Grand Tour
The Last Frontier
Three days out of Anchorage: fjord, glacier and the snowiest pass in the north.
Alaska is the last place on the continent where a road trip still feels like an expedition. Out of Anchorage three great roads make a natural arc: south along the tide-raced cliffs of Turnagain Arm to Seward, east up the Glenn beneath the hanging Matanuska Glacier, and over Thompson Pass, the snowiest place in the state, down to the little port of Valdez. Distances are honest, the services are roadhouses, and in June the light never really leaves you.
Turnagain Arm and the Kenai
Overnight: SewardSouth out of Anchorage with the tide racing up Turnagain Arm beside you, Dall sheep on the cliffs at Windy Corner, then over Turnagain Pass and along the Kenai lakes to Seward’s harbour under the mountains.
The Glenn to the Copper River
Overnight: GlennallenBack up the Arm in morning light, then east on the Glenn past Sheep Mountain and the four-mile tongue of the Matanuska Glacier, topping out at Eureka Summit with four mountain ranges on the horizon.
Thompson Pass to the sea
Overnight: ValdezSouth over the snowiest pass in Alaska, past the roadside sprawl of the Worthington Glacier and down through the waterfall walls of Keystone Canyon to tidewater at Valdez.
