

A high­light for many vis­i­tors, this chapel lies 22 miles north of Juneau off of the Glac­i­er High­way. As Juneau’s expen­sive water­front homes peter out, the Shrine of St. Therese appears on your left. It’s in a stun­ning set­ting, on an island with crash­ing surf, moun­tain views, and a rugged coast­line, where you can look for hump­back whales and sea lions. Take the trail from the park­ing lot back to a caretaker’s head­quar­ters, a small stone…  ...more

No mat­ter what place a team fin­ish­es, the Idi­tar­od burled arch is a sym­bol of an ardu­ous jour­ney suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed, a job well done, and of a long-await­ed rest – for both dogs and mush­ers –just up ahead. See it above Nome’s Front Street dur­ing Idi­taord sea­son in March, or near City Hall the rest of the year.

One of the best Denali (McKin­ley) view­points on a clear day. Also pic­nic sites, bath­room, and 9 campsites. 

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

Won­der Lake is a some­what unlike­ly lake. Learn how the lake was formed, and what makes it so unique.

This is a pop­u­lar stop as you trav­el the Seward High­way. Here you’ll find 180 degree views of Tur­na­gain Arm. There’s an exten­sive view­ing area with spot­ting scopes and inter­pre­tive signs. This is an excel­lent spot to watch the bore tide. The incom­ing tide stretched the entire width of Tur­na­gain Arm and can be six feet high as it rush­es in. Watch for kayak­ers and surfers rid­ing the wave for sev­er­al miles. Look for bel­u­ga whales rolling in the…  ...more

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

Watch crafts­men turn birch logs into heir­loom bowls, browse some 1,500 Made in Alas­ka prod­ucts or cus­tom design your own laser engraved bowl while at the Great Alaskan Bowl Com­pa­ny. Start­ed over 20 years ago, this fam­i­ly-run busi­ness is one of the last oper­a­tional bowl mills in Amer­i­ca, and it thrives because of the qual­i­ty prod­ucts and large selection.

Sam­ple deli­cious syrup and sweets made from birch trees at Kahilt­na Birch­works in Tal­keet­na — the world’s largest pro­duc­er of birch syrup. Stop in to shop, or for a tour of the facil­i­ty at mile 1.1 of the Tal­keet­na Spur Rd, just off the Parks High­way. You’ll also find Alaskan food prod­ucts (many wild har­vest­ed), botan­i­cals, and func­tion­al art like pot­tery, tiles, birch bark and wood crafts. Prod­ucts are also avail­able online. 

This Anchor­age insti­tu­tion has a great slo­gan: ​“If you don’t know furs, know your fur­ri­er.” The furs them­selves come from Alas­ka and oth­er parts of the world — such as Scan­di­navia and Rus­sia — and come from mink, beaver, lynx, and fox, to name a few. Go upstairs to see how they make every­thing from coats to slip­pers, most­ly by hand. 

The Ulu Fac­to­ry makes high-qual­i­ty ulus that are prac­ti­cal in the kitchen, as well as cus­tom-made birch wood sal­ad grab­bers. Watch skilled crafts­men car­ry on this tra­di­tion at the Fac­to­ry near Ship Creek.

One of the most orig­i­nal gifts you can find in Alas­ka is a piece of cloth­ing made from the under­coat of the musk ox, called ​“Qivuit.” What’s so spe­cial about this fab­ric? It’s fin­er than cash­mere, eight times warmer than wool (and not scratchy like wool), and extreme­ly light. Pick up some items made from this rare, lus­trous fiber when you’re down­town at the co-op; you’ll have a rare trea­sure that can be found nowhere else in the world.

This gift store sits 1,800 feet above Juneau, at the top of the Gold­belt Mount Roberts Tramway. So while you peruse one of the city’s best selec­tions of Alas­ka Native art­work, you can also take in some amaz­ing views. It’s why this is the place to ​“shop at the top.”

Long­time Alaskan Heather Robuck makes mod­ern gold prospect­ing easy: Their col­lec­tions of hand­made gold-in-quartz jew­el­ry — a rare com­bi­na­tion — are craft­ed into rings, neck­laces, and bracelets. Also, check out their exten­sive col­lec­tion of nat­ur­al, unal­tered gold nuggets.

This down­town shop does­n’t just offer ready-made gifts and sou­venirs — though it does have plen­ty of those, includ­ing jew­el­ry, medal­lions and watch­es embla­zoned with Alaskan images such as bears, wolves and even Idi­tar­od cham­pi­ons. One of the most pop­u­lar items here are gold-nugget neck­laces, ren­dered from piece of gold brought in by mod­ern-day prospec­tors. The store’s oth­er claim to fame is being the start­ing point for the Idi­tar­od and Fur…  ...more

Dis­cov­er some­thing tru­ly unique to bring home at this one-of-a-kind gallery that car­ries only work by Alaskan artists. Shop for high-qual­i­ty glass, met­al, and wood art; jew­el­ry; mit­tens; hand­bags; scarves; hand­made soap; jour­nals and note­books; pho­tog­ra­phy; water­col­or prints; cards; stick­ers and more. 

Alas­ka Wild Berry Prod­ucts has two con­ve­nient loca­tions. One, inside the 5^th Avenue Mall in the heart of down­town Anchor­age. The oth­er is just a brief 10-minute dri­ve from down­town. The shop itself fea­tures great Alaskan gifts like Alaskan jel­ly, salmon, meats, and chocolate. 

Step inside Alaska’s longest cave and learn about the geo­log­ic forces that cre­at­ed it and the archae­o­log­i­cal trea­sures that have been dis­cov­ered there. Three free, dai­ly tours pro­vid­ed by the U.S. For­est Ser­vice takes vis­i­tors 500 feet into this two-mile-long cave.

The Chena River­walk makes for a relax­ing self-paced stroll along the Chena Riv­er and through the most scenic parks and plazas of his­toric down­town. It’s best when flow­ers are in full bloom (July-August). The path stretch­es approx­i­mate­ly 3.5 miles between Pio­neer Park and Air­port Way, with longer options avail­able. Or — park at Immac­u­late Con­cep­tion Church or in the Down­town Trans­porta­tion Cen­ter for a short­er jaunt.

Built on the old fish­ing grounds of Tlin­git Natives, the park hosts some of the finest native art in the world!

The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail is one of four green­belt trails locat­ed in Anchor­age. Even though the trail spans 11.0 miles each way (from Kin­caid Park to just north of where 2^nd Avenue ends in the Cook Inlet), it is eas­i­ly picked up from sev­er­al points in the city, so you can enjoy any seg­ment and hike as lit­tle or much of the trail as you desire. In the win­ter, the trail is groomed for cross coun­try skiing.

The Homer Spit is a long, nar­row fin­ger of land jut­ting 4.5 miles into Kachemak Bay. Dot­ted with busi­ness­es, the area caters to vis­i­tors and pro­vides numer­ous recre­ation oppor­tu­ni­ties, from fish­ing and beach­comb­ing to shop­ping and boating.

Here you’ll find one of the most acces­si­ble wildlife view­ing areas in Alas­ka. The marsh is a rest area for migra­to­ry birds includ­ing trum­peter swans, red­necked grebes, gold­en eyes, and pin­tails. Also watch for beavers, moose and bald eagles. You may even spot salmon spawn­ing in the deep­er water.

Seward Water­front Park extends from the small boat har­bor to the SeaL­ife Cen­ter and con­tains paid tent and RV camp­ing, play­grounds, a skate park, pic­nic­ing areas, beach access, and a trail lined with his­tor­i­cal landmarks.

Near­ly a cen­tu­ry ago in 1903, this was the small min­ing and fish­ing town’s red-light dis­trict but today the board­walk street, propped up over Ketchikan Creek on wood­en pil­ings, teems with gift shops, muse­ums and well-pre­served homes.

In the Tal­keet­na Moun­tains between the towns of Wil­low and Palmer, Hatch­er Pass is a local favorite for recre­ation or a scenic dri­ve. Hike in alpine tun­dra dot­ted with wild­flow­ers and ptarmi­gan, ski fresh, deep pow­der, or vis­it Inde­pen­dence Mine His­tor­i­cal State Park.

It’s 92 miles and about 5 hours from the park entrance to Kan­tish­na, the end of the Park Road. Pri­vate vehi­cles aren’t per­mit­ted after Mile 15, so you’ll need to take either the hop-on, hop-off park shut­tle bus or one of the tour bus­es. This road is only open in the sum­mer months between May and ear­ly Sep­tem­ber. Dates vary depend­ing on annu­al snowfall.

The Seward High­way hugs the dra­mat­ic shore­lines of Tur­na­gain Arm. One of the most beau­ti­ful stretch­es of high­way in America

The Denali High­way, stretch­ing 135 miles from Pax­son to Cantwell, is cer­tain­ly one of the most spec­tac­u­lar dri­ves in the world. Much of the route lies above tim­ber­line, so the vis­tas go on for­ev­er. The moun­tains and glac­i­ers of the Alas­ka Range form a majes­tic back­drop, with miles of rolling tun­dra punc­tu­at­ed by shal­low lakes in between. There are a few along the way, and you can camp any­where along the highway.