Seward Highway

The Seward Highway may be the most beautiful drive on the planet. If you are visiting Alaska you should not miss this drive. Although Mile 0 is located in Seward, I live in Anchorage so I'm going to describe it from that perspective.

National Scenic Highway

The Seward Highway has been recognized as a National Scenic Byway. It holds the triple designations of USDA Forest Service Scenic Byway, Alaska Scenic Byway, and All-American Road.

I love the Seward Highway because it's interesting for the entire 120 mile drive. There are no "green tunnel" sections where all you can see are trees. You start and end at the ocean, and in between there are mountains, glaciers, wildlife, trails, lakes and rivers galore. There are many interesting places to stop. The road is wide and easy to drive for almost the entire distance. Seward is a quaint and charming town to visit on beautiful Resurrection Bay.

If you just want to get to Seward and back, you can make the round trip in five hours. If you want to have some fun, make this a three-day trip. Take a day exploring on the way down. Spend a day in Seward. Maybe go out on a fishing charter or take a boat ride to Kenai Fjords National Park for whale and other wildlife viewing. See the Seward Sea Life Center. Then spend a day exploring on the way back.

Anchorage to Portage

The Seward Highway is the only road leaving Anchorage to the south. In the metropolitan area, the Seward Highway is one of Alaska's rare freeways, not that we call it that. As you leave the city behind, the road settles down to two lanes as it drops off the bluff to the low lands of Potter Marsh.

Potter Marsh is worth a stop for a walk on the boardwalk and a look at the interpretive signs. The area is part of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge and is mainly famous for the many kinds of birds that live there or visit, but you may also see fish and other wildlife. On the south side of the higway just past the marsh is an old station of the Alaska Railroad which you may enjoy, especially if you are interested in trains.

For most of the first hour of the drive, the Seward Highway winds along the part of Cook Inlet known as Turnagain Arm. It's called Turnagain Arm because the famous explorer Captain Cook is supposed to have sailed into this fjord hoping to have found the Northwest Passage (a northern waterway back to the Atlantic) at last. He was soon disappointed and had to "turn again." Turnagain Arm was carved out by a giant glacier during the Ice Age. The signs of glaciation are all around: U-shaped glacial valleys, hanging valleys, striated rocks, glacial till and glacial silt.

The first thirty miles or so are particularly spectacular as the road winds along a narrow strip between the ocean and the rocks cliffs. During times of snowmelt or recent rain, waterfalls casade down the rocks. Be patient if you are stuck behind slow traffic in the s-curves that characterize the first fifteen miles -- there are passing lanes and a 65 mph speed limit soon after Bird (about Mile 99).

There is parking and a picnic area at McHugh Creek at Mile 112. Another popular stop is Beluga Point at Mile 110. There are telescopes at Beluga Point and if you look at the mountain behind you (across the highway) you can almost always see Dall sheep from here.At the right time of year, you may be able to see white Beluga whales in the Inlet. You can visit the historic Indian Valley Mine and pan for gold at Mile 104.

There are numerous hiking opportunities along this stretch. There are trails at Rainbow, Windy, and Falls Creek. The Bird Ridge trail at about Mile 100 is one of the first in the Anchorage area to be clear of snow in the spring because of the south-facing slope (photo near top of page was taken from this trail). There is also a wonderful bike trail that runs from Indian (about Mile 103) to Girdwood (Mile 90).

Another fascinating thing about Turnagain Arm is the extreme tidal action. At very low tides, it looks as though you could walk to the far side. (Be aware that you don't want to walk on the finely ground gray glacial mud. It is thixotropic, meaning it liquifies under stress such as being stepped on. There have been fatalities where the unlucky have sunk in the liquified mud, had it subsequently resolidify around their legs, and could not be extricated before the tide came in.) The tidal range is the second greatest in the world after the Bay of Fundy area in Canada. It is fascinating to watch the tidal current as it rushes in and out of Turnagain Arm. At times, such a great volume of water is trying to flow into the Arm as it narrows and becomes shallower past Beluga Point that it actually rises up in a wall of water 6 to 10 feet high known as a bore tide. You are most likely to see it when the difference between high and low tide is the greatest, about two or three hours after low tide. Since you can drive faster than the bore tide advances, you can watch it go by one pullout after another.

At Mile 90 is Girdwood Station at the intersection with the short road that leads into Girdwood. Girdwood station is a great place to get gas and snacks -- the last convenience store until Seward. For a town of about 2,000, Girdwood has a surprising number of great places to eat, such as The Bake Shop, Chair 5, and The Double Musky Inn. It is also home to Alaska premiere downhill ski resort, Alyeska. You can ride the tram to the Seven Glaciers restaurant even in the summer.

At Mile 79 you'll come to the turn off for Portage and the Whittier Tunnel. It's just a few miles to Portage Lake and the visitor center for Portage Glacier. You can take a cruise to the glacier on the MV Ptarmigan or take a hike to Byron Glacier. Not far from Portage is the entrance to the Whittier Tunnel. This tunnel was built in World War II to connect the ice-free deep water port of Whittier with the Alaska Railroad line that runs from Seward to Fairbanks. Originally just a railroad tunnel, it was upgraded in recent years to allow highway traffic to drive on the tracks. The tunnel is 2.5 miles long, the longest highway tunnel in North America. I love driving through this tunnel, and trust me, two and half miles inside the base of a honkin' big mountain is LONG. Be sure to check the schedule if you're going to drive the tunnel and be aware extra trains may throw the schedule off. Normally traffic runs in 15 minute segments like this: cars drive out of Whittier, the train comes out of Whittier, cars drive in to Whittier, the train goes in to Whittier. If there are too many cars to squeeze through in the allotted 15 minutes, you may have to wait an hour for the next opening.

Portage to the "Y"

Past Portage the highway loops around the end of Turnagain Arm in a big "U." A few miles further along, it turns away from the ocean and climbs into Turnagain Pass. The broad valley at Mile 68 (elevation 988 feet) is a favorite winter recreation area and a great place to tramp around in the summer.

The highway winds through the mountains with changing vistas around every bend. One end of the Johnson's Pass trail is at Mile 64 (the other end comes out near Trail Lake at Mile 33). You'll pass the 19-mile road to Hope at Mile 56. Hope was once a booming mining town but now fewer than 200 people call it home. It's located on the south side of Turnagain Arm.

Summit Lake Lodge at Mile 46 is a great place to stop for dinner with a view of the lake. Be advised that they are only open in the summer.

The "Y" to Seward

At Mile 37 you'll come to the junction with the Sterling Highway, commonly referred to as the "Y". The Sterling Highway takes you to Soldotna and the west side of the Kenai Peninsula. Tern Lake at the Y is a great place to see migratory birds, especially swans, in the spring and fall.

Beyond the Y, you'll come to Trail Lake and at Mile 29, the small community (about 100 people) of Moose Pass. In this general area there are campgrounds, an RV park, B&Bs and lodges.

South of Moose Pass, the highway runs parallel to Kenai Lake. Like Turnagain Arm, the 24-mile-long lake is a glacial artifact and gets its interesting greenish color from glacial silt suspended in the water. It's longer than it appears because it makes a near 90 degree bend in the middle. You can see the other end of Keani Lake from the Sterling Highway. The highway curves around the end of the lake where the Snow River flows in. This is a likely area to see moose.

The highway climbs out of the Snow River valley before making a final descent back to sea level down the Grouse Creek canyon. Just four miles from downtown Seward you'll see the Exit Glacier road. Exit Glacier is one of the most accessible glaciers in Alaska and well worth a visit.

Camping Opportunities

The Seward Highway is a great playground if you have an RV or camping gear. There are campgrounds at Bird Creek near Anchorage, on the Portage Glacier road, up in Turnagain Pass at Granite Creek, Bertha Creek and near Summit Lake, near Moose Pass, Primrose at the end of Kenai Lake, and on the beach in Seward itself.