Denali National Park & Preserve
This pass – the first major pass you cross on Park Rd – is known as a prime habitat for Toklat brown bears.
Must-see attractions in Alaska
Alaska
This enormous tundra river basin is home to some of the most pristine, intact Arctic ecosystems in the USA.
Homer
The town's best gallery, with monthly shows of fine art. You can also buy stunning jewelry and pottery.
Anchorage
From mid- to late summer, king, coho and pink salmon spawn up Ship Creek, the historical site of Tanaina Indian fish camps. At the overlook you can cheer…
Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum
Anchorage
On the south shore of Lake Hood (the world’s busiest floatplane lake), this museum is a tribute to Alaska’s colorful Bush pilots and their faithful planes…
Alaska
Sand zero, so to speak, of Nome’s famed gold rush, this beach is still open to recreational mining and all summer long you can watch miners set up work…
Skagway
In 1898 Skagway’s rival city, Dyea (die-ee) was the trailhead for Chilkoot Trail, the shortest route to Lake Bennett, where stampeders began their float…
Anchorage Region
Near Wasilla, the town of Knik boasts a rich sled-dog history, since it's the home of many Alaskan mushers (and checkpoint 4 on the race route). For more…
Cathedral of the Holy Ascension
Aleutian Islands
Unalaska is dominated by the Cathedral of the Holy Ascension, the oldest Russian-built church still standing in Alaska. It was built in 1825 and then…
Valdez
Old Valdez is like a wilder, starker, less trammeled version of Italy's Pompeii. This is where the town stood before the devastating 1964 earthquake…
Captain Cook State Recreation Area
Kenai Peninsula
By following the Kenai Spur Hwy north for 36 miles, you’ll first pass the trailer parks and chemical plants of the North Kenai industrial district before…
Southeast Alaska
About 9 miles from Bartlett Cove is the small settlement of Gustavus, an interesting backcountry community. The town's 400 citizens include a mix of…
Nancy Lake State Recreation Area
The Interior
Located along the Nancy Lake Pkwy, jutting off George Parks Hwy at Mile 67.3, this state recreation area is one of Alaska’s few flat, lake-studded parks,…
Prince William Sound
In Cordova, the standard greeting among locals is ‘Been fishing?’ Unsurprisingly, the harbor is the community’s heart, humming throughout the season as…
Skagway
The founder of Skagway was not a gold-hungry Klondike stampeder but the savvy Captain William Moore, who arrived in the area on a hunch in 1887 and built…
Southwest Alaska
A scar in the earth left behind by the massive 1912 Novarupta volcanic eruption, the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is a stark landscape of deep gorges,…
Southeast Alaska
The Shakes are a long line of Tlingit leaders (the current leader is Chief Shakes X). They are represented on this tiny, grassy islet slap bang in the…
Sitka
This is no zoo, or bird show for gawping kids. Rather, think of it more as a raptor hospital and rehab center – and a good one at that. The 17-acre center…
Southeast Alaska
Thought Alaska's history started with the Klondike gold rush? Not so. Historians and anthropologists should home in on this state historic park on…
Talkeetna
Three rivers – the Talkeetna, Susitna, and Chulitna – come together here like an aquatic Voltron to form the Big Susitna River (which is technically the…
Kodiak Island
At the end of Pasagshak Rd, the cliffs on each side of this remote beach are lined with bowling-ball-sized concretions (where sand and silt has been…
Kodiak Island
Housed in the oldest Russian structure in Alaska, across the street from the visitor center, the Baranov Museum fills Erskine House, which the Russians…
Fairbanks
If you can’t make a trip to the Arctic for a little wildlife observation, consider visiting this research station that tends herds of musk ox, reindeer…
Sitka
East along Lincoln St on the former campus of Sheldon Jackson College is Sheldon Jackson Museum. The college may be gone, but this fine museum, housed in…
Anchorage Region
This friendly museum is run by enthusiastic Colony descendants. Take the time for a guided tour, and you’ll leave with an appreciation of the enormity of…
Old Sitka State Historical Park
Sitka
There are no physical remains of Old Sitka (known historically as the Redoubt), the original Russian settlement in the area, although archaeological digs…
Ketchikan
Dolly's house, in Creek St, looks like a dollhouse from the outside, but it once operated as a bastion of the world's oldest profession (read:…
Prince William Sound
Whittier's history goes back to – well – 1941, so you might be surprised to hear that it has a museum. Bivouacked next to a grocery store beneath the…
Gold Rush Cemetery & Reid Falls
Skagway
Visitors who become infatuated with 'Soapy' Smith and Frank Reid can walk out to this wooded cemetery, a 1.5-mile stroll northeast on State St, where…
4th Avenue Market Place/Village of Ship Creek Center
Anchorage
This shopping mall contains an array of native and crafty gift shops – in a few, you can watch artists at work. Outside, walls are painted with a historic…
Valdez
This annex of the Valdez Museum is dominated by a scale model of the Old Valdez township. Each home destroyed in the Good Friday Earthquake has been…
Anchorage Region
The Musk Ox Farm is home to a domesticated herd of these big, shaggy beasts. These ice-age critters are intelligent enough to have evolved a complex…
Sitka
Walk west on Lincoln St for the walkway to Castle Hill. Kiksadi clan houses once covered the hilltop site, but in 1836 the Russians built ‘Baranov’s…
Juneau
Juneau’s only state park overlooks Berners Bay and Lynn Canal; salmon fishing is excellent off the Berners Bay beaches and in Cowee Creek. Hiking trails…
Southeast Alaska
The North Boat Harbor is the best one for wandering the docks, talking to crews and possibly scoring some fresh fish. Begin at the Harbormaster Office; a…
Haines
This extravagantly esoteric museum is an exercise in how to make hammers look interesting. And – get this – it largely succeeds. Plucked from the…
University of Alaska Anchorage
Anchorage
UA-Anchorage is the largest college campus in Alaska. The Campus Center is home to a small art gallery and the bookstore, which has a good selection of…
Eklutna Village Historical Park
Anchorage Region
One of the most interesting anthropological sites in the region, where the uneasy marriage of the Athabascan and Russian Orthodox cultures is enshrined…
St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church
Juneau
Of 1893 vintage and etched against the backdrop of Mt Juneau, this diminutive onion-domed church is the oldest Russian Orthodox church in Alaska. Through…
Sitka
Sitka’s best children’s attraction is this hatchery and science center. Outside, the facade is being restored to its original appearance. Inside the…
