Price per Person
$299Duration
9 hoursGroup Size
12Time(s)
8:30AM - 5:30PMMatanuska Glacier Tour
- Description
- Details
- Cancellation Policy
- Travel Insurance
Our Glacier Hike was featured on CNN! See it here:
“An Alaskan glacier hike through uncompromising beauty”
Take a hike on the Matanuska glacier, Alaska’s largest road-accessible glacier located two hours north of Anchorage. Salmon Berry Tours supplies transportation and all necessary glacier gear, with local guides trained in Wilderness First Aid and Glacier Rescue. Our 6:1 guest-to-guide ratio offers you a small-group experience with the maximum level of safety and best photo opportunities of this glacier valley and it’s incredible glacier features. A late lunch is included at a lodge overlooking the glacier.
Try our most popular tour! Journey two hours north of Anchorage and explore the Matanuska glacier’s incredible features and sweeping views of this scenic valley. This is considered a moderate activity – guests should have good knees, good back and good balance to join us on the glacier hike. Elevation gain is the equivalent of walking up 3-4 flights of stairs unassisted.
The Matanuska glacier is a frozen 27-mile river of ancient ice. Thousands of years old, this massive glacier is tucked at the head of the Matanuska valley. You will spend two hours trekking the ice with our expert guides, learning how the Matanuska glacier was born and how it shaped the surrounding landscape.
Walking on ice is slippery fun, so we provide our guests with helmets, a trekking pole (walking stick) and microspikes that attach to your shoes. We require our guests to bring sturdy footwear (stiff-soled hiking boots or shoes, and in the winter a warm pack-boot rated to -20F or colder) and suggest an extra pair of socks to change into after the tour. Don’t be surprised if your shoes get covered with “flour,” the glacial till of finely-ground rock with a texture like talcum powder (it makes for great facials, but doesn’t clean off of your shoes easily).
This all-inclusive tour allows you to warm up with hot beverages and a hearty lunch (provided) at a local lodge as well as complimentary snacks and water in the vehicle.
Conclude your adventures with transportation back to your Anchorage hotel.
Need additional outdoor winter gear for your tour? By request at the time of booking, Salmon Berry Tours can provide snow pants, boots, and gloves from our lending closet, if available.
Special Notes: This is a “soft adventure” day trip experience. If interested in a more adventurous glacier tour, we would be happy to put you in touch with one of our local partners for more strenuous glacier hiking or ice climbing.
Glaciers present an inherently dangerous environment, and Matanuska glacier is no exception. Salmon Berry Tours has been in business since 2005, and we have been trekking on Matanuska glacier since 2011. We are fully-insured for glacier trekking. The company never uses novice guides for our glacier trips, and we take our training very seriously, with twice-annual crevasse rescue training. We operate in small groups, for additional safety, with one glacier guide for every six guests; guaranteeing two guides per tour.
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDED
- Local Alaska guides
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- Narration provided by a CDL-certified, English-speaking, local-Alaskan guide
- Certified Wilderness Aid and Glacier Trekking/Rescue
- Small group
- Up to 12 guests in our clean and comfortable Sprinter vans
- 1 to 6 guide-to-guest ratio while on the glacier
- All inclusive
- Admission to Matanuska Glacier Park
- Two hours of guided hiking to and on the Matanuska glacier
- Lunch at a local lodge overlooking the glacier
- Snacks and water
- An assortment of complimentary snacks and water are available in the touring vehicle to and from the glacier
- Gear (Complimentary)
- Glacier gear (helmets, trekking pole, and microspikes) provided to each guest
- Access to our gently-used gear (boots, snowpants, winter coats, raincoats, mittens, hats, etc.) is available
- *Gear must be requested at time of booking to assure gear available during your tour
- Hotel pick up (three hotels per tour)
- Pick up available from major hotels located within Anchorage
- *Please note that we do limit pick ups to 3 hotels per tour. BOOK NOW TO CONFIRM YOUR PICK UP
- Office pick up
- Conveniently located in downtown Anchorage
- *Please select “Meet at Salmon Berry Tours Office” at time of booking to confirm
- Drop off
- Drop off is available at major hotels located within Anchorage
- *Drop off at Anchorage’s Ted Stevens International Airport may be available if requested in advance
NOT INCLUDED
- Guide gratuity
- Basic guide gratuity for this tour starts at $20.00 per guest to be shared by both glacier guides.
- Drone Usage Permit
- Guests coming with Salmon Berry Tours are not allowed to fly drones on the Matanuska Glacier. Please reach out to Matanuska Glacier Park Adventures to purchase a permit. Please organize a rental car or private transportation to/from the glacier if you have a permit to fly a drone over the glacier.
- Ice climbing
- While we don’t offer ice climbing, we can book a reservation for you with one of our trusted local partners
Day Tour Cancellation Policy
For direct bookings, cancellations outside 7 days before your tour, a 10% fee will be withheld. For cancellations inside 7 days, no refund applies.
Salmon Berry Travel & Tours recommends travel insurance provided by TravelSafe Insurance. Our recommendation is based on positive guest feedback. In particular, the experience of one Salmon Berry guest is instructive:
- Our guest had booked the vacation of a lifetime and the ultimate Alaska package. She had to cancel the trip a week before it began due to unfortunate circumstances.
- She later told us that within ten minutes of phone time her claim was processed in full. She was very pleased with TravelSafe Insurance’s immediate and empathetic response. Getting a refund for her trip was the last thing she wanted to think about, and TravelSafe Insurance took care of her needs and concerns immediately.