The Best Things to Do and See in Valdez, Alaska (2024)

Season: May 15 - Sept 20$89+ day tours, $579+ multi-day trips3 hrs - 7 days

Through­out the decades, Anadyr has care­ful­ly tai­lored its trips to offer an option for just about any­one. Nev­er kayaked before? Try the Valdez Glac­i­er Tour for arelax­ing pad­dle on alake with an easy hike to the glac­i­er. You’ll explore ice­bergs and even kayak into aglacial cave. Got asix year old that can’t wait to get out there? At 3 – 4hours, the Duck Flats tour offers amix of wildlife (sea lions and otters are com­mon) and Valdez history....more

Season: Year Round$345+35+ min

Dis­cov­er the Alas­ka of your imag­i­na­tion from up above — a heli­copter tour out of Valdez with VS Heli­copter Tours takes you to explore the area’s trea­sure trove of glac­i­ers, water­falls, and wildlife. Their most pop­u­lar tour includes aglac­i­er land­ing so you can walk around on the ancient ice and explore its fea­tures like moulins and deep blue meltpools.

Season: May 17 - Sept 15$162+6 or 7.5 hrs

This fam­i­ly-run com­pa­ny oper­at­ing out of Valdez will show you the best glac­i­ers, with great cus­tomer ser­vice along the way. On any giv­en day trip you’ll like­ly see huge rafts of sea otters, horned and tuft­ed puffins, cor­morants, hump­back whales, or even bald eagles. Stan Stephens offers two dai­ly tours, one of which fea­tures Colum­bia Glac­i­er, the largest tide­wa­ter glac­i­er in South­cen­tral Alaska.

The Lodge is open no mat­ter what time of the year you are vis­it­ing Valdez.

One of the most vis­it­ed nat­ur­al attrac­tions along the Richard­son High­way, this four-mile-long glac­i­er descends almost to pave­ment and is easy to approach on foot. The state recre­ation site fea­tures park­ing, pit toi­lets, and acov­ered pavil­ion with amod­el of the glac­i­er and inter­pre­tive signs, all close to smalllake.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 7 milesElevation Gain: 680 feet

This trail has asplit per­son­al­i­ty: It’s bro­ken out into two dif­fer­ent sec­tions that will appeal to two dif­fer­ent kinds of hik­ers! Sec­tion Ais the tame sib­ling — a 6.5‑mile mod­er­ate round-trip that takes about 4hours. Sec­tion Bis the wild child: Afull 12.6miles out and back, this stretch takes 10hours or so to hike and is difficult.

Difficulty: EasyDistance: 1 mile

This easy loop trail — just 0.8miles long with less than 500feet in ele­va­tion gain — offers prob­a­bly the best bang for your buck in Valdez. It’s close to town yet feels immersed in nature, comes with awe­some views, and you can do it in just 30 – 45min­utes at aleisure­lypace.

Difficulty: Easy

Bridal Veil Falls and the Valdez Goat Trail: This two-mile-long hike is arestored sec­tion of the Trans-Alas­ka Mil­i­tary Pack-train Trail that was the first glac­i­er-free route from Valdez to the inte­ri­or of Alas­ka. There’s afan­tas­tic over­look about amile down thetrail.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 12 milesElevation Gain: 800 feet

If you’re inter­est­ed in see­ing rem­nants of Alaska’s Gold Rush her­itage, you’ll find some fan­tas­tic ruins from that era along this 12.2‑mile trail that fol­lows an old grav­el road and takes about 6hours. Don’t want to walk it all? Rent abike in Valdez and ped­al yourway.

Difficulty: Easy

There are only afew places where you can spend time along the Lowe Riv­er with­out the sound of cars and motor homes — this unmarked turnoff is one of them. From here you can explore alit­tle bit upstream and find anice place to relax next to the riv­er. And the only peo­ple you may see are local rafters, as this is used as apick­up spot after float­ing through Key­stone Canyon.Just one warn­ing: don’t fall into the water! Alaskan water temperatures…...more

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 5 miles

Hike uphill until you reach about 3100ft where you will find agood place to cross the stream. At 3500ft you will need to cross yet anoth­er stream. Walk along­side the hill until you reach alaks. The trail opens for many options here, all with excel­lent views of glac­i­ers, ravines, andpeaks.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 3 miles

About four miles in, there is afish hatch­ery on this trail. The trail was cre­at­ed to pro­vide aclose look at the hatch­ery’s dam, lake, and aque­ducts. It also offers agood view of the Port of Valdez. It can be astep hike attimes.

Pad­dle around aqui­et lagoon with the impres­sive Shoup Glac­i­er at one end and ice­bergs that have calved from the glac­i­er, mar­vel at the live­ly black-legged Kit­ti­wake Rook­ery, and take in the feel­ing of being some­where remote — even if you’re only 5miles fromtown.