Hiking a Glacier – The Ultimate Alaska Bucket List Activity

Disclaimer: Included in this post are links to tours I have personally taken or booked for clients on Viator. If you book these tours thru the links in this post, as a travel agent, I will receive a small commission.

The bucket list has become quite the popular term in recent years. The 1999 movie of the same name featured two men with terminal cancer creating a list of things they wanted to do before “kicking the bucket”. Although a bucket list has some morbid origins, it’s a great term to use for goals that might take you years to accomplish, especially travel goals.

We all have those travel bucket list of places that we want to visit, but do you have a bucket list of activities you would like to do around the world? Have you ever booked a trip and researched things to do in that location and found an activity that should have been on your bucket list, but you weren’t even aware you could do this or that you even wanted to until you were planning your trip? This is what happened to me as I was planning my most recent trip to Alaska.

In 2014, I visited Alaska as part of an RV trip with a group of friends. Being that I was heading back to Alaska to run a half marathon as part of my quest to run a half marathon in all 50 states, I knew I wanted to find some new and unique activities for this trip that I did not experience in my prior visit to Alaska. While researching, I came across, a Glacier Hiking Tour with 907 Tours.

On my prior trip, we had hiked to a glacier, but I never would have thought that hiking on a glacier was possible, and I decided right then that this was one of those bucket list items I had never knew existed but would definitely be high on my bucket list. I’m not a big fan of the cold, snow and ice, but something about glaciers just fascinates me! So, I booked the tour and off I went on a great day trip from Anchorage out to Matanuska Glacier.

Is the Tour Right For You?

Hiking on a glacier is an exciting experience, while most people are physically able to take this tour, it might not be for everyone. Like all hikes, you need to take your physical capabilities into account before booking this tour. The tour will consist of walking on uneven terrain (although crampons will be provided for your shoes) for about 2 to 3 hours for a total of about 2 miles. It may not be the right tour for you if you have back or knee problems or are in poor health. As I’m sure you can imagine, the glacier is also not wheelchair accessible.

I would consider this a moderate hike and I only had some problems on the downhill portion mostly because I’m ultra careful going downhill in all hikes, but especially on ice. The guides were great with lending a hand to help us on the icier or more difficult spots.

What’s Included in the Glacier Hike Tour

• Anchorage Hotel Pick Up and Drop Off
• Roundtrip transportation
• Knowledgeable guide from 907 Tours
• Knowledgeable hiking guide at Matanuska Glacier
• Helmets (required for hiking on the glacier)
• Crampons for your shoes
• Hiking Sticks if needed (It was recommended to only use the sticks if you have an injury that may require it. Otherwise, they could cause you to lose balance on the ice)
• Bottled Water
• Snacks

What you will need for a Glacier Hike

Below are the items you will need for a summer glacier hike:

• Dress in Layers – In the summer, the weather can be all over the place, it can be warm (as it was for my hike), rainy or even cold. Dressing in layers gives you the option to adjust depending on how you feel during the hike. Keep in mind it’s a bit colder at the glacier so plan on bringing one extra layer than you think you may need.
• Rain Gear – Rain is definitely pretty common in Alaska, although you wouldn’t have guessed that from my sunny trip to Alaska, make sure to bring a raincoat or poncho and a hat.
• Hiking Boots or Shoes – While they do provide crampons for your shoes that make walking on the ice much easier, I still recommend a good pair of hiking boots or shoes. If you do not have any, athletic sneakers will also work.
• Sunscreen and Sunglasses – Ice reflects the sun, so make sure to protect yourself with sunscreen and sunglasses. If you have polarized sunglasses, those will work best. Our guide did have a few pairs of polarized sunglasses available.
• Credit Card and Cash – While a stop for lunch is included, the cost of lunch is not included in the cost of the tour. Also, make sure you have some cash so you can tip both the guide at the glacier and the guide from 907 Tours for help making your day so amazing.

Note: If visiting in Winter – Yes, they have hikes in the winter, this requires a lot more layers, snow pants, winter boots, wool socks (a couple of pairs is a good idea), gloves, hat, face/neck gaiter and ski googles.

Heading to Matanuska Glacier

The tour started with a hotel pickup in Anchorage, with the last pickup around 8:30am. There were 9 of us on the tour, which was a great size, not too big but also it was nice to have a great group to enjoy the day with. In our tour group, we had guests from US states of Massachusetts, New York and Indiana and also some guests from China. I really enjoyed having a group of people from different locations, since my favorite thing about traveling is meeting people from all over the world. Our tour guide with 907 Tours was Derek and he was quite amazing!

As we headed out of Anchorage, Derek gave us some information about the area and also about himself. I believe he was from Southern California and had lived in Alaska a number of years after spending some years in Japan. The one interesting thing I realized in Alaska, was how many people moved here from other parts of the US and even the world. Some of them even came to work for a season and then loved it so much they ended up staying for years. In fact, there were very few people I spoke with on my visit who were actually born and raised in Alaska.

The ride out to the glacier takes about two hours. About 45 minutes into the ride, we stopped at a rest area to use the restroom and also grab some food as we would not be stopping for lunch until after our hike on the glacier. After our rest stop, we headed out on the Glenn Highway with some spectacular views for the ride. As we neared Matanuska Glacier, we got a great view of the enormous glacier that we would be hiking a very, very small portion of. We also got an added bonus of a quick look at a moose and it’s calf by the river while riding in to the glacier hiking area.

Hiking Matanuska Glacier

Matanuska Glacier is 27 miles long and 4 miles wide. It starts from the highest peak in the Chugach Mountain range, Mt. Marcus Baker which is 13,176 feet high. For such a large glacier, you will only be hiking a very miniscule portion of it yet still be able to see a lot of the glacier’s features.

As we arrived at the glacier, we were given our required helmets and met our guide who would be guiding us on the glacier along with Derek from 907 Tours. We then took some photos of the glacier in the distance before heading out on our hike.

The hike started with a walk along a manmade walkway over the small lake caused by the melting of the glacier. Once over the walkway, we were given our crampons to put over our shoes. For people that may not know, crampons are spikes that slip over the bottom of your shoes to make it easier to walk on the ice without slipping. The thing about hiking with crampons and on ice is you have to make sure to always walk with your feet facing forward. This means for someone like me who likes to walk sideways going downhill, I had to hike differently than I normally would. If your feet aren’t facing forward as you are hiking, you risk losing your balance and falling.

Our hiking guide, who as a side note, reminded me of Yukon Cornelius from the Rudolph Christmas cartoon, took us to different spots in the glacier to see different features. He gave us some tips on how to have a safe hike, one of which was to stay in single file behind him so that we were walking in the spots that he deemed as safe. We had two people in our hike who weren’t part of our group with 907 tours and one of them kept going off outside the single file line. As a rule-follower and someone who wanted to have a safe hike, this really annoyed me. Don’t be this person, the rules are for your safety and safety is always number one.

We hiked to several different spots on the glacier and stopped for photos and to ask questions and learn more about the glacier. One of our stops was at a point in the glacier called “The Wave” because this part of the glacier resembled an ocean wave.

We then took some paths that headed up the glacier. Hiking up seemed somewhat easy but in my mind, I kept thinking about the hike back down on ice and even with the crampons on my shoes, I was quite nervous about slipping. But the views as we got up to a bit of elevation were stunning and worth the fear of slipping on the way down. It was fun to look down at other hiking groups to see just how far we had gone up the glacier. Quite the feeling of accomplishment!

Speaking of other hiking groups, one of the things I loved was that all the groups seemed to take their own path on the glacier, so we were never in another group’s way and made for a somewhat personal hike experience for our group.

Thankfully both guides were amazingly helpful when it came to going downhill on the glacier. Derek gave me his arm to hold onto as I was walking down nervously on the ice telling myself over and over in my head not to put my feet sideways like I normally do in tricky downhill sections of a hike.

Glaciers constantly evolve throughout the year from melting in the summer to freezing over again in the winter. With all the melting during the warm weather in the summer, there were quite a few lakes, rivers and even waterfalls in the glacier. Glacial water is some of the purest water you can have, and we stopped at a few spots to fill our water bottles with the water and give it a taste. It tasted great and was so clear, cool and refreshing. They even recommended that we empty the water that was currently in our water bottle to fill with the glacial water. It definitely tasted a lot better than the spring water I originally had in my bottle.

The most beautiful spot we hiked to in the glacier was the lake that also included a small waterfall. It was absolutely stunning, definitely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen! It’s truly amazing that I never thought of all the water features a glacier can create just by melting a bit from the heat or sunshine. The life cycle of a glacier is definitely quite amazing.

We were almost at the end of our 2-mile hike which took us about 3 hours at this point. Our final spot was to a chunk of the glacier that we were able to break pieces of ice off of to enjoy. I couldn’t believe just how clear the ice was once I broke a piece off. It was a refreshing way to cap off one of the most amazing hikes I’ve ever been on.

After the Hike

After such an amazing hike we were all ready to refuel with some lunch. We went to the nearby Long Rifle Lodge and had a delicious lunch. The food was really great, and they have a pretty amazing view of Matanuska Glacier, so I highly recommend stopping here for a meal after your hike.

Then it was on the road again for the two-hour ride back to Anchorage. As we started back our tour guide Derek told us about a fun event that takes place in the area each year on July 4th. The 4th of July Car Launch has taken place in Glacier View each year since 2005. It all began when a man living on a bluff decided to launch a car he no longer wanted off of the bluff. It’s now become a local tradition to come watch the cars launched off the cliff “Thelma and Louise” style each year. This definitely sounds like an interesting event if you happen to visit this part of Alaska over the 4th of July holiday.

On our way back to Anchorage, we did make one photo stop to break up the ride at a beautiful area overlooking the Matanuska Valley.

Hiking Matanuska Glacier is definitely one of those once in a lifetime experiences that everyone should have on their Alaska bucket list.

While you could drive from Anchorage on your own and schedule a hike at the glacier, I feel the tour was more than worth the money. I learned so much about glaciers and Alaska itself on the ride there and back that it really added to the experience and my trip as a whole. If you are interested in booking this tour, you can do so at this link.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a video of my experience hiking Matanuska Glacier.

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