Glacier Viewing

Many people come to Alaska to see glaciers. From the airplane window, you see them dot the landscape below.  They dazzle, they amaze, they capture your attention. Spend just one day at a calving glacier and you will find it nearly impossible to tear yourself away.  

Sheridan Glacier is easily accessible. Drive or bike the Copper River Highway to Sheridan Glacier Road at Mile 13.7. Another four miles on this gravel road will bring you to the Sheridan Glacier Recreation Area which includes parking, a pit toilet, and a picnic area. An easy, 1.5 mile hike on the Sheridan Lake Trail will bring you to Sheridan Glacier Lake, with stunning views of the glacier and lake within 10 minutes.  Pick a great picnic spot in the wildflowers or right up and personal with the glacier.

For a more challenging and dramatic view, choose instead to venture up the Sheridan Mountain Trail. This 2.8 mile, moderately-steep trail begins in a spruce-hemlock forest and follows a stream that provides resting spots with views of waterfalls. Midway, the landscape transitions into a shrub habitat before opening into a small picturesque alpine basin. From this basin rock cairns guide the hiker to the top of a nearby ridge that offers commanding views of the Sheridan and Sherman Glaciers, as well as the Copper River Delta. This trail has intermittent boardwalk covering much of the wet, muddy areas in the lower sections, and little tread work on the upper sections. 

Now that you’ve got the glacier-viewing itch, check out the 3.1 (5 km) hike to Saddlebag Lake where Saddlebag Glacier resides at the far end of the lake. Receding, the glacier is not often viewable in the summer from the trail end, but if you bring a packraft, you could paddle out around the corner to see it. 

While the Copper River Highway is impassible beyond bridge 339 near 36 mile, driving out to Childs Glacier is not an option. But you can still spend the day exploring the area.  Local outfitters offer guided trips to get you there via water or air for a fee. Whichever route you take to spend a day at the glacier, walk, hike, ATV or boat you will have an unforgettable day exploring the world’s richest waters. Check our Business Directory for outfitter listings.