Haven’t been there in a few years but Exit Glacier in Seward was well worth the trip. Once there you can also hike up to the Harding Ice Field. You could also check out the Great Alaskan Bush Company, which is more for say… “people watching” as opposed to outdoor adventure.
Seward is also a pretty long trip for someone with only two days to spend. Great Alaskan Bush Company: only if you are interested in a gynecology lesson. You can get bad beer and naked women in almost any city, so why waste your time?
Any car can make these treks. I’ve seen complete POS vehicles on these roads. The only one I can think of where it would be a really bad idea would be Archangel Road off of the Hatcher Pass road. I drove that in my Wrangler at about 10mph and we got tossed around like a ping pong ball in a hurricane. The hill going down to the Mat Glacier area can have some loose gravel: just take it slow.
And so? Where did you go and what did you see?
Just got back late last night. I had an great time, and I’d like to thank everyone for the advice, a lot of which made it into my trip.
Most of the Anchorage restaurant recommendations were done in the business part of my trip, so I got to enjoy Simon & Seaforts, Snow City Cafe, Snow Goose and Glacier Brewhouse - I had quite a few good beers at the last two places - for a small city it seems well represented by good craft brewers. Lots of salmon and halibut, which was delicious.
My two free days were awesome. The weather wasn’t too bad - it was completely overcast and threatened to rain, but it never really followed through. I actually did make it all the way to Seward and back with lengthy stops for the animal conservatory, the aerial tram, the Portage glacier boat and the Exit glacier hike. I drove to Whittier and back which was worth it just for the tunnel and the general oddness of the place, but I didn’t stay long. The long days were incredible - the hike to Exit glacier was done as a spontaneous decision at 7pm, yet I still had time to hike to the ice itself and make it back to Anchorage in daylight.
The second day was spent driving Hatcher Pass and visiting the Independence Mine. It was very foggy and rained a bit but that actually added to the desolate atmosphere of the place, I got a lot of excellent photos on this drive. Avis ran out of normal cars for my reservation so they had to give me a Highlander, which was a lot of fun for the pass. I did a three hour hike on the actual Matanuska glacier in the evening with a company - I’m glad I did that as I wouldn’t have gone nearly as far out alone and without the crampons. This was absolutely breathtaking.
So all in all a wonderful trip, and I got a lot out of it. I’ll probably be in town a few more times so I’ll have to find more activities - I’d really like to do a long hike (from Exit glacier to the actual ice field perhaps) and maybe a longer cruise.
I want my ashes scattered on Hatcher Pass, preferably in the Little Susitna River.