Alaska, the largest state in the USA, is home to glaciers, abundant wildlife, and the highest peak in the nation.
Photo by Marc Cappelletti/Shutterstock
This article was originally published in 2019 and most recently updated on July 13, 2026, with current information.
Snow-capped mountains, spectacular glaciers, and abundant wildlife like moose, wolves, and bears cover Alaska, the largest and least densely populated state in the U.S. Short of expert-level backcountry trekking, the best way to experience the state’s astounding nature is either on an Alaska cruise or a road trip.
This Alaska road trip itinerary covers roughly 950 miles over seven days, starting and ending in Anchorage. The best time to hit the road in Alaska is in June, July, or August, when the days are warm and very long and roads aren’t blocked by snow. Read on for what to do, where to eat, and where to stay on this week-long loop in and out of Anchorage.
Illustration by Emily Blevins, animation by Claudia Cardia
Day one: A Russian-Orthodox Church and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
End: McCarthy
Distance: Approximately 300 miles
Driving time: Approximately 6.5 hours
Day one of this Alaska road trip starts in Anchorage, and you don’t have to drive far from the big city to be wowed by the state’s impressive landscapes. Take the 179-mile Glenn Highway about 20 minutes out of Anchorage to Chugach State Park, north of Eagle River. Follow the easy, mile-long Thunderbird Falls trailhead through cottonwood and birch groves to catch distant views of the 200-foot-tall waterfall. For a closer look, descend the steep switchback trail into the canyon and go face to face with the powerful spray.
Back on the Glenn, take a moment to marvel at the slate-blue mountains and swathes of purple fireweed flanking the highway. Native Athabascans lived here from around 1650, making the tiny village of Eklutna, the oldest continually inhabited Athabascan site near Anchorage. At Eklutna Historical Park in Chugiak, you can learn more about that history—and what happened after the first missionaries showed up.
The Russian-Orthodox St. Nicholas Church dates to the 1830s; a newer building still serves Alaska Natives, specifically descendants of the Dena’ina Athabascan tribe.) Wander through the church graveyard and you’ll notice more than 100 spirit houses scattered across its burial grounds. These are placed atop graves 40 days after a person is buried. Surviving family members paint each house with colors linked to their heritage but do not maintain them. The spirit houses’ visible disintegration symbolizes the soul of the dead returning to the earth.
Enjoy vistas like this driving the McCarthy Road through Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.
Photo by Galyna Andrushko/Shutterstock
From Chugiak, take the McCarthy Road through the vast Wrangell–St. Elias National Park, the largest in the United States. This 60-mile drive to the park takes at least two hours, and the scenery is gorgeous—towering snow-capped peaks, rows of white spruce trees, and such wildlife as moose, grizzly and black bears, and eagles. Be sure to follow the National Park Service’s tips for driving this remote and unpaved road, including having a full tank of gas.
Where to stay
Bed down at the 20-room Ma Johnson’s Hotel in McCarthy, an early 1920s historic boarding house turned homey inn. Lounging in an Adirondack chair on the front porch, listening to seasonal workers trade bear-sighting stories, is one of Wrangell’s simplest pleasures.
Days two and three: Glacier trekking and salmon and tacos in McCarthy
After some three hundred miles of driving on day one, days two and three are about enjoying where you are. Spend two nights in McCarthy-Kennicott to better explore the twin towns and their phenomenal natural surroundings. In the morning, strap on a pair of crampons and join a half-day glacier trek with St. Elias Alpine Guides (SEAG), a nearly 50-year-old outfitter; its adventurous guides lead five- to seven-mile hikes across Wrangell’s imposing Root Glacier.
In the afternoon, join the two-hour Kennecott Mill Town Tour, also run by SEAG, which takes you inside the 14-story copper mine. The vertigo-inducing building is in a state of arrested decay from when the Kennecott Copper Corporation up and left the town in 1938, and the tour—which includes epic views from the top—is the only way to get inside. For wilder hearts, St. Elias also leads exhilarating climbs to the cliffside Erie Mine bunkhouse, long abandoned but terrifying as ever.
The just-caught Copper River salmon at the Potato in McCarthy is a surefire option.
Courtesy of Roadside Potatohead
Where to eat
McCarthy is a dusty one-road town with an outsize food scene. Seasonal the Potato serves three meals a day from late May to mid-September, often with a side of live music. Come for a black bean breakfast burrito, lentil falafel, or a salmon roll (similar to a lobster roll but with Copper River red salmon). The bright summer dishes at McCarthy Lodge’s the Salmon & Bear, such as spicy grilled yellow watermelon with cotija, are not to be missed. You also can’t go wrong with the meatball subs, pork belly banh mi, or carnitas tacos at the Meatza Wagon food truck in neighboring Kennicott.
Days four and five: Denali National Park and Preserve
End: Denali National Park and Preserve entrance
Distance: Approximately 360 miles
Driving time: Approximately 8.5 hours
Today’s destination is the majestic Denali National Park and Preserve, home to its namesake, the highest peak in North America. Roughly halfway between McCarthy and Denali National Park, break for lunch at Meier’s Lake Roadhouse in Gakona along the dramatic Richardson Highway. In the Ford Model T days, Alaska had more than 3,000 roadhouses every 10–15 miles (think diner meets inn); today, only a few remain. Servers here are “y’all come back now” friendly and the strawberry-rhubarb cobbler with homemade ice cream is tops. Don’t miss the small “history museum” in back, either: It houses Athabascan Native artifacts and a taxidermied moose named George.
From Gakona, continue northwest toward Denali National Park, the most commercialized leg of the road trip. The towns of Healy, McKinley Park, and Cantwell are brimming with traveler-friendly amenities. Note that, as of this writing, Denali Park Road is closed from mile 43 and will remain closed through summer 2026.
Denali National Park and Preserve offers plenty of outdoor activities and opportunities to spot wildlife.
Photo by Martin Capek/Shutterstock
There is no shortage of activities in these parts: hiking, kayaking, river rafting. The park’s 3.2-mile Horseshoe Lake Trail slopes toward an oxbow lake with views of the Nenana River; there you might spot a beaver paddling amid the dams. The 1.7-mile Savage River Loop is another great walk—rocky and green like Ireland and good for spotting Arctic ground squirrels and maybe a marmot or Dall sheep.
A meet-and-greet with the “canine rangers” at the Sled Dog Kennels is another must-do activity. Denali is home to the National Park Service’s only sled-dog team: Between two and three dozen Alaskan huskies, aka canine rangers, have been working hard here year round since 1922, pulling sleds and helping transport rangers, scientists, and heavy equipment across the park’s 6 million acres of wilderness through snow and ice. Meet the dogs daily from May 15 to mid-September and on weekend afternoons from mid-September to mid-May.
Where to eat
After working up an appetite, sample some of Denali’s flavorful fare. Head to the Eastern European tavern Moose-AKa’s for Serbian crepes and Karađorđeva stuffed schnitzel, the Black Bear for a tofu melt with avocado and provolone, and 49th State Brewing in Healy for pub grub, a game of bocce, and a photo op with a movie replica of the Chris McCandless bus.
Where to stay
Denali Bluffs Hotel, immediately outside the park, is a decent lodge-style base camp, particularly if you request one of the 64 deluxe rooms with views of the Nenana River Canyon and the Alaska Range.
Related: This Is the Last Summer You Can Visit Denali National Park With Hardly Anyone Around
Days six and seven: Iditarod history, farm country, and back to Anchorage
End: Anchorage
Distance: Approximately 279 miles
Driving time: Approximately 5 hours
From the entrance to Denali National Park to this road trip’s end point, Anchorage, is about five hours. Take a night halfway to break it up, and you can still spend plenty of time in Denali National Park on day six of this road trip.
Stop for lunch or spend the night in Talkeetna, about 2.5 hours from Denali, or in Wasilla, under 3.5 hours from Denali and about 45 minutes from Anchorage. It’s an hour and 15 minutes between Talkeetna and Wasilla, home of the Iditarod headquarters, where you can learn about 1,049-mile race, browse trophies and artifacts from past winners, and take a summer sled ride.
Rust’s Flying Service runs flightseeing tours of the 25-mile-long Knik Glacier.
Courtesy of JudyO.Photos
On your way back to Anchorage from Wasilia, pull off in Palmer, population roughly 6,000 and the heart of Alaska’s farm country. Reserve a spot on a half-day Alaska farm tour run by Revel Treks and Tours. Because of Alaska’s long summer days, farmers are able to grow giant fruits and vegetables, including, in 2012, a record-breaking cabbage that weighed 138 pounds.
Tours start at the Palmer Museum & Visitor Center with a combined walking tour of Palmer and history lesson on farming in the Mat-Su (Matanuska-Susitna) Valley before moving on to a family-run farm where guests can taste vegetables being grown here. The tour wraps with a stop at one of three businesses using ingredients from a Palmer farm, either a brewery, kombuchery, or ice cream shop.
Back in Anchorage, consider devoting a full morning to exploring the Anchorage Museum, home to more than 27,000 artifacts as well as the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History’s Arctic Studies Center.
The best way to spend your final afternoon in Alaska is taking one last glorious look at its untamed topography. Book a flightseeing tour of the Knik Glacier in the Chugach Mountains or the Triumvirate Glacier in the Alaska Range. The experienced pilots at Rust’s Flying Service know these lands inside and out, and they’ll take you on a photo safari like you’ve never imagined.
Where to eat
Talkeetna is another small Alaskan town with appealing food. Talkeetna Spinach Bread, a seasonal Airstream trailer, has been serving its namesake gooey, crispy grilled cheese and spinach bread for 25 years. For prime people-watching, take a seat on the porch at nearby Conscious Coffee with a smoothie, crepe, or bagel in hand. And you’d be remiss not to take advantage of having excellent Alaskan salmon at hand; have lunch at the Salmon Spot, a take-out window open May to October, with picnic tables where you can inhale salmon cakes, burgers, and chowder.
In Wasilia, the Wandering Cafe serves hearty sandwiches and salads, while Bearpaw River Brewing Company slings excellent pizzas and Last Frontier Brewing Co. serves pub grub, like halibut tacos and buffalo chicken salad. The Noisy Goose diner in Palmer is known for its pies, such as cherry, coconut cream, and chocolate. And in Anchorage, we suggest tucking into kalua pig, salt-cured lomi salmon, and other Hawaiian, Samoan, and Tongan dishes at Hula Hands in the city’s diverse Mountain View neighborhood.
Where to stay
Lake Lucille Bed & Breakfast in Wasilla has four homey rooms and serves a breakfast feast that highlights Alaska-grown ingredients, including raspberry, blueberry, or strawberry jams. In Talkeetna, Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge has 212 rooms, some with views of Denali and the Alaska Range and six miles of on-property trails. In Anchorage, choose from a handful of downtown bed-and-breakfasts, such as Copper Whale Inn and Susitna Place, or business hotel Embassy Suites by Hilton Anchorage.
The Richardson Highway is well-paved, but other routes like the McCarthy Road are not, so it’s especially important to have a spare tire and jack in your trunk.
Courtesy of Travel Alaska/Ben Prescott
What to pack for a road trip in Alaska
This will surprise no one, but Alaska’s weather—even in June, July, and August—can vary dramatically. Pack lots of layers, including a fleece layer, flannel or wool overshirt, lightweight rain shell, long underwear for glacier hikes, sturdy trail boots, and wool socks. A small backpack, multitool kit, sunblock, hat, and binoculars will all serve you well on day hikes.
And don’t forget to outfit your vehicle. Check that your rental car has a spare tire and jack, wrench and socket set, jumper cables, and roadside flares. Bring your own first aid kit, bottled water, and energy bars or other nonperishable snacks, plus an ice scraper—just in case. (Better safe than sorry.)
Lastly: Bring books or a pre-loaded e-reader. Wi-Fi is scarce and cell signals are poor to nonexistent in many parts of the state. Besides, what’s an Alaskan adventure without a book about Alaskan adventuring? Our recommended reading list includes John McPhee’s Coming into the Country, John Muir’s Travels in Alaska, Heather Lende’s If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name, Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, and Jennifer Niven’s Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic.
Alaska road trip tips
A 4x4 is the best vehicle for driving on the unpaved McCarthy Road. Make sure you rent your car from a company that allows driving on unpaved roads. Budget Rent-a-Car Alaska and Midnight Sun Car Rental are both good options.
When driving Alaska’s loneliest highways, always start out with a full tank of gas, and keep an eye on the fuel gauge; if possible, fill up whenever the needle dips below half a tank.
If you’re traveling in a shoulder month like May or September, call ahead to confirm hours. Many businesses in Alaska operate seasonally. Most everything is up and running in June, July, and August.
Sophie Friedman contributed to the reporting of this story.
