To see Alaska in person is an experience like no other. Finding the perfect words to describe how beautiful Alaska is hard. Our visit was in mid-September,  which was perfectly timed with the peak fall colors, and it added to the beauty in spades. The different autumn colors that took our eyes as far as they could see, showing the depths of mountain ranges, were pure magic. We will share 20 incredible adventures that made us love Alaska.

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Is Alaska Worth Visiting?

In a word, YES. Alaska is more beautiful than we could have imagined, and we would tell anyone that if a trip to Alaska is on your bucket list, do everything you can to make that trip happen.

Here is our list of 20 Incredible adventures that made us love Alaska.

We hope you’ll enjoy this summary of the highlights of our trip to Alaska. One thing is for sure: we absolutely fell in love with Alaska and hope to visit again. 

1. Eat Pizza at Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria

Dusty discovered that Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria was once rated the third best pizza in the United States. You can bet we would be checking this place out for ourselves. Two of our meals were eaten here! To top it off, they even had a vegan option. After a long day of travel, the pizza and beer brewed in-house hit the spot and gave us plenty of leftovers for the next few days. 

Pro-Tip: Their pizza menu is huge and creative. They’re known for ‘half and half’ pizzas, which allow you to order more than one pizza. 

Bonus Pro-Tip: Kelly recommends the Moose’s Tooth Hefeweizen and Dusty recommends the Pipeline Stout. 

2. Watched the Sunrise and Sunset On the Cook Inlet

Watching the sunrise over the mountain range stretching along the Cook Inlet was pure magic. Most of our day trips took us on the Old Seward Highway, which gave us daily views of the Cook Inlet. There are numerous scenic areas and pull-outs to stop to take in the beauty or stretch your legs for a bit. If you’re lucky, you’ll see a Beluga Whale. We were not so lucky. There is also a tide change in the Cook Inlet. 

Likewise, watching the sunset on our way back to Anchorage after exploring all day is an amazing way to end the evening.

3. Drove on the Homer Spit

The Homer Spit is a 4.5-mile paved road juts out into Kachemak Bay at the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula in Homer. The Spit has a boat harbor, shopping, restaurants, and excursion offices. It’s the hub of tourism activity, and you can pick up a boat or go on a fishing excursion on the Homer Spit. It’s a cute tourist area. 

We noticed the tsunami sirens along our drive on the Homer Spit. In Alaska, landslides and earthquakes that cause tsunamis are a possibility.

The Homer Spit is the second-longest ‘Spit’ in the United States. It was formed by a glacial moraine. The paved road sits atop the sandy bottom left behind. The area offers views of active volcanoes and several glaciers. The Homer Spit is an iconic area 127 miles south of Anchorage on the Seward highway. 

4. Had a Bloody Mary and left a dollar on the Wall at the Salty Dawg Saloon

The Salty Dawg Saloon is something to see. The ceiling and walls are covered in dollar bills, and money is literally hanging everywhere. Built in 1897, the story goes that fishermen would come in from a hard day of fishing and leave a dollar for another fisherman to buy themselves a drink. 

Today, the tradition continues, and tourists sign a dollar and pin it to the wall. Every year, the employees take down the “low-hanging dollars” and donate them to local charities. For example, last year, approximately $80K was donated. It’s a must-see!

Of course, we left our mark in a spot that was not ‘low-hanging,’ so hopefully, it will remain on the wall for some time.

5. Took a Wildlife Cruise on a water taxi

We highly recommend this excursion with Coldwater AK out of Homer. The tour is not cookie-cutter. There were 6 of us on the wildlife cruise. Captain John starts by asking what we want to see. We all agreed- anything and everything! It was amazing to see mountains, an active volcano the day before we were there, wildlife, glaciers, and just pure beauty everywhere you looked. It exceeded our expectations.

Getting to Coldwater AK

4241 Homer Spit Rd, Homer, AK  99603 website | facebook

6. Saw eagles, otters, and a humpback whale, oh my!

During our tour of Kachemak Bay on the Coldwater AK Water Taxi we saw eagles, octopuses, tons of playful otters, and even lucked out with a humpback whale. It was incredible. 

7. Listened to silence in a fjord

So peaceful and so calm. Silence really can be deafening. It was incredible to see no other boats. It was a quiet day on the water,r and even the waves from our boat quickly receded. There indeed was almost no sound, and it was amazing.

8. Visited a Russian Orthodox Burial Ground

There are several Russian Orthodox Churches throughout Alaska due to its proximity to Russia and because the US bought Alaska from Russia in 1959. We stopped by a Russian Orthodox cemetery in Ninilchik, the Transfiguration of Our Lord Church. Mount Iliamna Volcano can be seen in the background.

The church is not open to visitors, but we could see the above-ground graves. Each grave is marked with a white cross and is surrounded by a white picket fence. 

9. Saw beautiful fall colors in Willow Knik 

The colors!! It is still amazing to think that we won the ‘fall color jackpot’ during our Alaska trip, which was Sept 13-21. The varying colors showed the depth and distance of the trees. 

For more pictures of fall colors, read our blog post dedicated to chasing fall colors in Alaska!

10. Rode the Alaska Railroad Scenic Train to Seward

This was amazing. We added on a scenic train ride to Seward aboard the Alaska Railroad to get to our Glacier and Wildlife Boat Cruise. I highly recommend it. The train left from Anchorage, and at 30mph, we arrived in Seward three hours later. Five miles of the ride are only accessible by this train. There are so many mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls. Our train slowed down for views of a moose, bear, and eagle. 

11. Took an 8.5-Hour Glacier and Wildlife Boat Cruise

After the train dropped us off, we immediately boarded the boat for an 8.5-hour wildlife and glacier tour with Major Marine Tours and enjoyed every minute. The train ride and boat cruise were a splurge that we don’t regret and would recommend to anyone! We saw orcas, mountain goats, seals, eagles, and other birds. We saw a glacier up close and even touched an ice chunk that had fallen from the glacier! 

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12. Saw the Spires in Resurrection Bay

We thought that the spires on the website for Major Marine Tours were just great marketing photos. We saw Spire Cove with our own eyes! This might sound dramatic, but it was otherworldly. The light mist and moody skies only added to the ambiance. 

13. Drank a margarita with Glacier Ice

The boat crew scoops a chunk of glacier ice out of the water, lets everyone see it up close, chips it up into pieces, and serves it in a margarita that can be purchased at the bar. We’ve never seen a more pure, solid, and clear piece of ice. If you like to chomp your ice in a beverage, you cannot do that with a sizeable chunk of glacier ice in your glass. 

14. Saw Wildlife at The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

This is a beautiful stop that allows you to see elk, moose, caribou, lynx, bears, and eagles. These and many more animals reside on 200 acres of land. These are injured animals that would not survive in their natural habitat. We recommend walking around the property. It took us under 1.5 hours. 

Pro Tip: Arrive early! We arrived just before they opened, and a few other cars were waiting. On our way out it was filling up quickly with visitors. 

15. Found Fall Colors in Hope, Alaska

We took a beautiful drive to Hope, Alaska, and felt like we had driven to the end of the road—a campground! After getting off the Seward Highway, we took the 17-mile scenic drive into Hope. 

16. Enjoyed insanely beautiful views along the Glenn Allen Highway

We picked up Glenn Highway National Scenic Byway north of Anchorage in Matnuska. The Scenic Byway is 135 miles that run parallel to paths carved by glaciers. We had gorgeous views of the Talkeetna Mountains and rivers and drove through Eklutna, Palmer, Sutton, and Chickaloon.

17. Drove (almost) to Matanuska Glacier

We received the tip to drive to Matanuska Glacier from our table mates on the Major Marine Boat Cruise a few days prior. Matanuska is a glacier you can drive up to and take guided hikes onto.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for the glacier hike (read until the end to find out why) but we drove close enough for amazing views. We would add a Matanuska Glacier hike to our next trip.  This tour was recommended to us.

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18. Drove through the Tunnel to Whittier

We threw this adventure in at the last minute and are glad we did. The Whittier Tunnel is the only way between Whittier and Prince William Sound. It’s 2.5 miles long- the longest in North America. This is a one-lane tunnel shared by cars and trains. You queue up in a line to wait your turn, and then it takes about 10 minutes to drive through the tunnel, and the speed limit is 25 mph. Cars are allowed to drive through the tunnel every half hour. While you wait, you’ll have gorgeous views of waterfalls. 

19. Enjoyed the Whittier boat harbor

It was a very quiet day in Whittier, as the last day for cruise ships to port in the area was two days prior. This meant it was us and a few fishermen in the boat harbor. It was so charming and beautiful to view, and we also had eagles flying over us looking for lunch while we visited the harbor.

20. Hiked to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park

Exit Glacier is the only park accessible by vehicle. With views of the glacier as you drive in, it’s also interesting to note the date markers you see as you drive in. You’ll notice signposts marked with a year throughout the short drive and on the trail. The year indicates where the glacier once reached, allowing you to see how far the glacier has retreated since that year. 

The Glacier Overlook Loop Trail is 2.2 miles long, well-maintained, and moderately strenuous. If you’re looking for something more challenging, you can follow the 8-mile Harding Icefield Trail.

Again, we recommend you arrive early if you want the trail primarily to yourself. You’ll notice a sign at the trail entrance that alerts visitors of bear sightings that day.

How to Get To Exit Glacier from Seward

We planned to hit Exit Glacier on our way out of Seward. Even though we took the scenic drive down to Seward, we had to board the boat for our tour immediately. We took another day to do a scenic drive to Seward to see it ourselves. 

We planned to go to Exit Glacier on our way back to Anchorage from Seward. It’s easy to accomplish this because it’s 12 miles north of Seward, on the way back to Anchorage. You could also hit it on the way down to Seward. 

A Chance Encounter

This experience was unique to us, but the story is worth telling. We connected with Dusty’s mom’s childhood and lifelong best friend, who moved to Alaska to marry her sweetheart just out of high school and has lived there ever since 1969. They remained lifelong friends until Dusty’s parents passed away.

We reached out on a Facebook direct message, and by chance, she read our message and responded (we weren’t connected). We set a date for dinner. After dinner, we went back to their house for more stories and ended up playing cribbage until 1 a.m. We had an hour’s drive back to our hotel and got stuck in traffic for 45 minutes because someone hit a moose, and it was completely worth it (for us, not the people who hit the moose)!

This dinner was why we couldn’t drive all the way to walk onto Matanuska Glacier, but we don’t have any regrets. It was an excellent chance encounter. 

Will We Visit Alaska Again?

That is our plan! Alaska was so beautiful and left such an impression on us that we intend to plan future trips to see more of it and experience other parts of the state. 

The next trip we would like to take includes visiting Juneau, Denali National Park, and seeing the Northern Lights in Fairbanks. It looks like we will need several trips because none of our remaining bucket list items are close.

The one disappointment of the trip was our glacier landing at Denali National Park. The weather did not cooperate, so we lived vicariously through this experience.

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