A 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.
Road trips · Alaska
Alaska road trips & hidden gems.
The stops worth changing a travel day for in Alaska — crowd-voted gems, events worth traveling for, and the public golf you can actually book. Curated by Roamward, the scenic road-trip planner.
Hidden gems
What locals say you shouldn’t miss.
Crowd-nominated in the Gem Hunt. Add yours and vote the finalists into the app.
A 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.
A 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.
A 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.
A 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.
A 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.
Plan the Alaska trip
Get the scenic route, the stops, and the timing.
Roamward turns these into a real road trip — the drive, the detours, and the stays. Join early access for the iOS beta.