Alaska, from Turnagain Arm to Denali

Glaciers, fjords and long highways

As soon as you leave Anchorage, the Seward Highway runs along Turnagain Arm, between the cliff and an arm of the sea. In summer you look out for belugas, and for Dall sheep on the rocks. At the head of the arm, you take a boat across the lake where Portage Glacier ends. A four-kilometre tunnel leads to Whittier, where almost everyone lives in a single building.

The Kenai Peninsula mixes fjords, rivers and fishing villages. From Seward, boats head out to the fjords, their whales and their glaciers. The Kenai River is turquoise blue, and salmon anglers line its banks in July. The road ends at Homer, on a long gravel spit facing the glaciers.

Further north, the Parks Highway leads to Talkeetna, Denali and Fairbanks, through the taiga. On the way back, the Richardson Highway follows the pipeline down to Valdez. After Glennallen, it runs along Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest in the United States; its visitor centre is by the road, at Copper Center. In June it stays light almost all night: you drive at 11 pm in full daylight, keeping an eye out for moose.

These trees died after the earthquake of 27 March 1964, magnitude 9.2, the strongest ever recorded in North America. The ground sank and salt water flooded the shores. In Valdez, the wharf collapsed into the sea and 32 people died; the town was rebuilt six kilometres away.

At the head of the arm, the village of Portage sank by about two metres and was abandoned. Girdwood was rebuilt four kilometres from the shore, higher up its valley.

Denali, the highest mountain in North America

Denali rises to 6,190 metres. Its name comes from a Koyukon word meaning “the high one”. Since 2025, its official federal name has once again been Mount McKinley, but the State of Alaska and the park keep the name Denali. On the first ascent, in 1913, it was Walter Harper, a Koyukon man, who reached the summit first. Climbers now set off from Talkeetna, where small planes fly out to land on the glaciers.

The summit stays in the clouds for much of the summer. In the park, cars stop at Savage River, at kilometre 24; beyond that, you carry on by bus, on the lookout for grizzlies and caribou. In 2021, a landslide cut the road at Pretty Rocks. A bridge now crosses the unstable ground: it was finished in September 2026, and the park plans for buses to run to Wonder Lake again in 2027.

What not to miss

1. 1The Anton Anderson TunnelThe longest road tunnel in North America, shared with the train.
2. 2Kenai FjordsA day on a boat from Seward, at the foot of the glaciers.
3. 3Kenai and NinilchikTwo Orthodox churches above Cook Inlet, a reminder of Russian America.
4. 4Thompson Pass and Keystone CanyonWorthington Glacier beside the road, then waterfalls at the bottom of a canyon.
5. 5EklutnaA Dena’ina cemetery with painted “spirit houses”, near a log church.
6. 6Independence MineAn abandoned gold mine in the middle of alpine meadows.

Alaska in pictures

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Portage Glacier above its lake, seen from the Portage Pass trail, with Divide Lake in the foreground.

The Alaskan table

Above all, you eat salmon: sockeye from the Kenai or king salmon from the Copper River. Homer calls itself the halibut fishing capital of the world, and serves it as fish and chips on the Spit. Try the reindeer sausage too.

In summer, the markets sell vegetables from the Matanuska Valley. In late August, the state fair in Palmer shows off giant cabbages, grown in the long days. You drink beer from local breweries, in Girdwood or Homer for example.