Alaska Alpine Adventures

Guarded by 8,000’ peaks to the east, and endless tundra to the west, Turquoise Lake is nestled between Telaquana Lake and Twin Lakes, in the heart of Lake Clark National Park. This 7-day adventure gives anyone looking for an all-inclusive wilderness hiking experience the chance to thoroughly explore one of Alaska’s most amazing and beautiful watersheds; kayaking the turquoise waters, hiking to the edges of mighty glaciers, and exploring the hillsides searching for a glimpse of the many animals that call this place home. With kayaks based at Turquoise Lake you can hike both the east end and west end of the lake, with the option to do morning or evening paddles from camp.

Denali is America’s quintessential National Park. While most visitors experience the park via its main northern corridor, the Denali Park Road, the south side of the park sees little annual visitation and remains completely road-less and virtually unexplored. Accessing the park by bush plane from Talkeetna, Alaska, your first treat will be a phenomenal floatplane flight up the Ruth glacier near Denali. You’ll then spend 3-days and 3-nights camping and hiking Denali’s wild side from the comfort of a wilderness basecamp situated on the edge of the mighty Ruth Glacier, and only 17 miles from the summit of North America's highest peak. Your wilderness camp, near the shore of a small glacial lake, puts you right in the epicenter of the Alaska Range and in a place where you will feel humbled by the scale and majesty of Denali National Park.

With a light daypack, you’ll spend your days hiking miles of vast tundra and exploring the seemingly endless glaciers; returning to camp each evening for a delicious feast under the midnight sun. See Denali in a way that few ever have, and experience Denali Unexplored!

This amazing multisport adventure will allow you to experience the best of Alaska by hiking, kayaking, climbing, cruising, and flying through its vast wilderness, all while enjoying the comfort of nightly accommodations in some of Alaska’s most famous lodges and B&Bs, and tent camping at a comfortable Denali basecamp, located in the heart of Denali National Park. If you’re looking to actively experience in the “real” Alaska and want to mix up amazing lodges with a remote camping experience, then this nine-day itinerary is your quintessential adventure.

Spanning from the heart of the Brooks Range to the Chukchi Sea on the western coast of state, the Noatak River is home to abundant wildlife including the 500,000-strong Western Arctic Caribou Herd. The Noatak is also one of the largest wilderness river basins and also one of the longest untouched rivers on earth. With class I & II whitewater, the river is fun for both novice and experienced boaters, and the hiking along the river is simply astounding.

After six days of river life in both Gates of the Arctic and the Noatak National Preserve, you’ll make the bush flight to Kobuk Valley National Park and the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes for two full days exploring this oddity of the north. Spend the days traveling this obscure landscape with light daypacks, marveling at the stark contrast from the Noatak River to the barren landscape that makes the sand dunes as marvelous as they are unique.

Alaska’s most unique bear viewing trip! This once-in-a-lifetime adventure is truly a multi-sensory experience for the adventurer looking to view, photograph and admire North America’s most magnificent big game animal. From your comfortable camp (one that we’ve made bear resistant by surrounding with an electric fence), we spend three full days watching the world famous bears of Katmai National Park in a true wilderness setting.

Twin Lakes exudes the truest essence of Lake Clark National Park; a wilderness nirvana, where the allure of living a more simple life, in tune with nature and the changing seasons will certainly captivate you. With inflatable kayaks providing unlimited access to the waterways, you’ll paddle and camp along the shorelines of both Upper and Lower Twin Lakes. Along the way you’ll stop to stretch your legs hiking into the valleys of Hope and Beech Creeks, climbing into Low Pass, and making a loop through the curiously named Death Valley. These day hikes offer a nice compliment to the clear water kayaking and offer amazing views of the Twin Lakes basin!

This seven-day, 30+ mile backpacking adventure includes five full days of backpacking along massive glaciers, past wild creeks, and through virgin wilderness in this most amazing and virtually unexplored area of Denali National Park. Not only does this experience include float plane access via a flight-seeing tour of the mighty Ruth Glacier, it also provides backpackers the opportunity to experience Denali National Park in a way that few ever have. You’ll finish the trip with a short visit to the quaint town of Talkeenta, and a remarkable train ride back to Anchorage.

This routes explores three of Lake Clark National Park’s most spectacular watersheds — Telaquana Lake, Turquoise Lake, and the famed Twin Lakes. This backpacking trip will take you up and over glaciers, through spectacularly vertical canyons, past huge waterfalls, and across some of the most stunning alpine tundra in Alaska.

This 10-day backpacking and hiking trip will take you from the shores of remote Telaquana Lake, around the Trail Creek highlands, beneath the glaciated 8000’ Telaquana Mountain, under the hanging glaciers surrounding Turquoise Lake, over a glacier pass, through the tundra of the Emerson Creek valley, and finally to Twin Lakes.

While the mountains present exciting route-finding challenges, the tundra allows the opportunity to hike easily and glass the horizons for Dall’s sheep, grizzly bears, caribou, moose, migratory foul, and birds of prey.

Turquoise Lake offers some of the best hiking and wildlife viewing in Lake Clark National Park. At your first camp, spend a few days exploring waterfalls and glaciers, then head toward Twin Lakes for three days in the alpine tundra. Enjoy some of Alaska’s most incredible lakes and mountain ranges, and return refreshed from this wild place of natural beauty and solitude.

At 19-million acres, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is the largest federally protected conservation area in North America. To say the the refuge is big would be paltry misrepresentation of its magnitude - ANWR is in fact incomprehensibly massive. It's one of the few places left on the planet where one can literally disappear within the complex topography and utterly disconnected serenity of the far north. That said, it's also one of the most approachable and user friendly wilderness areas anywhere in Alaska - the hiking is simply sublime! Combine all of this with an ancient, though largely invisible, history of human presence and the Arctic Refuge could possibly be the perfect representation of the America's incomparable culture of wilderness preservation.

Brimming with adventurous possibility and inviting exploration, Katmai's Valley of 10,000 Smokes is a backpackers dream. Rimmed with active, glaciated volcanoes, and blanketed with a hiker-friendly surface of sand and ash from the massive 1912 eruption, the Valley is a must-see for anyone with a "peak" experience in mind. After flying from Anchorage to King Salmon, hop in a float plane for the bush flight from King Salmon to the world famous Brooks Camp. Here you’ll have the chance to witness the annual bear viewing spectacle, before heading out to the valley by bus on day three. From the Three Forks Visitor Center begin the circumnavigation of the valley floor, with stops along the way to attempt non-technical ascents of Broken Mountain, Fallen Mountain, Baked Mountain, Cerebrus, and maybe even Mt. Griggs.

Shaped by volcanoes and scoured by ice ages, the north Wrangells give experienced backpackers the rare opportunity to feel like a mountaineer and travel like an explorer. The 50-mile route will take you across glaciers, swift creeks, high mountain passes, and wide-open tundra. Combine all of this with exciting bush flights and absolute Alaska solitude, and you have the makings of a true backpacking adventure of a lifetime.

Travel southwest to King Salmon, Aniakchak's gateway community, before boarding the bush flight bound for the caldera itself and the iconic Surprise Lake. This is where the adventure truly begins! Spend days backpacking and hiking around the mighty Aniakchak Caldera. Climb up Vent Mountain, visit the site of the 1930 eruption and explore the caldera floor, hiking its rugged rim.

Scour the hillsides for the coastal grizzly's that call Aniakchak home, with the route back to civilization descending the caldera's northern aspects towards the Bering Sea coastline and the village of Port Heiden. By expedition's end, your sense of wilderness and wildness will forever be altered by the experience of spending 10-nights in a landscape that defines it.

Alaska Alpine Adventures has been exploring the Revs since 2002, and they still believe that this small and obscure portion of Alaska offers some of the most stunning and remote backpacking and hiking anywhere on earth. A backpacking trip through the Revelations will take you through the high tundra of the range's western escarpment, past beautiful alpine lakes and tumbling creeks, through a carpet of alpine tundra, across braided rivers, and down onto the Big River for a finish at a small airstrip.

This 10-day itinerary includes 8-full days of backpacking along massive glaciers, above wild rivers, and through virgin wilderness in this most amazing and virtually unexplored area of the park. Not only does this experience include an amazing flight-seeing tour of the Susitna River valley and mighty Ruth Glacier by float plane, it also provides experienced backpackers the opportunity to truly experience Denali National Park in an extraordinary way.

Gates of the Arctic National Park remains one of the most remote and unspoiled places on earth. At 8.4 million acres, Gates covers an area twice the size of Connecticut and only a bit smaller than the country of Switzerland. The park is essentially road-less, and except for limited and difficult access along the Dalton highway, most recreational visitors choose to enter its wilderness via a chartered bush plane.

Traversing the park on two separate bush flights, the first from Fairbanks to Bettles, a small gateway community and the field headquarters for the National Park Service. From Bettles, hop into a float-plane for the flight to Circle Lake and the start of ten days of hiking and rafting in the Arrigetch. This part of the park offers the full spectrum of Alaska hiking; from bushwhacking and talus hopping to tundra romping and creek crossing. Spend days exploring this small portion of the Brooks Range, and nights enjoying the sounds of Arrigetch Creek as you camp along its tundra carpeted headwaters beneath the massive granite escarpments of the Arrigetch Peaks.

After six days of hiking and backpacking, canoe down the wild and scenic Alatna River running directly through the heart of the Brooks Range. Spend the final days boating along the Alatna to reach Malamute Fork.

Starting in the small fishing town of King Salmon, board a float plane to view Alaska's famous brown bears of the Brooks River. Then travel to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes to explore the lunar-like topography of ancient volcanoes and gaze into river canyons hundreds of feet deep where layers of pumice and ash have been eroded by rain and snow melt.

Over the next six days, explore this surreal wilderness on foot. Whether climbing to the caldera’s rim, hiking to the summit of Vent Mountain, or scanning for wildlife along the lake shore, you are sure to experience a wilderness like nowhere else on earth, before the skilled bush pilot flies you back to King Salmon.

Starting the adventure above the Arctic Circle, fly from Fairbanks to Bettles, a true bush community accessible only by air. Touching down on Circle Lake find yourself alone in the epicenter of true wilderness. Begin the challenging uphill climb out of the Alatna River Valley and catch the first glimpse of the Arrigetch Peaks.

Over the next six days ascend high mountain passes, walk along tundra-clad ridges, or hike alongside high alpine lakes. Exploring this area will provide you the essence of Gates of the Arctic National Park, and the vastness of an incomparable wilderness.

Our signature Source to Sea Multisport adventure will allow you to sample the wonders of Alaska's national parks by hiking, fishing, kayaking, rafting, cruising, and flying through three of Alaska’s hallmark national parks. All while enjoying the comfort of nightly accommodations in some of Alaska’s most famous hotels, lodges, and B&B’s. If you want to actively experience and participate in the “real” Alaska, but would prefer not to camp, then this twelve day inclusive itinerary offers a quintessential Alaska adventure travel itinerary.

Spend eight days completing a 60-mile traverse of the Revelation Mountains. The landscape will offer up an incredibly diverse array of pure wilderness travel, from rolling open dry tundra, multiple river crossings, high glacier passes, miles of glacier ice, and plenty of time on rocky river bars. The route will take you from the Big River on the west side to Sled Pass on the east side of Mt. Mausolus. Though the Revelations are technically outside of the boundary of Lake Clark National Park, you'd never know it. You'll still get the full Lake Clark experience with the amazing flight-seeing along the trip.

In 2007, owner Dan Oberlatz and longtime client Mark Stevens completed a 55-mile traverse of the remote and rugged Neacola Mountains, deep in the inner sanctum of Lake Clark National Park. Their route took them from the astonishingly breathtaking Turquoise Lake and north to the remote and rarely visited Two Lakes. Rather than choosing the path of least resistance, they instead chose to go east and into the glaciated gut of the range. Their route took them across 30+ miles of glacier ice, over 4 high glacier passes, down polished granite slabs, up miles of loose talus and moraine, across braided glacier rivers, through thickets of dense green alder, and along ancient bear trails to the shores of Two Lakes. To this day, Dan Oberlatz calls the Neacola High Route one of the greatest traverses he's ever done.

All you need is a light daypack to explore this amazing place. Imagine spending your days exploring the vast tundra and returning to camp for a delicious lakeside meal under the midnight sun.

Camping right on the beach of Turquoise Lake, puts you in the epicenter of the Alaska & Aleutian Ranges and in a place where you will feel humbled by the solitude, beauty, and unspoiled wilderness of the incomparable Lake Clark National Park.

Start with a 2-night camping adventure at the Serpentine Hot Springs deep in the heart of Bering Land Bridge National Monument. Accessible solely by bush plane, Serpentine offers an amazing hot spring and fantastic hiking through a landscape of rolling tundra hills and granite tors. Move by bush plane to Cape Krusenstern National Monument for another 2-night basecamp adventure for more spectacular hiking, remote camping, and abundant wildlife viewing opportunities.

Exploring Alaska’s oft overlooked Talkeetna Mountains, travel up the Gold Mint trail and then into the alpine tundra above at the headwaters of the Little Susitna River and complete the 3 hour ascent of the Mint Glacier itself. Explore the dramatic upper reaches of the Mint Glacier's huge granite walls, neck-wrenching vertical relief, and rugged terrain shaped by the retreating glaciers.

This 25 mile backpacking adventure will give you a savory taste of this rugged range. From the sublime beauty of the Little Susitna River to the granite peaks above the remote Mint Glacier.