I feel like when you think of Alaska, “glaciers” are one of the number one things that come to mind. Because of this, going hiking on a glacier has been the top of my bucket list for our trip to Alaska. We were able to check this off by visiting the picturesque and magnificent Matanuska Glacier!
About Matanuska Glacier
The mountains that surround Prince William Sound form Matanuska Valley, where this glacier spans over 20 miles long. It is the most accessible roadside glacier, which makes this the perfect spot for taking a day trip to discover the depths of a glacier while actually walking on top of it.
What to Know Before You Go
How to Get There?
Matanuska Glacier is about a 2 hour drive on the Glenn Highway from Anchorage, which follows a scenic path of some of the tallest peaks in North America, so it is well worth the drive, even if you are not going on a glacier hike. Some tour operators even offer a shuttle from Anchorage.
When to Go?
The best time to visit Alaska is the summer (May-September), so this is likely when you’ll be able to go glacier hiking.
What to Bring?
As always in Alaska, pack layers and always be ready for rain! It rained for about ten minutes during our tour and it gets windier in certain altitudes of the glacier, so be ready to shed or put on layers as needed. The tour provided helmets and shoe spikes, so all you really need is a camera!
Do I Need to Have Experience?
Nope! Almost all the tours that I’ve seen are beginner-friendly. As long as you’re able to hike, you’re able to go on this.
What Tour Company to Go With?
After doing a bit of research, we decided to take our tour with NOVA Alaska Guides. Since we wanted to be a little more adventurous, we chose the Adventure Trek guided tour, which is a bit more strenuous and longer than the standard Adventure Tour. The Adventure Trek is 5 hours long (2 hours longer than the standard tour) and also includes 2 ice repels. This tour also allows you to go deeper into the glacier to more remote parts.
I have never been ice repelling before but walking backwards down an ice cliff sounded easy enough! (It’s as slippery as you would think stepping on ice would be).
(As of May 2026)
Matanuska Glacier Tour: $115 per person + glacier park fee
- 3 hours
- Level: Easy
Adventure Trek: $225 per person + glacier park fee
- 6 hours
- Level: Moderate
There are other tour companies that also go to Matanuska Glacier, such as MICA Guides or Greatland Adventures, so I’m sure no matter which company you choose, you’ll have an amazing time.
The Experience
Coming from Valdez, AK where we spend the day before, we drove 3 hours to reach our meeting point of Glacier View (fitting name).
Once we arrived to Glacier View, we met with our tour guides and the rest of the group. There were about eight people with us, along with two of the guides.
We first passed a giant ice rock that was balancing on this piece of the glacier. Shockingly, it’s over 1,000 pounds and still balancing strong!
All around us on the ground, there are crevasses (cracks in the glaciers) that we had to watch our steps. While some are only a few feet, others might be hundreds of feet deep. This is why we need a guide–basically we’re following them in pre-determined routes to make sure none of us randomly fall into the glacier.
There were some consistent uphill where we were stomping our shoes into the ice so that the spikes dig into it and prevent us from slipping. As you would expect, it can get pretty slippery hiking uphill on ice. We were higher up now, but still deep in the glacier, so we couldn’t really see the mountains around us yet.
Now that we’ve gone up, we have to get back down. This is where we’ll be doing our first ice repel!
The guides hammer the spikes into the ice and tie the rope, where we would slowly walk down an ice cliff and look for little ridges to put our feet. As one would assume, some parts are slippery since it’s ice, but it’s a lot easier than it looks.
The first ice cliff we repelled down was 40 feet tall. It felt shorter than it was.
Once we started gaining elevation, we were able to see behind us and started to see the mountains surrounding us. In typical Alaska form, it was slightly drizzling the whole time, but this made a rainbow come out!
The rainbow is super faint on camera but itās there!
After taking a few panoramic photos and videos around us, the guides were already hammering away into the ice to start the next ice repel.
This one would be 60 feet tall.
Itās hard to capture how deep and large these crevasses are on camera without something next to it for scale, but we had to hop over these with the help of our guides.
Now that we’re done with our ice repels, after. a bit more walking, we’re almost to our main spot: the glacier lake.
This area was absolutely stunning, with the jaggedness of the top of the glacier, the streaks of black dirt, and the reflection of the peaks in the water. Even here, we still had to be careful of where we stepped, because a small puddle might have a hidden crevasse underneath!
I also found some water trickling out of the water for a quick hydration break and to take some home with me to drink. Super refreshing!
A bit more of a picture break as we admired our surroundings.
Now, we only have around 20 minutes flat walk until we are already back at the starting point (since we basically hiked in a loop).
After five hours of hiking (minus some small breaks and picture-taking), we had finished our glacier hike! And that concludes our glacier hike! Checking that off my bucket list š
Photo Gallery
As always, I like to include a few extra photos that didnāt fit into the rest of my post! (Iām better with photos than words anyways). All taken on my Canon Rebel t3i.
What’s Next?
Our next town we are visiting in Alaska is Homer, AKA the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World! (Yum). We’ll be going kayaking in the ocean, seeing more glaciers, and more.
Pin it for next time! š
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