Walking on Matanuska Glacier (Year-Round) & Gold-Mining History at Hatcher Pass (Independence Mine)

To walk out onto a river of ancient blue ice, peer into turquoise meltwater crevasses and touch 10,000-year-old ice walls without needing a helicopter, drive 164 kilometres (102 miles or 2 hours northeast of Anchorage along the Glenn Highway National Scenic Byway, Alaska Route 1) to Matanuska Glacier. At 43 kilometres (27 miles) long and 6.4 kilometres (4 miles) wide, it is the largest glacier accessible by car in the United States.

1. How to Walk Onto Matanuska Glacier (Milepost 102, Open Year-Round)

While you can view the glacier from a distance at the state wayside at Milepost 101, the private access road and suspension bridges leading onto the ice at Milepost 102 (Matanuska Glacier Park) require joining a guided tour:

• How the 2-Hour Guided Glacier Walk Works: drive your rental car to the Matanuska Glacier Park Check-In Booth at Milepost 102 (tours depart from morning through mid-afternoon; check rates and book ahead online with Glacier Tours, Mica Guides or Nova Alaska, including park access, helmets and ice cleats) or book a van tour from Anchorage.
• Accessible in Summer and Winter: guides strap microspike ice cleats over your ankle hiking boots and lead you for 2 hours across white and cobalt-blue glacial ice, passing sculpted canyons, moulins, glacial pools and 20-metre serac walls. In winter from November through March, when meltwater freezes solid, routes pass inside blue ice caves and acoustic ice slots.

2. Combine on the Return (At Palmer): Hatcher Pass or Musk Ox & Reindeer Farms

One hour from Anchorage near the farming town of Palmer (known for giant cabbages grown under the midnight sun), add one of these stops:

1. Hatcher Pass & Independence Mine State Historical Park (Milepost 17 of Hatcher Pass Rd): drive 25 minutes up a switchback road above the treeline to a 1,060-metre alpine tundra bowl surrounded by granite peaks, where 16 wooden buildings of a 1930s hard-rock gold mine stand preserved.
2. The Musk Ox Farm or Reindeer Farm (In Palmer): hand-feed domesticated reindeer and moose at the Reindeer Farm, or learn how Ice Age muskoxen produce qiviut (warm natural underwool eight times warmer than sheep's wool) at the non-profit Musk Ox Farm.