9 Cute Small Town Drives In Alaska

Some of Alaska’s most worthwhile drives are the ones where the towns matter as much as the scenery. Along the Seward Highway, travelers can stop in Girdwood for skiing and mountain views before continuing to Seward to enjoy its small-town festivals and harbor tours. The Parks Highway connects Anchorage with Talkeetna and Healy, so you get views of Denali alongside historic downtown buildings. Below are Alaska's 8 cutest small town drives.

Seward Highway: One of the Most Scenic Drives in Alaska

This 127-mile journey from Anchorage to Seward along the Seward Highway offers mountain, lake, and coastal scenery throughout. The drive takes around 2.5-3 hours, but could be longer, with some reporting 5-8 hours, as there are a few worthwhile stops along the way. Consider taking breaks at McHugh Creek, a perfect spot for a scenic picnic, and Beluga Point, a breathtaking viewpoint where you might spot beluga whales between mid-July and August. Keep in mind that some sections of this highway are remote and lack cell service, so be sure to prepare any maps in advance.

There are a few small towns peppered between Anchorage and Seward that may be worth seeing as well. Girdwood, about 40 miles south of Anchorage, offers an active, year-round community with biking, skiing, rafting, fishing, hiking, gold panning, and sightseeing.

Down the highway, about 26 miles north of Seward, lies Moose Pass, another ideal spot to take a break and stretch your legs, grab a bite, or just take in the scenery. If you’re planning a trip to Moose Pass, be sure to note that their biggest tourism event of the year, their Summer Solstice Festival, takes place in June and invites visitors to come for local food, games, and live music.

Finally, when your journey ends in Seward, the setting makes clear why this stretch of highway is so well regarded. Nestled between mountains and the ocean, Seward offers a slower pace framed by dramatic natural surroundings. This town is compact yet active, with tours, outdoor adventures, and guided hikes, as well as attractions like the Alaska SeaLife Center and the Alaska Railroad.

Glenn Highway: A Glacier-Filled Alaska Road-Trip

While this is another gorgeous highway drive departing from Anchorage, we’re going a little farther this time to Valdez. Depending on stops along the way, this drive can take between 5.5-7 hours to cover its almost 300 miles. Consider the Matanuska Glacier at mile 101 or the Worthington Glacier at mile 29 for pictures and sightseeing.

Palmer is the first town you’ll come across on this drive, and it’s home to an agricultural community famed for its massive root vegetables courtesy of their midnight sun. Aside from farming, Palmer hosts several recreational activities, historical museums, and even a reindeer farm, where you can meet yak, bison, and moose with a horseback trail ride.

About 2.5 hours from Palmer is Glenallen, which serves as a gateway to the largest national park in the U.S, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Reserve. Although this is a good jumping-off point for the park, this little town is so much more than that, hosting activities like guided tours, world-class fishing, rafting, flightseeing, wildlife viewing, and off-road vehicle trips. When planning a visit to Glenallen, keep in mind that January is its high point, when it’s famed for its Copper Basin 300 Dog Sled Race.

Just over two hours down the highway, you’ll find Valdez. While the journey itself is memorable, Valdez stands out as a rewarding endpoint. Here you can experience northern lights displays and close views of massive glaciers. This authentic Alaskan port-side town is truly versatile, offering tours and wilderness guides, local history, art and culture, and outdoor adventures like rafting, fishing, kayaking, and even snowkiting!

Parks Highway: The Alaskan Scenic Route

This stunning trip from Anchorage to Talkeetna takes about 2 hours nonstop, but travellers have been known to spend 1-2 days exploring small towns and attractions like Talkeetna, Denali State Park, and Healy. This mostly paved, two-lane highway offers breathtaking views of Denali, the Alaska Range, glaciers, boreal forests, and wildlife.

Talkeetna sits 115 miles north of Anchorage and has an authentic pioneer feel, with modern tourist facilities. Activities like flightseeing, fishing, and climbing expeditions are common here, and this small town serves as a jumping-off point for climbers hoping to summit Denali, North America’s tallest peak. Talkeetna used to be a mining town and still boasts log cabins, a roadhouse, and clapboard storefronts. Its downtown core is full of historic buildings, shops, galleries, restaurants, and even a brewery. For those seeking a bit of adventure, the Talkeetna Lakes Park trail system, a network of over a dozen miles of trails around three lakes in lush forestry, is ideal for hiking, backpacking, and even letting the dogs out for a walk.

About 4 hours along the highway, you’ll find the closest full-service, year-round community to Denali National Park, Healy. Another historical mining town, Healy, is home to trails that acted as routes to the old mines. It also has more modern fixtures, including a grocery store, gas stations, restaurants, and a brewery. If you’re looking to stay a little longer, you’ll also find accommodations like inns, hotels, cabins, and B&Bs.

Richardson Highway: A Scenic Drive from Valdez to Fairbanks

We’re going back to Valdez for this road trip, but instead of going to Anchorage, we’re journeying 368 miles to Fairbanks. This drive takes 7.5-8 hours to complete, but there are two 100-mile sections designated as State Scenic Byways with views of glaciers, mountain ranges, and more.

You’ll come across a gateway for visitors entering the massive Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Copper Center. Copper Center is an ideal spot for anyone who lives and breathes fishing. Fishing charters often take people to Klutina, Gulkana, and other local tributaries of the Copper River. There are also salmon runs from late June to early August. For those who don’t fish, Copper Center also has a plethora of museums and historical cabins packed with artifacts from this town, established in the 1800s.

Once you’re back on the highway, you’ll reach Delta Junction in about three hours. This 1,000-resident community has been known by many names over the years, including a gold rush town, Buffalo Center, a military outpost, and a farming community, among others. Delta Junction is the official end of the Alaska Highway, and this is where travellers join the Richardson Highway to Fairbanks. Delta Junction is incredibly welcoming, as the visitor center sits at the intersection of the two highways and encourages visitors with a cup of coffee and a certificate proclaiming they have completed North America’s ultimate road trip. This is an agricultural community where travellers can try local produce, jams and jellies, meat, and baked goods at the Highway’s End Farmers Market. If you’re planning to visit Delta Junction, keep in mind that their Deltana fair is held mid-summer and includes livestock, produce, craft exhibits, live music, carnival rides, and tractor pulls.

Kenai Peninsula Loop: A Week-Long Scenic Road Trip Through Alaska

The longest road trip on our list, the Kenai Peninsula Loop, is a week-long journey showing travellers “miniature Alaskan scenery”. Fishing, rafting, hiking, wildlife viewing, and photography opportunities are included in several of the small towns along this loop. Three hours from Anchorage, with a population of 7700, Kenai sits surrounded by history, scenery, and wildlife. It includes industries such as oil, natural gas, commercial fishing, and tourism. It also encourages visitors with its World-class Salmon fishing.

Situated 140 miles from Anchorage and 70 miles from Homer, Soldotna is another massive spot for fishers. It houses 4600 residents and has proven to be the fastest-growing city on the peninsula. Aside from fishing, it has a variety of attractions and activities, businesses, accommodations, dining, shopping, and personal services.

Finally, 200 miles south of your return to Anchorage, you’ll find the natural beauty, inviting culture, and warm hospitality of Homer, also known as the halibut fishing capital of the world, and the city of peonies. Homer blends a strong arts community with easy access to outdoor recreation. 5700 residents call it home year-round, and here you’ll experience a variety of things, including a fine dining scene with fresh, local ingredients, museums, gift shops, art galleries, and stunning scenery.

Haines Highway: A National Scenic Byway From Alaska to the Yukon

The drive from Haines to Haines Junction and the Yukon border is around 3-4 hours. Though nearly three hours, this stretch of highway was designated a National Scenic Byway in 2009 for its scenery and historic significance. It is 153.5 miles long and is part of the Golden Circle Route, which links Whitehorse, Skagway, Haines, and Haines Junction. Haines Highway starts in Haines, Alaska, before cutting through northern British Columbia and the Yukon, ending in Haines Junction.

Nicknamed the “Adventure Capital of Alaska”, Haines offers a wide range of outdoor and cultural activities. Tours include sightseeing, fishing, rafting, biking, rock climbing, flying, and more. For those less inclined toward thrill-seeking, Haines offers a variety of museums covering history, art, culture, and the working life of early residents, as well as an outdoor sculpture garden to explore. Haines is also home to the American Bald Eagle Foundation, which is dedicated to making conservation efforts for the American Bald Eagle. For accommodations, Haines invites you to stay a night or two at one of its cozy campgrounds or RV parks.

Skagway and Klondike Highway: A Historic and Scenic Drive from Alaska to the Yukon

This 445-mile highway connects Skagway, Alaska, to Whitehorse and Dawson City in the Yukon. The 2-3 journey starts in Skagway and climbs for 14 miles, eventually summiting at 3292ft. This scenic drive roughly parallels the route taken by prospectors during the 1898 gold rush, allowing a look into Alaska’s rich history. Scenic with beautiful landscapes, the best time to visit is during the summer, from late May to early September. You’ll also pass several points worth stopping the drive for, like White Pass Summit, Braeburn Lodge (famed for giant fluffy cinnamon rolls), and historic sites like markers and remnants of gold rush towns like the ghost town of Dyea.

Skagway is a bustling hub for visitors, with attractions and tours including the Skagway Visitor Center, cruise and coach tours, icefield expeditions, climbing schools, gift shops, galleries, shopping, and more. It also has a plethora of museums and historical tours focusing on the gold rush era, including Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. Evenings in Skagway include bars, historic saloons, breweries, restaurants, and a dispensary.

Top of the World Highway: A Remote, Scenic Drive Across the Treeline

Although this 79-mile route is only open from mid-May to mid-September, it remains one of Alaska’s more remote and scenic seasonal drives. Traversing mountain ranges above the treeline for panoramic views, this highway is a mix of gravel and paved surfaces, with summits around KM 104 at an elevation of 4515ft.

This route will take you through Chicken, a town rich in gold-mining history that has only about 12 year-round residents. The community has two RV parks and campgrounds, two cafes, gift shops, a bustling saloon, two gas stations, gold panning, and recreational gold mining. If you’re planning on adding Chicken to your itinerary, it’s recommended you do so in June, when you can experience their weekend-long music festival, Chickenstock.

90 miles from the Canadian border and almost 80 miles north of Chicken is Tok. Home to numerous campgrounds, inns, and B&Bs, Tok offers visitors much to see and do. Tok, nicknamed the ‘Sled Dog Capital of Alaska,’ offers year-round activities tied to the region’s sled dog culture. During the summer months, be sure to catch a dog sled tour, and if you go between November and March, don’t forget to check out the sprint races. Tok also hosts The Race of Champions in late March, a dog-sled race featuring the largest field of any sprint race in Alaska.

Dalton Highway: The Ultimate Arctic Circle Road Trip in Alaska

From Fairbanks toward the Northern Arctic Circle, this 414-mile gravel and pavement haul road starts in Livengood, about 80 miles north of Fairbanks, and runs north to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay. Complete with boreal forests, high alpine, and rolling tundras, this highway is the only one in Alaska to cross the Yukon River. While the total journey down the highway would take about 10 hours, it crosses the Arctic Circle at mile 115.

The mid-point on the Dalton Highway is Coldfoot, one of the few Alaskan communities north of the Arctic Circle accessible by road. Coldfoot is one of the most popular stopping points for those driving the Dalton Highway and serves as the farthest-north truck stop in the U.S, located roughly 174 miles into the highway. Nestled in the southern foothills of the Brooks Range, Coldfoot is the perfect base camp for exploring the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There are endless opportunities for backcountry adventures, including hiking, backpacking, wildlife viewing, photography, and rafting. Keep in mind that, when planning your trip to Coldfoot, the remote nature of these trails requires advance planning and backcountry experience, or a guided tour. Visitors' services include a rustic inn, a cafe, a gas station, and an airport, and tours include flightseeing, northern lights viewing, hiking, biking, and dogsledding.

Planning an Alaska Small Town Road Trip

Some of these drives are quick. Others require a full day and a flexible schedule. What they offer is access to towns that are part of Alaska’s working road system, not just scenic overlooks. If you are traveling by car, these routes make it possible to move between communities without relying on ferries or flights.