Matanuska Glacier: Guided Winter Hike & Scenic Drive with Lunch

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.96 (153 reviews) 97% rated it 5 stars

Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/7

Duration8h

GroupUp to 15

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Walk across Matanuska Glacier’s blue ice fields then share lunch with glacier views and local stories

You’ll walk across Alaska’s Matanuska Glacier with a local guide who knows every crack and story in the ice. Feel your boots grip blue glacial fields, stop for photos you’ll keep forever, then thaw out over lunch with mountain views before heading back to Anchorage — and maybe find yourself thinking about that silence long after.

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Matanuska Glacier and surroundings

Drive scenic Glenn Highway
Stop for mountain photos
Arrive at glacier toe
Put on ice cleats
Walk three miles on glacier
Have lunch with glacier views

The Experience

The first thing I noticed was how quiet everything felt as we stepped out near Matanuska Glacier — just the crunch of snow under our boots and the wind moving over the Chugach Mountains. Our guide, Jamie, handed out these heavy ice cleats (which honestly looked intimidating at first), but she showed us how to strap them on. She grew up in Palmer and you could tell she’d done this a hundred times. The air smelled sharp, almost metallic, like cold water straight from the tap.

We started walking right onto the glacier itself — which I didn’t expect to be so blue in places. Jamie pointed out crevasses that went down farther than I wanted to think about. There was a moment where my foot slipped a little and everyone laughed (me included), but it actually made me relax. The whole group sort of loosened up after that. We stopped for photos more than once; I’m still not sure any picture really catches what it’s like standing on that much ancient ice. The main keyword here is “Matanuska Glacier winter tour,” but honestly, it just felt like being somewhere completely different from anything I’ve seen before.

After about two hours wandering around — poking at weird ice formations, listening to Jamie tell stories about how the glacier shifts every year — we headed back for lunch at this roadside place with big windows facing the glacier. My gloves were stiff from the cold, but inside it was warm and smelled like soup. Everyone talked about their favorite part (mine was seeing sunlight hit those ridges), and Jamie answered a bunch of questions about living up here year-round. We lingered longer than planned because nobody really wanted to leave that view behind.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup in Anchorage, round-trip transport along scenic Glenn Highway, all necessary glacier hiking gear like ice cleats, entry fees for Glacier Park, plus a hearty lunch at a local spot overlooking Matanuska Glacier before heading back in comfort.

Good to know

Moderate physical level

Operated by Greatland Adventures