Alaska’s Seward Highway

Route description

From Anchorage, the Seward Highway follows Turnagain Arm, a narrow inlet framed by the Chugach Mountains, one of the most scenic roads in Alaska. Stop at Beluga Point and the pullouts along the arm to look for beluga whales and, at Windy Point, Dall sheep on the cliffs above the road. With luck, you can see the bore tide, a wave that rushes in on the incoming tide.

Girdwood, a short detour inland, is a ski town with an aerial tram up Mount Alyeska and trails through the rainforest. At the end of the arm, the road passes the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and the turnoff for Portage Glacier and the tunnel to Whittier. The highway then climbs over Turnagain Pass and through the Kenai Mountains, past lakes and rivers, to Seward.

Seward lies at the head of Resurrection Bay, with boat tours into Kenai Fjords National Park to see tidewater glaciers, whales and seabirds, and the Alaska SeaLife Center on the waterfront. Just outside town, a road leads to Exit Glacier, where a short trail with signs showing how far the ice has retreated leads toward the glacier.

Never walk onto the mudflats of Turnagain Arm, where people can get stuck in the silt and caught by the tide. Use the pullouts to stop for wildlife, and expect heavy traffic on summer weekends. Campgrounds and boat tours in Seward fill up in July, so book ahead.