Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest national park in the USA — six times bigger than Yellowstone. A single gravel road leads to the tiny settlement of McCarthy. Nearby, Matanuska Glacier offers guided ice walks, Valdez boasts glacier waterfalls and the start of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Raw, rugged Alaska at its finest.
Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska — a UNESCO paradise of 16 glaciers accessible only by boat. Margerie and Johns Hopkins calve into the sea, humpbacks breach in the bay, and the park limits vessels to 153 per day. Practical 2026 guide: how to get there, when to go, and how much it costs.
When to visit Alaska? Summer (June–August) brings the midnight sun and bears fishing for salmon, while September offers golden tundra and the first auroras. Here's our honest, month-by-month guide.
Juneau is the capital of Alaska, cut off from the world by mountains and glaciers — no road leads here. 12 things to do in a city with 230 rainy days a year: the iconic Mendenhall Glacier, bubble-net feeding whales, the Mt Roberts tram, and where to shelter from the downpour.
Our dreams of a perfect snow-capped mountain mirrored in a calm lake were shattered the moment we arrived. The reality of Denali Alaska is far wilder and more unpredictable than any social media photo would have you believe.
We all know those iconic documentary shots of a massive grizzly leaping to catch a flying salmon in a foaming river. But experiencing this thundering natural spectacle in person from a wooden platform is a whole different league.
