Dreamy DayTrip 2: Palmer
Heading towards Palmer is a guarantee for a great adventure. I skipped Palmer heading towards Valdez knowing that it would be a fun trip during my Anchorage stay. We actually wound up heading towards Palmer on several occasions, and would happily have headed that way a few more. Our first trip was to visit the Alaska State Fair and the unbelievably beautiful Hatcher Pass. We planned some great walks at Thunderbird Falls, Mirror Lake, and Eklutna Lake and recovered at Palmer’s Bleeding Heart Brewery. You can mix and match some really excellent days in this area. We went out one more time to visit Matanuska Glacier, and took another look around Hatcher Pass to see it in the clouds and mist. These are all within two hours of Anchorage and you should absolutely spend some time exploring all of these gems.
The Alaska State Fair is hilarious. We watched an improperly executed antique tractor pull, a terrible wrestling match, Evil Knievel style motorcycle cage hi-jinx, massive animatronic insects, and all kinds of standard fair shenanigans. Not a lot of masks or covid precautions happening there, but it’s outdoors and you can absolutely socially distance yourself, eat some fair food, check out the giant produce and blue ribbon flowers, and enjoy some epic people watching. We bet on a rat race that is easily one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever witnessed, ate epic spinach bread, checked out pumpkins the size of compact cars and giggled at a church turned wine bar serving up Snoop Dogg’s vino.
Take your time on that drive to Hatcher Pass, the scenery is unbelievably beautiful. I easily could have driven that route every single day of the trip and never tired of it. The abandoned Independence Mine is a very cool and interesting walk. There’s a waterfall, collapsed and preserved mining buildings, and the view of the Hatcher Pass Lodge and the sweet red a-frame cabins makes it totally worth it. I was delighted to find a couple vintage orange booths just like the ones from the defunct International Market in Nashville near the cabins. There’s an easy walk to Summit Lake, and a more difficult April Bowl trail to the Reed Lakes. It’s a steep and rather difficult dirt road up the lakes, but if your vehicle can manage a little off-roading, it’s an adventure worth taking. There are some beautiful scenic overlooks, incredible clouds, and the most lovely mountain views. You’ll see lots of hang gliders and para-gliders leaping off the mountains on the weekend, it’s really a fantastic way to spend an afternoon.
I mentioned Mantanuska Glacier on my road to Valdez, its just a little further than Palmer and absolutely breathtaking. We stopped at Matanuska Brewing (they have locations in Palmer, Eagle River, and Anchorage) and you have to visit at lest one. The Backcountry Blue Ale and pizza are perfection.
There are some really great hikes at Matanuska, but we absolutely adored Thunderbird Falls, Mirror Lake, and Eklutna Lake. The drive to the trails over the Matanuska River is beautiful. Thunderbird Trail takes you along an incredibly deep gorge to a lovely waterfall. It’s fast, steep, and relatively easy. Mirror Lake is a nice flat walk with incredible 360 views of the valley, mountains, and lake. There is a fun raised platform offering extensive views of the wetlands and a great boardwalk to watch the wildlife on the water.
Eklutna Lake was my favorite random field trip. The Thunderbird Falls trail was closed for maintenance and we just kept driving until we hit the water we saw on the map. This is definitely water worth seeing. There were beautiful driftwood sculptures, tremendous teal water, and happy families kayaking and skipping rocks on the water. We could have stayed there all day.
Bleeding Heart Brewery and the attached vintage store are absolutely worth the visit. My friend Caroline and I are both enamored with pretty pub paper, but this one takes the cake (er, pint?) We were actually sitting on this patio when our phones went off telling us we had our highest chance at seeing the Aurora that night. We looked skeptically up at the clouds, and checked the map. We were halfway to Talkeetna and their odds were even stronger. So we packed up and hit the road to head a little farther north to try our luck.
We visited the Denali Brewing Tasting room to pick up more cans of the Blueberry Mojito and went to Denali BrewPub for dinner while we waited for dark. The Heidi House (a whiskey sour made with Mother Ale) is worth the drive on it’s own. Our server suggested a walk to the end of their street to check for northern lights and watch the sunset on the water. He was not wrong. We sat on a blanket with the pups and caught a beautiful moody cloudy sunset over Denali. Not great Northern Light conditions, but the Chuli Stout Brownie was a crowd pleasing consolation prize.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter what you mix and match for your Palmer Adventure, but 3 visits in that direction weren’t nearly enough for us. I hope you are able to soak it all in, it will absolutely stay with you.
