Roadtrip Images

The scenery in Alaska is just on another level. The mountains, the wildlife, the ocean and the glaciers. And taking a glacier hike was certainly an awesome experience.

The Glenn Highway runs between Glennallen and Anchorage. We drove it on our way into Alaska but with the rig attached didn’t stop very much. It has some amazing scenery so we decided to go back after our short stay in the Anchorage/Palmer area. We chose a campground in Glacier View that seemed to be in the middle of the mountain views. It was also very close to the Matanuska Glacier. This glacier is the largest one in the United States that you can actually drive up to and hike on. There is a $30 access fee since the access point is on private land. Several companies offer guided tours out onto the glacier year around. In the summer, a self guided tour option is available. The image below is from the parking area where the hike begins.

After doing some online research, we decided to do a guided tour glacier hike. We had never hiked a glacier before so we kinda wanted to get some expert guidance. The company that owns the land in front of the glacier is also one of the tour operators so we booked with them. That saved the $30 access fee (times 2). They provided ice crampons and climbing helmets although we didn’t do any climbing on this tour. Another tour company does offer an ice climbing tour where you rappel down into some crevasses. That sounds like fun. Next time.

The hiking tour lasted about 2 hours and we hiked about 3 miles round trip. Our tour guide was pretty knowledgeable so we learned a lot about the glacier and what was safe and not safe about hiking them. He also knew some of the vantage points that would be interesting to see. The hike itself was pretty easy. Not much elevation change and the ice crampons made sure we didn’t slip on the ice.

The ice fall area was probably the most interesting stop on the tour. This is where the glacier calves off large sections of ice at its terminus or end. There is a small pool of open water here where lots of ice chunks were deposited. This is also the start of the Matanuska river. Unfortunately no calving occurred while we were there but it did do a lot of creaking and groaning as it made its daily 1 foot or so of flow. You can see the ice fall below:

Along with the Matanuska Glacier, the Glenn Highway has some stunning views from Sutton east to a few miles past Glacier View. The Highway runs along a river valley between the Talkeetna mountain range to the north and the Chugatch mountain range to the south. The Chugatch Range with its proximity to the ocean has the highest average snowfall on the planet. We’ve heard of lake effect snow but this is ocean effect snow bringing in 800 inches of snowfall a year. That’s over 60 feet!

I’ve included some of the views below.

The Glenn Highway and the Matanuska Glacier are must sees if you’re in the area. The mountain are views just amazing and could keep a photographer busy for a long time. The glacier hike is pretty cool although a bit overpriced. The guided tour is really not necessary if you have some experience hiking in rugged terrain. Bring good hiking boots, not flip flops or sneakers (we saw both).

This was a good stop for the first leg of our trip into the interior of Alaska. We spent about 4 days on the Glenn Highway between the two glacier hikes and exploring the mountain viewpoints along the Glenn Highway. Cell phone coverage can be a little dodgy so plan accordingly.

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Nikon D850 with Nikkor 70-200mm at 145mm. f/8 at 1/60th of a second. ISO 64 for featured image at top.