Portage Glacier and Begich Boggs Center

Portage Glacier flows down from the Sargent Icefield in the Chugach Mountains, part of a broad field of ice that feeds many of the glaciers around Prince William Sound. It ends in Portage Lake, a body of water that did not exist much more than a century ago.

The lake is itself a record of retreat. As recently as the early 1900s the glacier filled the basin where the lake now sits, and it has pulled back steadily since, leaving open water in its place. When the Begich Boggs Visitor Center was built in the 1980s, the glacier could still be seen from its windows; it has since retreated around a bend and out of that view, a plain, visible measure of a warming climate.

That retreat is exactly why the boat tour matters now. Because the glacier's face no longer shows from shore, the reliable way to see it up close is to cross the lake by boat to where the ice still calves into the water, sending small bergs drifting back across the lake.

The tour boat departs from a dock near the visitor center and crosses Portage Lake to the glacier's terminus. The ride threads among icebergs, some newly broken from the face and glowing with the deep blue of dense, air-starved glacial ice, and brings you within a safe distance of the towering wall of the glacier itself.

Guides on board explain how the glacier formed, how it moves, and how to read the blue color and the sounds of ice cracking and calving. On a still day the lake mirrors the surrounding peaks, and the scale of the ice against the boat gives an honest sense of a glacier's size.

The tour runs during the summer season. Because weather in the valley shifts quickly, dress warmly for the open water even when the parking lot feels mild.

The visitor center is named for two congressmen, Nick Begich of Alaska and Hale Boggs of Louisiana, who disappeared on a small-plane flight over Alaska in 1972 and were never found. It stands above the lakeshore with big windows framing the water and the surrounding mountains.

Inside, Forest Service exhibits explain how glaciers form and carve the land, and introduce oddities like the ice worm, a small dark worm that genuinely lives within glacial ice. A relief model of the icefield and a film help make sense of the country you are looking at, and rangers can point you to nearby trails and viewpoints.

The center makes a good first stop, orienting you to the valley before you board the boat or set out on foot.

The valley itself is scenic driving. Portage Glacier Road passes several other glaciers and countless waterfalls streaming off the walls, and a short trail leads toward Byron Glacier, where you can walk close to the ice and, in early summer, sometimes find snow lingering on the path.

The same road continues to the one-lane tunnel to Whittier, a tiny port town on Prince William Sound reached by driving through a shared railroad tunnel bored through a mountain, an experience in itself. The wetlands near the highway are good for spotting moose, and salmon spawn in Williwaw Creek in late summer, drawing bears and eagles.

All of this sits within Chugach National Forest, an easy and rewarding detour off the drive between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.