Alaska's Seward Highway earns its reputation from beginning to end, and Seward is where it runs out of road. The town sits at the head of Resurrection Bay, a fjord on the Kenai Peninsula ringed by steep, snow-streaked mountains, and it has a working harbour full of fishing boats, tour vessels and the occasional cruise ship. It was founded in 1903 as the ocean terminus for a railroad to the interior, and it is also mile zero of the Iditarod Trail, the dog-sledding route to Nome. The 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful ever recorded in North America, destroyed much of the waterfront here, and the town has rebuilt itself since.
The road in is the highlight. From Anchorage, the highway follows Turnagain Arm, a long inlet with huge tides, where a tidal bore sometimes rolls up the channel and belugas swim close to shore. Past Portage, it climbs through spruce forest, skirts glacial lakes, crosses Turnagain Pass at 988 feet, and runs through Moose Pass before dropping to the bay. About 127 miles in total, it is a mostly two-lane road with passing zones, scenic pull-offs and heavy summer traffic, including motorhomes, so patience is essential. Dress for cold and wet, since fog and rain are common, and watch for moose near the road.
Seward has a small downtown with restaurants, a waterfront trail and the Alaska SeaLife Center, which cares for stranded marine animals. Boats leave for the Kenai Fjords National Park, where tidewater glaciers calve into the sea and humpback whales, sea otters and puffins can be seen. Exit Glacier, reached by a short road from town, is one of the easiest places in Alaska to walk up to the ice. On the Fourth of July, runners race up and down Mount Marathon, a steep climb above the town, which is the town's great event.
Fuel and food are available in Seward, which has about 2,800 residents. The best season runs from mid-May to mid-September, when days are very long and the roads are clear.