After a couple of great days in Healy to visit Denali National Park, we headed 3.5 hours south to Wasilla. Wasilla is a city 45 minutes north of Anchorage where we’d be staying after Wasilla, so it might seem pointless staying in both places seeing as it’s a relatively short drive between the cities.
There was a reason for it though. We found a great-looking and – more importantly – very reasonably priced Airbnb in Wasilla. Considering we had quite a few places we wanted to visit in the Wasilla area, it made more sense for us to stay there for a week rather than having to make several 1.5 hour round trips from Anchorage.
Wasilla seems to have a bit of a bad rap in Alaska as Alaskan residents we spoke to seemed surprised that we’d make an effort to spend a week there. However, with fun animal experiences, stunning views, one of the best breweries I’ve ever been to and more, we ended up having a great time and I think this was my favorite week overall out of our 5 weeks in Alaska.
Here’s what we got up to during our week in Wasilla.
Where We Stayed In Wasilla
We spent all week in this one bedroom house we booked on Airbnb. I referred to its price earlier; it only cost $80.40 per night which is very reasonable by Alaskan standards in the summer considering we had the place to ourselves. By paying with Airbnb gift cards we bought at a discount, our net cost was $68.34 per night.
The house didn’t have a TV, but that wasn’t a huge loss seeing as we kept ourselves pretty busy while staying there. There was a good sized kitchen though with a washer and dryer, along with a comfortable bedroom and fenced-in yard.
The house was about 15-20 minutes from downtown Wasilla, so it was a little bit of a drive to grocery stores, restaurants, etc. However, it did mean it was nice and quiet for our week there and it was a scenic drive into Wasilla due to the mountains in the distance while driving down the road.
Things To Do In Wasilla
Museum of Alaska Transportation
The first place we visited in Wasilla was the Museum of Alaska Transportation. I found this to be a surprisingly interesting museum as the nature of transportation in Alaska makes it different to transportation museums you might find in other states.
Exhibits inside the main museum area include sections focused on bush pilots, female pilots, snowmobiles, Alaska Airlines and more. You then head outside where there are lots more exhibits including trains, cabooses, planes, boats, fire trucks and more.
If you’re wanting to stop at this museum on your way through to somewhere else and are concerned because you have a pup with you, don’t worry! The Museum of Alaska Transportation is pet-friendly, so Truffles joined us on the walk around.
Newcomb Park At Wasilla Lake
When heading to the grocery store a couple of days beforehand, I’d driven past Wasilla Lake. It looked like a pretty place to go for a walk, so after visiting the museum the three of us headed to Newcomb Park there.
It seemed like a popular place for people to hang out seeing as there was a playground for kids, picnic tables and the opportunity to go swimming in the lake (brrr!)
The Musk Ox Farm
Something a little unusual that we saw was in nearby Palmer was The Musk Ox Farm. They offer 45 minute guided tours of the farm where you learn all about musk ox and why they raise them for qiviut.
Qiviut is a type of fiber grown by musk ox which is shed naturally by the creatures in the summer. It’s an extremely valuable fiber; a small smoke ring/scarf cost $205, while other clothing items can cost substantially more. They sell 2oz of raw fiber for $65. It has superb heating qualities which is how musk ox stay warm in the winter and is also why it’s a useful (but expensive) garment material in Alaska.
Our guide shared all kinds of interesting facts about musk ox – we had no clue there’d be so much fascinating information. The farm takes care of the animals year-round, but they can only collect the qiviut for two months of the year. It’s the sun that tells musk ox when they need to shed rather than the temperature.
Musk ox were functionally extinct in Alaska in 1864, but in 1930 Alaska paid $40,000 to Greenland for 34 of them and placed them on Nunivak Island where they’d have no predators. They added some genetic diversity with musk ox from Canada and there’s now more than 5,000 of them in Alaska.
Iditarod Museum
Wasilla is home to the Iditarod, a sled dog trail race that goes all the way out to Nome, a remote city on the western side of Alaska. The race used to nominally start in Anchorage before officially restarting in Wasilla, but in 2007 it moved its restart to Willow. There is still an Iditarod museum in Wasilla though which is what we went to check out.
The museum is very small, but it’s free to visit. They also have a 20-30 minute video they play which shares the history of the Iditarod race. I don’t normally watch lengthy videos at museums, instead preferring to catch a few minutes and then exploring the museum. In this case though, we started watching the video (called ‘Why Do They Run?’) and we were so interested in it that we decided to stay and watch the entire video.
The history of the Iditarod dates back to 1925. There was an outbreak of diphtheria in Nome, but there wasn’t enough serum to inoculate everyone in the city. Serum was transported by train from Anchorage to Nenana, then 20 of the best mushers raced the serum the almost 675 miles to Nome in less than 5.5 days.
The advent of air travel meant greater connectivity for Nome in the future, but the tradition of that first Iditarod race continues today, with mushers and their teams of sled dogs now competing every year.
After watching the movie and checking out the exhibits in the museum area, we headed back out to the gift shop counter to pay $10 each for a fun experience. At the museum they have a sled dog ride you can do. Seeing as we visited in the summer, we were on a wheeled sled – I’m assuming you get a regular snow sled experience if you visit in the winter (provided they offer rides then).
We got to meet the sled dogs first…
…then it was time to go for a ride.
Similar to the sled dog demonstration we’d seen at Denali National Park, the sled dogs at the Iditarod were super-excited to get picked to run. All of the dogs there that day had run the Iditarod in the past, so it was fun getting to ride with experienced Iditarod dogs, rather than them just being “regular” sled dogs.
Here’s a video of our ride:
Hatcher Pass Scenic Drive
We’d heard that there’s good hiking in/near Hatcher Pass, so we were interested in doing that. However, when checking AllTrails it looked like the trails we’d be most interested in were still snowy/icy and we weren’t equipped for that (we don’t have crampons or microspikes).
On a drive up to Independence Mine State Historical Park though (more about that in the next section), we did get to drive through Hatcher Pass and it was stunning. The photos below are nice, but they don’t do justice to the true beauty of the drive.
Independence Mine State Historical Park
Independence Mine State Historical Park is the site of a former gold mine. The drive up there takes you through Hatcher Pass, so that alone makes it worth visiting. However, there’s even more to it than a nice drive, so it’s worth spending at least a couple of hours there.
When we visited in mid-June, the upper parking lot was closed and so we had to park at the lower parking lot and walk the mile uphill. We didn’t know the reason why the upper parking lot was closed, otherwise I might’ve made a different footwear choice – more about that in a moment.
After a beautiful drive up through Hatcher Pass, we continued to be treated to amazing vistas.
As you can see in the photos above, there was still snow on the ground. Despite that, it was a lovely, warm sunny day and so I decided to wear flip-flops (I live in flip-flops as much as I can). That wasn’t a problem while walking uphill, but as we approached Independence Mine it became apparent that it might not have been the wisest choice.
That’s because the reason the upper parking lot was still closed was because there was still snow on the ground up there. And even though the road we walked up was free and clear of snow, the site itself still had a lot of snow on the paths. In some areas it was packed down enough that being in flip-flops was fine, but other times it was much softer and so my feet got wet, snowy and icy while trying to walk through.
Independence Mine State Historical Park is now a ghost town (or ghost mine?), with buildings still in place. You can do a self-guided tour, reading all the information boards about the site’s history like we did. Otherwise, Salmon Berry Tours offers paid tours of the site which also include a hike in Hatcher Pass.
I think we might’ve been a little too early in the (presumably very short) summer season as the visitor center was closed the Saturday we visited. We still had fun wandering around though, learning about gold mining operations.
Although they’re not allowed in any of the buildings, the grounds and hiking trails around Independence Mine State Historical Park are pet-friendly. That meant Truffles got to join us which she appreciated, although I think she was confused about experiencing snow in June.
Thunderbird Falls
After checking out of our Airbnb, we had a bit of time to kill before checking in to our next hotel and so we decided to go for a couple of short hikes/walks. Both of these hikes were about halfway between Wasilla and Anchorage, so you could easily access them if staying in either place.
The first hike was to Thunderbird Falls (you can find the trailhead on Google Maps here.) It’s a fairly easy trail seeing as it’s only one mile each way. There was a good amount of shade along the route which was nice as it was pretty warm the day we visited, but with it being the summer it was also very buggy.
The trail takes you to an overlook of the falls which is where we took the above photo. There’s also a side trail taking you down closer to the falls, but we decided against that as we had another stop to make along the route to Anchorage.
Eklutna Lake
While at a brewery earlier in the week, we’d gotten chatting to a couple of people who advised us to visit Eklutna Lake. We already had it on our radar, so that additional recommendation made us decide to stop there on our drive to Anchorage in case we didn’t make it back up there during our stay.
There’s a 26 mile out and back trail alongside Eklutna Lake (as well as several other trails around there). While we didn’t plan to do a walking marathon there, we figured we’d walk as far as we wanted to and then head back.
Shae, Truffles and I didn’t make it too far along the trail though. That’s because after seeing how beautiful it was there, we headed down to the lake itself and just rested there for a while. Shae took in the views while I had a little snooze. It was wonderful!
Despite not going on another walk, Truffles was also happy just being out and about.
Where We Ate & Drank In Wasilla
Seeing as we had a kitchen in our Airbnb and our budget already wasn’t looking healthy for the month, we didn’t eat out at all while in Wasilla. We did visit a few different breweries though.
Last Frontier Brewing
Seeing as the Museum of Alaska Transportation is pet-friendly, Truffles had come along with us. After visiting the museum and Wasilla Lake, we wanted to stop at a brewery for a quick drink.
The first one we tried (Bearpaw River Brewing Company) didn’t allow dogs despite having a large outdoor seating area, so we made our way over to Last Frontier Brewing instead. They serve food and so don’t allow dogs inside, but they did have several tables out front where you can have a drink with your pup.
I got a flight with six of their beers, while Shae had a glass of wine. The beers were all OK, but not so amazing that I wanted to stay and have more. Shout out to our server though (I didn’t catch his name unfortunately) who was incredibly friendly.
Bleeding Heart Brewery
After driving through Hatcher Pass and visiting Independence Mine State Historical Park, we headed down into Palmer to have a drink at Bleeding Heart Brewery as that’s another pet-friendly brewery. I had high hopes for their beers as they had an interesting selection of flavors.
I got a flight of four:
- Beet IPA
- Mass Appeal – amber inspired altbier
- Grounds For Divorce – coffee porter with AK Artisan Coffee Co
- Eau De Merde – cryo milkshake mix beery hazy imperial hard seltzer
The coffee porter was the best of them, but similar to Last Frontier, none of them wowed me.
Matanuska Brewery And Tap Room
Somewhat disappointed after our experience at Bleeding Heart, we went literally around the corner to a different brewery – Matanuska Brewery and Tap Room. As with the other breweries we visited, they’re not pet-friendly inside. Pups aren’t allowed on their main patio either, but there is a grassy area with some tables and chairs where you can have a drink with your dog, so we set ourselves down there.
After a couple of average experiences at breweries in the Wasilla area, I’ll admit that I didn’t hold out hopes for Matanuska.
Boy, was I wrong?!
Matanuska Brewery is incredible. I’d easily put it in my top five breweries that we’ve visited on the road trip and possibly in my top three. They had about two dozen beers on tap, as well as a couple of ciders. All of them looked interesting, so I started off with a flight of four. Those were excellent, so I had another flight of four which were also all excellent.
Thankfully Shae had offered to be the designated driver, so I then had a third flight. Knowing that I couldn’t handle any more beer that day, we returned a few days later after checking out of our Airbnb (and just before we went to Thunderbird Falls and Eklutna Lake) so that I could finish trying all of their beers.
I genuinely liked every single one of them. It’s hard to pick a specific favorite (especially because my memory isn’t so good of the third flight I had on that first visit 😉 ), but their Backcountry Red Wild Berry Ale was one of my favorites, as were their porters and stouts. I know taste is individual, but it seems like you can’t go wrong with whatever you pick there.
The front of house manager the first day we visited was wonderful too. I didn’t make a note of his name unfortunately, but Shae thinks it might’ve been Nate. Anyway, he was very nice, generous and helpful, so special shout out to him (apologies if we got your name wrong!)
[…] we did was truly free because even our hikes had paid hiking. I’m therefore going with the Iditarod Museum in Wasilla which was actually free. There wasn’t much to the museum itself, but they did have a very […]