Vehicle with multiple occupants drives off Glenn Highway and into Matanuska River, troopers say

Photo Credit: Brent Reynolds

• Scenic Drive Points
• Map

Driving n from Anchorage isn't as instantly dramatic as going southward, but inside an hr you're immersed in terminate-and-shoot scenery. The Glenn Highway runs northeast to agricultural Palmer, and then twists due east forth the Matanuska River Valley, sandwiched between coastal and interior mountains.

The Matanuska Glacier makes for a smashing day trip from Anchorage, because in that location's lots to see and practice in the area.

Scenic Drive Points

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Difficulty: Easy Distance: i mile Elevation Gain: 100 anxiety

Who can say no to a cool water­fall only a one-half-hour's dri­ve from town? One of the most pop­u­lar ​"first hikes" for fam­i­lies with minor chil­dren, the one-mile trail to Thun­der­bird Falls tra­vers­es a hand­some birch for­est forth the Eklut­na Riv­er canyon to reach a deck with views of a200-pes water­fall. Dur­ing win­ter, the falls can freeze, form­ing fab­u­lous columns of bluish ice.

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Dat­ing back to 1650, the park is the expanse'south former­est con­tin can­u­ous­ly inhab­it­ed Athabaskan prepare­tle­ment. View the col­or­ful Spir­it Hous­es congenital over the graves of the deceased, along with an Ortho­dox Chris­t­ian Cross — a cus­tom that came from the meld­ing of the cultures.

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Season: Year-Round, Winter past Appointment Simply $xi 40 - 45 min

Locat­ed 45 min­utes from Ballast­age, the Musk Ox farm project was con­ceived in the 1950s as an agrar­i­an oppor­tu­ni­ty for vil­lagers in West­ern Alas­ka; today it'south a fas­ci­nat­ing look at an ani­mal (and a way of life) that was per­ilous­ly close to extinc­tion. You can take a30- to 40-minute bout of the farm and see some lxx musk ox. Since they're friend­ly crea­tures, they may come right up to the fence to greet you.

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The camp­ground is pret­ty open, since bawl bee­tles killed the big, old spruce copse. The camp­sites attract RVers and campers, and each of the 24 sites has a burn band and pic­nic table. There's drinkable h2o at a hand pump.

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The loca­tion of this ATV adven­ture is the mid­point betwixt Anchor­age and Glen­nallen. Plen­ty of trav­el­ers dri­ve through this expanse with­out paus­ing for more than a motion picture­ture of the route­side glac­i­er, simply Glac­i­er View ATV's iii-hr bout — the merely ATV excur­sion in this part of Alas­ka — makes this tour well worth a longer terminate.

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$95+ 3 to 6 hrs

Expe­ri­ence the thrill of walk­ing or climb­ing on a glac­i­er. The Matanus­ka is Alaska's largest road-acces­si­ble glac­i­er, and it's merely xc min­utes from Anchor­age, so it's an piece of cake way to get up close and per­son­al with these amaz­ing nat­ur­al won­ders. You lot don't need to be expe­ri­enced in either activ­i­ty — just be in good shape and upwards for adven­ture. You'll either walk around on the glac­i­er with cram­pons or acquire how to use an ice axe and safe­ly work your  ...more

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$95+ ii hrs

Expe­ri­ence a scenic float along a glacial riv­er. Only 90 min­utes from Anchor­age, the Matanus­ka Glac­i­er is Alaska's largest road-acces­si­ble glac­i­er, and the water run­ning under­neath cre­ates a riv­er that's per­fect for raft­ing. You'll float downwards­stream for upwards to 2 hours, tak­ing in the scenery forth the way — moun­tains, riv­er chan­nels, loma­sides, moraines — and expect­ing out for wildlife. It's fun for the whole fam­i­ly — any­i ages 5 and up tin can do this  ...more

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Difficulty: Easy

Look­ing to intermission upwardly your dri­ve with a jog or bicycle ride? This lit­tle-used, 2‑mile sec­tion of the for­mer Glenn High­fashion has lit­tle to no traf­fic. Rocks and shrubs are pitter-patter­ing onto the route sur­face in places. Information technology's qui­et, breathtaking, and hilly. The road­manner is offi­cial­ly closed in the mid­dle but easily-passable.

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Halfway betwixt Anchor­age and Glen­nallen, where yous'll detect a vari­ety of accom­mo­da­tions, a deli­cious din­er, and tons of adventures

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The Matanus­ka Land Park is the best identify for a free view of the Matanus­ka Glac­i­er. You won't be able to walk up to the glac­i­er (that'southward at Mile 102 and is $30 per per­son), but this well-devel­oped site (wihch is also con­nect­ed to the near­by RV Park) offers plen­ty of park­ing, pub­lic restrooms, and excel­lent glac­i­er views and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties. You'll too find: A one-half-dozen inter­pre­tive signs most glac­i­ers, ice crea­tures, spruce bark…  ...more

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It'south only a small-scale pull-out on the side of the high­way, but this is the clos­est view­betoken of the Matanus­ka Glac­i­er. If you lot don't accept a pow­er­ful zoom on your cam­era, or only want to become a great wait at the water ice, this is the spot. There'due south but room for about six cars and the feel is a bit more rus­tic than the offi­cial state rec site a mile to the w, but you'll be perched on a bluff over­look­ing the glac­i­er. Dis­tance 103.3 miles n of…  ...more than

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Some xv,000 years ago, this glac­i­er reached anoth­er 50 miles west to the Palmer area. Information technology now has a four-mile wide tow­er­ing face that yous can walk correct up to and bear upon. Go on an eye out for sum­mer­fourth dimension ice-climbers at this most impres­sive road­side glac­i­er. Direc­tions: Head northward from Ballast­age on the Glenn High­mode. At mile 102, you lot tin dri­ve down to Glac­i­er Park and pay a solar day fee (888−253−4480), then hike 15 –xx min­utes to the face of  ...more

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Season: Mid-May to Mid-September $89+ 3 hrs to total solar day excursions

There'due south climb­ing a moun­tain – and so in that location'southward climb­ing an ICE moun­tain. Regard­less of your climb­ing abil­i­ty or expe­ri­ence, you lot'll finish the day feel­ing ful­filled and inspired. MICA also offers short, guid­ed hikes and longer treks if you pre­fer a more leisure­ly explore of the glac­i­er and its grandeur.

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Difficulty: Difficult

Panthera leo's Head is famous through­out the state. This rock out­crop­ping is the promi­nent fea­ture beside the Matanus­ka Glac­i­er and is fea­tured in mag­a­zines and adver­tise­ments all over Alas­ka. And you lot tin hike it! You've got to be in good shape and ready for a scram­bling, 1-60 minutes climb. Yous'll be reward­ed past swell views, wait­ing downwards atwo,000-foot cliff face to the glac­i­er. You're panora­ma will include views of the Matanus­ka Riv­er, Cari­bou Creek with…  ...more than

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Peo­ple love to pull off here and shoot a pho­to beside this clas­sic sign. A local the­o­ry on the creek proper noun is that the crusty, old sour­dough who lived downwards well-nigh the creek used mules for guid­ing hunts. These mules pur­port­ed­ly escaped a lot, so the ass­es were always past the creek. Who knows? But it'southward a clas­sic pho­to for the friends back home.

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Merely south of the Cari­bou Creek bridge near mile mark­er 104 on the Glenn Loftier­way in the shad­ow of the Lion'due south Head rock for­ma­tion, expect for the turnoff for the Cari­bou Creek Recre­ation­al Min­ing Expanse. You are not going to get fab­u­lous­ly rich hither and exist the next star of the Television set real­i­ty show Gold Rush, only you practise have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to auto­ry a golden pan and shov­el, hike the steep one-half-mile-long trail down to the creek, and pan for gold.

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S-fac­ing slopes can con­cen­trate big num­bers of sheep that are espe­cial­ly vis­i­ble after green-upwardly in the bound. Lodges in the area pro­vide spot­ting scopes and good advice, and there are sev­er­al pull­outs and trail­heads with rubber parking.

Source: https://www.alaska.org/guide/matanuska-glacier-scenic-drive

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