Glenn Highway and Hatcher Pass

Route description

Leave Anchorage north on the Glenn Highway. After about 25 miles, the Thunderbird Falls trail leads a mile through forest to a waterfall in a gorge. Just north, the Eklutna Lake Road winds 10 miles to a glacial lake in Chugach State Park, with a campground and a lakeside trail for walking and cycling. There is a parking fee.

Continue to Palmer, a farming town in the Matanuska Valley settled by New Deal farm colonists in 1935. North of town, the Hatcher Pass Road climbs into the Talkeetna Mountains to Independence Mine State Historical Park, where the buildings of a 1930s gold mine stand in an alpine bowl. The road is paved to the mine; beyond it the pass is gravel and summer-only.

Back in Palmer, the Glenn Highway heads east along the Matanuska River. It is a National Scenic Byway with long grades and some narrow stretches around the Lion’s Head and Sheep Mountain. The Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site has viewpoints over the glacier and a small campground; walks on the ice itself are only through a private access point for a fee.

Beyond the glacier, the road crosses Tahneta Pass and the broad Copper River basin to Glennallen, about 180 miles from Anchorage. On clear days the Wrangell Mountains fill the eastern horizon. Services are sparse between Palmer and Glennallen, so fill up before leaving the valley. From Glennallen, the Richardson Highway leads to Valdez or north to Fairbanks.