The Gem Hunt
America decides what makes the map.
Every state has a spot the algorithms miss — the one locals send strangers to. Name it. Vote on the finalists. The winners get built into Roamward, the scenic road-trip app that proves you actually went. No download required to play.
Nominate
What does Alaska do better than anywhere?
One hidden gem — a place a chatbot would never know. The most-named spots become finalists, and the crowd votes the winner into Roamward.
Vote
Alaska gems, most-loved first
- 1Hatcher PassA photogenic alpine pass in the Talkeetna Mountains above Palmer, topped by the ruins of a 1930s gold mine you can tour in summer, with cold air pouring from the old water tunnel portal.
- 2Chena Hot SpringsA year-round soaking resort about an hour east of Fairbanks with an outdoor mineral lake, a carved Aurora Ice Museum, and some of the best winter Northern Lights viewing you can drive to.
- 3HopeA tiny gold-rush town at the end of a spur road on the Kenai Peninsula, with weathered cabins, mountain trails, and eagle-watching — a peaceful detour off the busy Seward Highway.
- 4WhittierA whole town that mostly lives in one building, reached only through a 2.5-mile one-lane railroad tunnel shared by cars and trains, opening onto a glacier-rimmed fjord on Prince William Sound.
- 5McCarthy and KennicottA pair of frozen-in-time towns deep in Wrangell-St. Elias, reached by the 60-mile gravel McCarthy Road, where you can wander a rust-red abandoned copper mill against a backdrop of glaciers.
- 6Beluga PointA rocky pullout on the Seward Highway hanging right over Turnagain Arm, where you scan the water for beluga whales and watch the bore tide roll in against the Chugach peaks — an easy stop just south of Anchorage.
- 7Igloo CityA giant unfinished four-story igloo-shaped building marooned along the Parks Highway near Cantwell, a 1970s hotel that never opened and slowly became Alaska's strangest photo stop on the way to Denali.
- 8Russian River FallsA short forest walk off the Sterling Highway near Cooper Landing leads to a platform where, in summer, you can watch sockeye salmon hurl themselves up the cascade — a quietly magical Kenai Peninsula detour.
- 9Manley Hot SpringsAt the dead end of the Elliott Highway sits this tiny outpost with greenhouse-sheltered soaking tubs and a sleepy roadhouse — the long gravel drive to the literal edge of the road system is the point.
- 10NenanaA riverside railroad town on the Parks Highway where the Ice Classic tripod marks Alaska's spring betting tradition on when the river ice breaks up, with a historic depot and big river confluence.
Not your state’s turn yet?
Want Roamward to map Alaska next?
Add your vote — the loudest state gets mapped first.
How it works
Nominate
Drop the most underrated spot in your state — the gem an itinerary generator would never surface.
The crowd ranks it
Name a place someone already nominated and it rises. The most-loved gems become the state’s finalists.
Vote the winner in
Finalists go to a public vote. Winners get built into Roamward — credited to the people who found them.
Go verify it
Drive it, GPS-verify the stop, earn the badge, and share the map that proves you were first.
Don’t miss the winners
Be the first to find what the crowd picks.
Join early access and we’ll tell you when your state’s gem wins — and when Roamward opens for iOS testing.
Get early access