19 Best Sights in Anchorage, Alaska

On a 26-acre site facing the Chugach Mountains, this facility provides an introduction to Alaska Native peoples. The spacious Gathering Place has interpretive displays, artifacts, photographs, demonstrations, Alaska Native dances, storytelling, and films, along with a gift shop selling crafts and artwork. Step outside for a stroll around the adjacent lake, where seven village exhibits represent the traditional structures of Alaska Native cultural groups. Inside, you'll find tools, games, and innovations used in the past, plus hosts and storytellers during the summer months. The Center is tucked in the woods on the edge of town, but a shuttle runs June through August to connect guests to the Log Cabin Visitors Center and Anchorage Museum Downtown.

This striking, contemporary building with first-rate exhibits is an essential stop for visitors who want to celebrate the history of the North. The star of the museum is the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, which features more than 600 objects from Alaska Native cultures and short films that teach visitors about modern-day Native life. Wander the Art of the North galleries, filled with works that showcase Alaska landscape, history, and beauty. The Alaska exhibition shares Alaska's diversity and history with a knock-out eye for design. Cap the visit in the 9,000-square-foot, kid-focused Discovery Center, which includes a planetarium. Curated exhibitions rotate regularly and frequently spotlight Arctic issues, Northern design, and the unique perspective of life at these latitudes. In addition, the gift shop is one of Anchorage's best places to buy Alaska Native art and other souvenirs.

Perched between the airport and the coast, this city park provides an entertaining hodgepodge of nature and noise—you can enjoy beautiful views of Mt. Susitna while trans-Pacific cargo jets periodically roar overhead. Walk down to the beach and head east for a picture-perfect view of the city skyline framed against the Chugach Mountains. Just off the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, expect food carts and ice cream trucks as your reward if you make the 5-mile bike ride from Downtown.

Strollers, runners, bikers, dog walkers, and in-line skaters cram this recreation trail on sunny summer evenings, particularly around Westchester Lagoon. In winter, cross-country skiers take to the trail by storm, and the lagoon becomes a buzzing ice rink with city-supplied burn barrels. The trail begins off 2nd Avenue, west of Christensen Drive, and curls along Cook Inlet for approximately 11 miles to Kincaid Park, beyond the airport. In summer you might spot beluga whales offshore in Cook Inlet. Access points are on the waterfront at the ends of 2nd and 5th Avenues and at Westchester Lagoon near the end of 15th Avenue. When you get to the high points in the trail, look north; Denali is visible on clear days.

The state's unique aviation history is presented here with more than 25 vintage aircraft, a flight simulator, a theater, and an observation deck along the world's busiest seaplane base. Highlights include a 1928 Stearman C2B, the first plane to land on Denali back in the early 1930s, and a well-done exhibit on the Battle of Attu, the only North American land battle of World War II. You may see volunteers busily restoring an aircraft in one of the hangars and docents eager to talk about their bush pilot experiences. A free shuttle to and from Anchorage Airport is available, as is luggage storage.

The garden showcases perennials hardy enough to make it in Southcentral Alaska in several large display gardens, a pergola-enclosed herb garden, and a rock garden amid 110 acres of mixed boreal forest. There's a 1-mile nature trail loop to Campbell Creek, with views of the Chugach Range and a wildflower trail between the display gardens. Interpretive signs guide visitors and identify plants along the trail. Docent tours are available upon request, and events occur throughout the year, including a winter lights display complete with hot drinks and kicksleds. From June through August, the garden offers a complimentary shuttle from Downtown's Log Cabin Visitors Center.

If you prefer the focus of your coffee break to be on the baked goods, pop into Alaska Cake Studio Downtown. From creative cupcakes—their 350 recipes rotate daily—to cookies, croissants, and, of course, cakes, sweet treats delight.

Stop here for information and inspiration on all of Alaska's public lands, including national and state parks, national forests, and wildlife refuges. You can plan a hiking, sea-kayaking, bear-viewing, or fishing trip; purchase state and national park passes; find out about public-use cabins; learn about Alaska's plants and animals; or head to the theater for films highlighting different parts of the state. The bookstore also sells maps and nature books. Guided walks to historic Downtown sights depart throughout the summer. The center is housed in a federal facility, meaning a security screening is required to enter.

Totem poles and a locomotive built in 1907 are outside this station, the headquarters of the Alaska Railroad since 1915. Photographs and plaques inside explain the history of the railroad, which brought an influx of people into the city during the early 1900s. During February's Fur Rendezvous Festival, model-train buffs set up their displays here.

Roam the trails and visit with the polar bears, caribou, brown and black bears, seals, tigers, snow leopards, moose, wolves, lynx, and a large array of birds that call the Alaska Zoo home. The zoo provides a wide array of programs included with admission, such as zookeeper talks and toddler story times, that concentrate on promoting the conservation of arctic and subarctic animal species. Throughout the summer for an additional fee you can join daily two-hour tours that include behind-the-scenes stops. The zoo is in the foothills on the edge of town, but a free summer-only shuttle leaves from the Downtown Visitor Center at 4th Avenue and F Street every hour from Thursday through Sunday; online reservations are required to ride.

Housed in a rustic log cabin, the center has a sod roof festooned with huge hanging baskets of flowers. Anchorage is a major stopping point for cargo jets en route to Asia, and a signpost out front marks the mileage to many international destinations. After a stop in the cabin, step out the back door to the more spacious visitor center stocked with brochures.

Though you'll go to Girdwood to ski or hike, find some time to peruse the crafts and artwork at this nonprofit co-op gallery. With pieces from more than 30 local artists on display, there's plenty to look at—and you might end up taking care of any gift needs (from the trip or for the holidays) in one fell swoop.

Anchorage's premier fine-arts gallery, the International Gallery of Contemporary Art has changing exhibits monthly and features some of Alaska's most forward-thinking work.

A local favorite since opening its first spot in 1986, Kaladi Brothers Coffee has espresso, lattes, baked goods, and more at 12 locations around town, most with free Wi-Fi access.

Sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans, and other migratory birds, as well as the occasional moose or beaver, frequent this marsh about 10 miles south of Downtown on the Seward Highway. An elevated boardwalk makes viewing easy, and in summer there are salmon runs in the creek beneath the bridge. An old railroad service building just south of the marsh operates as a state park office.

This tiny park has a viewing platform dominated by a monument to Captain Cook, whose explorations in 1778 led to the naming of Cook Inlet and many other geographic features in Alaska. Mt. Susitna, known as the Sleeping Lady, is the prominent low mountain to the northwest, and Mts. Spurr and Redoubt, active volcanoes, are just south of Mt. Susitna. Denali, Mt. Foraker, and other peaks of the Alaska Range are often visible from more than 100 miles away.

Local anglers line both banks of this quiet creek, where salmon run upstream from June through August in the reflection of Downtown's towers. Successful fishermen clean their catch on the footbridge, which provides prime people-watching over the water. Visitors can stop at the Bait Shack ( 212 W. Whitney Rd.) to rent reels and waders and purchase fishing permits. Farther upstream (follow Whitney Road and turn left on Post Road) is the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery, birthplace of more than six million sport fish each year. The public building has video screens and windows overlooking the hatchery floor. Outside, salmon congregate in the clear shallow water as they try to leap up the waterfalls cascading over an artificial dam.

In South Anchorage, coffee's next wave is brewing. SteamDot Coffee and Espresso Lab treats coffee lovers to quite the coffee-brewing show at its "slow bar." This is not the place to go if you're in the mood for syrup-heavy espresso drinks. SteamDot is all about the flavor of coffee.

Kick back in this plush 60-seat auditorium as professors from the University of Alaska Anchorage add live commentary to Northern-focused science and education films, including several titles produced by the university itself in hard-to-reach Alaska destinations.