Alaska is a paradise for adrenaline junkies, nature buffs and wildlife worshippers. With the largest state park system in the U.S., groups can arrange activities galore, from ice climbing to sea kayaking. The summer months are most popular, with visitors able to take advantage of the long daylight hours.
Despite its reputation, there are many options for visiting Alaska in winter as well. Southeast locations like Juneau resemble more of a Pacific Northwest climate, while interior Alaska locales like Fairbanks embrace the deep freeze with festivals such as an annual World Ice Art Championships every March and snow-based sports like skiing and dog sledding.
Following are 10 Alaska experiences sure to enlighten the adventurer in any group.
1. Sea Kayaking
Sea kayaking is an Alaska summer sensation. Nothing can make you feel quite as vulnerable as watching a calving glacier drop an iceberg the size of a New York apartment right in front of your kayak.
In southeast Alaska, Gustavus, a short flight from Juneau, serves as a launch for a number of kayaking adventures in Glacier Bay National Park or nearby Point Adolphus. A number of tour companies operate in the region, including Alaska Mountain Guides (www.alaskamountainguides.com).
"One of our most popular programs is kayaking with the whales at Point Adolphus, where there is the highest frequency of humpback whales feeding in North America," says Eli Fierer, field operations manager for the company.
A three-day option includes camping on the beach. Tours run from mid-April to the end of September, though prime whale watching is from June through August.
In Southcentral Alaska, Resurrection Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park are home to sea otters, sea lions, Dall’s porpoise, harbor seals, humpback whales, orcas, bald eagles, puffins and many different species of sea birds. A number of outfitters run day trips from Seward, such as Sunny Cove Sea Kayaking (www.sunnycove.com). Options include a Fox Island day trip, featuring a six-hour paddle and a salmon bake dinner.
Alaska Sea Kayakers (www.alaskaseakayakers.com) leads trips to Prince William Sound from Whittier. Groups can organize day trips kayaking to a rookery for the Black Legged Kittiwake sea bird or to Blackstone Bay to view calving glaciers and hike alongside the Lawrence Glacier.
"Prince William Sound is more protected from the open sea conditions of the Gulf of Alaska, so we tend to get more benign paddling conditions on the sound than Kenai Fjords," says Peter Denmark, president of Alaska Sea Kayakers.
Trips run from May through mid-September, and groups of up to 60 can be accommodated.
Another sea kayaking hot spot, Ketchikan is a launching point for the granite walls and waterfalls of Misty Fjords National Park. Southeast Sea Kayaks (www.kayakketchikan.com) provides boat rides to the park for a full day of kayaking. Trips are limited to the summer and to 12 kayakers.
The company can accommodate larger groups on its Ketchikan kayaking trip, exploring the shores of Pennock and Gravina Islands. An active bald eagle’s nest on Pennock offers the opportunity to see them nesting. Most popular are kayak trips around Orca’s Cove, also home to a bald eagle’s nest, as well as humpback whales, orcas, porpoises, seals and sea lions. Both trips can be done year-round.
2. Rafting
Alaska is a hotbed for white-water rafting and river floats. Denali National Park, home to 20,300-foot Mt. McKinley, known locally as Denali, features some of Alaska’s best rafting. Nearly all raft trips travel the Nenana River bordering the eastern side of the park. Denali Raft Adventures (www.denaliraft.com) offers white-water trips, with the skill level ranging from class I to class IV rapids, and runs two-hour scenic floats or more challenging full-day trips.
NOVA (www.novalaska.com), the state’s oldest rafting company, caters to groups with team-building white-water trips on the Upper Matanuska River out of Palmer. The Lion Head trip is the most popular, offering class III and IV rapids next to the 27-mile-long Matanuska Glacier and midnight sun trips in summer. The class V Six Mile Creek white-water trip south of Anchorage is also possible, as is the more sedate Glacier Run. All runs are available from June through August.
Float trips from Haines are popular into the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. Chilkat Guides (www.chilkatguides.com) offers float trips on 18-foot rafts through the preserve, which boasts the largest congregation of bald eagles in the world. Eagles, bears and wolves all frequent the preserve, as do moose. In November, Haines is home to the annual Alaska Bald Eagle Festival, though float trips run May through September.
3. Bear Viewing
When it comes to experiencing wildlife in Alaska, bear viewing is almost a rite of passage for the true nature fiend.
Katmai National Park and Preserve contains the world’s largest protected brown bear population, estimated to number in excess of 2,000. Bears are especially likely to congregate at the Brooks Falls viewing platform when the salmon are spawning and abound in Brooks Camp all summer, but are most numerous from July to September.
Alaska Adventures (www.alaska-bear-viewing.net) offers bear-viewing day trips via plane and jet boat into the heart of the park from the town of King Salmon, as well as multiday options.
"We do a lot of corporate and team building. We have a lodge and an 80-foot liveaboard houseboat for meetings and groups," says Charlie Summerville, aka Captain Charlie, owner, pilot, CEO and head guide. "We specialize in off-the-grid bear viewing and photography. Brooks Falls is the Walt Disney World of Alaska. We take guests into remote areas with no crowds and no people."
The Alaska Trophy Adventures Lodge, 40 miles north of King Salmon, is a fly-in lodge that holds up to 24 and offers Wi-Fi and a small conference center.
"For smaller groups, the houseboat is a unique, intimate experience, with its own chef and two guides," Summerville says.
A primary bear-viewing area in southeast Alaska is located at Anan Creek, about a half-hour from Wrangell. Breakaway Adventures (breakawayadventures.com) offers money-back-guarantee bear-viewing day trips, though bookings are necessary well in advance for groups since permits are needed to enter the park and only a limited number of permits are allotted for each day.
The company runs boats from Wrangell to Anan, where visitors walk a half-mile trail to the observation deck, close to where salmon pool at the base of a waterfall, drawing black bears and some brown bears. Prime viewing is mid-July to early August.
4. Glacier Trekking
While many of the world’s glaciers continue to retreat, Alaska makes it easy to experience these masses of ice. One of the most popular glaciers for short treks is the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. Above and Beyond Alaska (www.beyondak.com) offers guided instruction. The seven-hour trip begins with a two- to three-mile trail hike through the rainforest en route to the glacier, where groups suit up and spend an hour-and-a-half exploring.
"Most popular are the private trips," says Becky Janes, owner and manager of the tour company, which operates from May through September. "The glacier hike can be catered to the group’s pace."
Though the trip is limited to 12 per outing, the company can accommodate up to about 60 with multiple departures in one day.
Valdez is home to five glaciers that can be accessed by cruising, flying, walking or driving. Anadyr Adventures (www.anadyradventures.com) offers a glacier kayaking and hiking day trip to the Valdez Glacier. Participants kayak between large icebergs and into ice caves and up to the face of the glacier for a hike on the glacier itself. Departures run from mid-May to mid-September.
Small groups can also combine flightseeing with a glacier landing through Talkeetna Air Taxi (www.talkeetnaair.com), one of only a few flightseeing companies with a permit to land on a glacier in Denali National Park. The planes stop for about 30 minutes on a glacier at the base of Mt. McKinley.
5. Ice Climbing
If a glacier trek isn’t enough of a thrill, many companies offer ice-climbing adventures to icefalls and frozen waterfalls.
In summer, Mica Guides (www.micaguides.com) takes groups of up to 50 on the icefall at the Matanuska Glacier near Palmer. The company provides instruction for beginners who start on the moderate ice slopes before attempting steeper vertical walls. Team-building and multiday ice climbs are available.
Groups staying in McCarthy and Kennecott, two small communities in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, can access the Root Glacier, where St. Elias Alpine Guides (www.steliasguides.com) offers ice climbing for various skill levels, from easy to "extremely challenging," according to Wayne Marrs, owner and guide for the company.
Climbers can try climbing down and back up a moulin hole—a shaft in the ice carved by water—reaching depths of anywhere from 30 to 500 feet deep.
"Those are really fun, really challenging and exhilarating," Marrs says.
Even more challenging is climbing almost completely upside down on the roof of an ice cave. Trips run from the end of May to early September.
6. Hiking
Point your GPS in just about any direction in Alaska and there are wilderness trails to be hiked. The experience can range from a day trip up the state’s most climbed mountain, Flattop Mountain near Anchorage, to two-week backpacking treks in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Ascending Path (www.theascendingpath.com), based in Anchorage, runs guided half-day and full-day hikes in Chugach State Park.
"Our guides have a lot of knowledge and experience about the ecology and flora and fauna," says Matt Szundy, one of the owners of the company.
Lucky hikers may spot moose, ptarmigan, fox or even bear. The same hiking trails turn to snowshoeing trails in the winter. The company also offers team-building options like geocaching in the park.
In the southeast, Sitka is a hiking haven. Located on Baranof Island on the outer coast of Alaska’s Inside Passage, Sitka, like Juneau, is accessible only by air and sea.
Sitka Tribal Tours (www.sitkatours.com) offers guided hikes from Sitka run by Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
"The revenue goes back into the tribe and helps perpetuate the culture," says Tonia Rioux, tourism manager of Sitka Tribal Tours.
Hiking tours include information about Sitka’s Russian and Tlingit history and culture, including traditional uses of various plants in the rainforest. Hikes on the Starrigavan Trail take in an old-growth forest, a natural bird-watching estuary and a salmon-spawning stream. Summer is the most popular season, though special hikes in off-season can be set up as well.
7. Arctic Adventures
Groups staying in Fairbanks can cross the Arctic Circle with a number of tour companies. Northern Alaska Tour Company (www.northernalaska.com) offers one-day programs such as the Arctic Circle Fly/Drive Adventure, starting with a flight from Fairbanks to Coldfoot, halfway between Fairbanks and Dead Horse in the Brooks Mountain Range, followed by a ground tour south on the Dalton Highway. The 12-hour tour includes a visit to the Alaska Pipeline and the Yukon River.
The company’s Arctic Circle Native Culture Adventure visits the Nunamiut Eskimo village of Anaktuvuk Pass in the Brooks Mountain Range, with a population of about 300. Visitors spend an hour with a host from the community.
The company takes groups up to 25 at a time.
"You get out there and it is vast; you don’t see any traffic, no billboard signs, no homes," says Kathy Hedges, marketing coordinator for Northern Alaska Tour Company.
The shortest trip is the five-hour Arctic Circle air adventure, available year-round, while the longer trips, including overnight options in Coldfoot for up to 100, are available from the end of May to the beginning of September.
All Alaska Tours (www.alaskatours.com) also specializes in day trips into Alaska’s Arctic, available from Fairbanks, such as the Arctic Circle Adventure, Flight to Fort Yukon or a visit to Gates of the Arctic National Park. Exploring the Bering Sea coastal community of Nome on day or overnight trips is also possible and gives insight into the Arctic lifestyle, as well as Alaska’s gold rush history.
8. Dog Sledding
Dog sledding is a main attraction in Fairbanks, ground zero for mushers training for the annual Iditarod Sled Dog Race and home to the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. Paws for Adventure (www.pawsforadventure.com) operates tours near Chena Hot Springs outside Fairbanks.
"Groups get very hands-on putting together their own dog teams, putting harnesses on," says Leslie Goodwin, owner and guide for the company.
Beginners paticipate in a half-day mushing school before taking a run. Larger groups can take out snowmobiles and switch off with the mushers. Trips run from October to early April.
In Seward, Godwin Glacier Dog Sled Tours (www.alaskadogsled.com) helicopters up to 60 people in a day to the glacier for a 20-minute dogsled run, with tours running from July through August. Beginners are welcome.
"It’s really not that difficult. I had my 82-year-old mother a few years back," says Diana Chavez, manager of the company.
9. Heli-Skiing/Downhill Skiing
In winter, the heaviest snow falls in Alaska’s coastal mountains, namely the Chugach Range, which forms a 300-mile crescent located just outside the town of Valdez, east of Anchorage and west of the Wrangell Mountains.
Experts can test their moxie on Valdez’s Chugach slopes with a heli-skiing adventure, heading to the backcountry in small groups. Alaska Backcountry Adventures (www.alaskabackcountry.com) offers group options at Thompson Pass in the heart of the Chugach Range.
"We can be pretty flexible; if there was a large group we can do something special," says Dave Rintala, head guide and CEO of Alaska Backcountry Adventures, which can take groups of up to 50 with an advance booking.
Options include heli-skiing and heli-snowboarding, as well as helicopter picnicking for non-skiers. Skiers are dropped off at a different location where they ski down to the lunch spot to meet the rest of the group.
"We fly into glacial valleys where humans rarely get to and set up catered luncheons," Rintala says.
In the Anchorage area, Chugach Powder Guides (www.chugachpowderguides.com) offers trips to the backcountry and features an exclusive-use permit area that covers over 700,000 acres of varied mountainous terrain. The company is based at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood.
The season starts in late January or early February and ends in mid-April.
Downhill skiing is an option at the Alyeska Resort as well as at Mt. Aurora SkiLand (http://home.att.net/~skiland) near Fairbanks, the northernmost chairlift in North America. The ski area also serves as a center for viewing the aurora borealis, or northern lights, from mid-August to mid-April and is close to the Mount Aurora Fairbanks Creek Lodge. The ski season normally starts around Thanksgiving and runs until about mid-April.
10. Snowmobile Safaris
Snowmobiling offers another winter option in many parts of the state. Alaska Snow Safaris (www.snowmobile-alaska.com) runs guided snowmobile day tours from Girdwood.
Half-day trips head to the Placer River Valley or the Turnagain Pass, with the possibility of accessing Spencer and Skookum glaciers. Full-day trips from Anchorage head north through the backcountry of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley.
"It’s predominantly up to the rider what they want to see and enjoy," says Erica Maynard, who owns the company with her husband. "We have seen moose and wolves on some trips. A lot of times it’s about going into the mountains and being remote and grasping how big Alaska is."
Trips run from about Thanksgiving to April. The company also offers multiday excursions in Valdez.
