The Matanuska Glacier is a river of ice twenty-seven miles long and about four miles wide at its end, one of the biggest glaciers you can drive to in the United States. It spills out of the Chugach Mountains in a great grey-white tongue, ribbed with crevasses and streaked with dirt, and its meltwater runs off in the Matanuska River, a braided stream of milky grey water that wanders across a wide gravel bed. You can see the glacier from the highway, at a state viewpoint near mile 101 of the Glenn Highway, where the whole ice mass lies spread out below like a frozen sea. If you want to walk on the ice, you must cross private land, and a fee is charged.
The Glenn Highway between Palmer and Glennallen is a fine road, running through a landscape of rock, spruce and river, with mountains on both sides. It climbs through the Matanuska Valley, past farms where huge cabbages are grown in the long summer days of the far north, then enters wilder country, with the Chugach on the south side and the Talkeetna Mountains on the north. The road is wide and well surfaced, with long curves and good views, but frost heaves, patched tarmac and sudden weather changes can catch the unwary. Rain and wind are common, and snow is possible in any month at the higher points.
The weather around the glacier is cool and often windy, as cold air pours off the ice, and even in July you may want a jacket. Mosquitoes are plentiful in the valley, and the glacier itself is a quiet, ancient place, with the ice creaking and the streams running in blue channels. The sound of meltwater under the surface is a reminder of how alive the glacier is.
Fuel is available in Palmer, about fifty miles back, and at one or two lodges and stations along the road, but they are few and far between, so fill up before you go. Food is limited to a few roadside lodges serving burgers and coffee, and it is worth carrying snacks and water. Keep an eye out for moose and sheep, and for Dall sheep on the cliffs near Sheep Mountain, where they graze in summer. In the long evenings, the glacier takes on a pink glow, and the light lasts until late.