Visiting Alaska? Here’s what the locals love.

Thanks to Alaska’s size, limited road system, and often overwhelming array of outdoor activities, mapping out a trip to the 49th state can be challenging. Cruise the Inside Passage or drive the Interior? Day trip out of Anchorage or basecamp in the backcountry? To help you plan the best trip, we asked locals—writers, adventurers, artists, museum curators—for their secret spots and favorite hangouts.

Meet next-gen Indigenous artists

First Friday events throughout Juneau and Anchorage offer a chance to see beautiful artwork and learn about contemporary Native Alaskan artists who focus on “issues that are important to specific cultures or communities,” says artist Rico Worl, who co-owns Anchorage-based Trickster Company with his sister, Crystal Worl. To learn more about Native art, Worl recommends the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau and Akela Space gallery in Anchorage.

Go boating in a lesser known state park

National parks may be big draws for visitors, but they constitute a fraction of Alaska’s wilderness. At 1.6 million acres, Wood-Tikchik is the largest state park in the U.S. and “a place that I can’t get enough of,” says novelist and University of Alaska Anchorage associate professor Don Rearden, who grew up in Southwest Alaska.

Carved by rivers and dotted with lakes, the park is a boater’s dream that offers float trips ranging from mild to wild, plus hiking, caribou and bear watching, and fishing. Don’t let its remoteness deter you; guides can assist even novice adventurers. It’s worth it, says Rearden. “Get off the beaten path. Get dirty and cold. Feel the tundra beneath your bare feet.”

(These lesser known U.S. state parks are a nature lover’s dream.) 

Try backcountry hiking on the Kenai Peninsula

“Part of the beauty of the Kenai Peninsula is that there are so many [multiday backpacking trips] and they’re all great,” says outdoor educator Luc Mehl, who has traveled more than 10,000 miles around Alaska by foot, bike, packraft, and ice skates. For those with little multiday backpacking experience, Mehl recommends the Resurrection Pass Trail in the Chugach National Forest.

He says the trail avoids the “common mistake” that many people who haven’t logged lots of “high-skill, technical off-trail” trips make. They “go to the Brooks Range for their first trip and they have a terrible experience,” he says about the challenging hike. On the Resurrection trail, Mehl likes to start at the coast-side Hope Trailhead up to Devil’s Pass. “You get to walk through the different vegetation bands,” he says.

Climb a mountain on Alaska’s “Emerald Isle”

Ireland may be the original “Emerald Isle,” but the verdant landscape in Kodiak, in Southwest Alaska, is just as dazzling. The best way to take in the 3,670-square-mile island’s natural beauty? From atop North Sister Mountain, according to Kodiak History Museum curator Lynn Walker. She hiked the peak for the first time on a summer day. “It was sunny, green, the wildflowers were blooming. It was so surreal,” she says. “You could see White Sands Beach on one side and the other Sister Mountains on the other side.”

At Walker’s museum, learn more about the island starting from the 1700s, when Russian colonizers inflicted incredible violence on the Alutiiq people. The Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository (currently under renovation) has a more expansive history.

(For riveting views, climb North America’s highest “via ferrata.”)

Cruise with locals on the Alaska State Ferry

Whether heading to Ketchikan from Bellingham, Washington, or just popping across from Homer to Kodiak, there’s no better way to go than the Alaska State Ferry, says Amy O’Neill Houck, co-publisher and co-editor of Edible Alaska magazine and host of the “Eat. Drink. Think.” podcast. “You get to meet people you never would meet, and you see beautiful sights that you wouldn’t have seen if you flew,” she adds.

After boarding, O’Neill Houck heads to the heated, covered solarium to gaze at the water and look for porpoises. The onboard diner-style cafeteria is a local favorite, serving “reliable, filling meals” like fish and chips made from Alaskan cod. “It’s nostalgic for the people who live here,” she says.

Celebrate tradition and community through dance

Bethel, a Yup’ik community on the Kuskokwim River, overflows with dancers and spectators during the annual Cama-i Dance Festival, typically held in March. Groups from all over the world show up to the multiday event ready to showcase the traditional dances of their cultures. “It helps people remember that their culture is there and that it’s OK to embrace it and not be so modern,” says Jesslyn Elliott, executive director of animal rescue group Bethel Friends of Canines who grew up in Bethel.

Explore a historic mining town in a national park

Swaddled in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the town of McCarthy got its start as the bawdy sister to the mining town of Kennecott. Today it has a vibrant arts community (the Wrangell Mountains Center offers classes and lectures) and tons of history best experienced over two or three days. Visual artist and professional quiltmaker Maria Shell, who spends summers in McCarthy in a cabin built by a gold miner, recommends starting your visit with the Crystalline Hills Trail. The 2.4-mile loop is located at mile marker 34.8 on the drive into town.

(California gold rush towns are booming again. Here’s how to visit.)

While in town, Shell says walking the old wagon road to Kennecott by the old cemetery is essential. Take a guided tour of Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark, especially Kennecott Mills, widely considered the tallest wooden building in the U.S. Back in McCarthy, stop by the Golden Saloon for live music and The Potato for their legendary hand-cut curly fries.

(For more tips on what to do in Alaska, see our Explorer’s Guide.)