9 Best Sights in Downtown, Anchorage

This striking, contemporary building with first-rate exhibits is an essential stop for visitors who want to celebrate the history of the North. The star of the museum is the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, which features more than 600 objects from Alaska Native cultures and short films that teach visitors about modern-day Native life. Wander the Art of the North galleries, filled with works that showcase Alaska landscape, history, and beauty. The Alaska exhibition shares Alaska's diversity and history with a knock-out eye for design. Cap the visit in the 9,000-square-foot, kid-focused Discovery Center, which includes a planetarium. Curated exhibitions rotate regularly and frequently spotlight Arctic issues, Northern design, and the unique perspective of life at these latitudes. In addition, the gift shop is one of Anchorage's best places to buy Alaska Native art and other souvenirs.

Perched between the airport and the coast, this city park provides an entertaining hodgepodge of nature and noise—you can enjoy beautiful views of Mt. Susitna while trans-Pacific cargo jets periodically roar overhead. Walk down to the beach and head east for a picture-perfect view of the city skyline framed against the Chugach Mountains. Just off the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, expect food carts and ice cream trucks as your reward if you make the 5-mile bike ride from Downtown.

Strollers, runners, bikers, dog walkers, and in-line skaters cram this recreation trail on sunny summer evenings, particularly around Westchester Lagoon. In winter, cross-country skiers take to the trail by storm, and the lagoon becomes a buzzing ice rink with city-supplied burn barrels. The trail begins off 2nd Avenue, west of Christensen Drive, and curls along Cook Inlet for approximately 11 miles to Kincaid Park, beyond the airport. In summer you might spot beluga whales offshore in Cook Inlet. Access points are on the waterfront at the ends of 2nd and 5th Avenues and at Westchester Lagoon near the end of 15th Avenue. When you get to the high points in the trail, look north; Denali is visible on clear days.

Stop here for information and inspiration on all of Alaska's public lands, including national and state parks, national forests, and wildlife refuges. You can plan a hiking, sea-kayaking, bear-viewing, or fishing trip; purchase state and national park passes; find out about public-use cabins; learn about Alaska's plants and animals; or head to the theater for films highlighting different parts of the state. The bookstore also sells maps and nature books. Guided walks to historic Downtown sights depart throughout the summer. The center is housed in a federal facility, meaning a security screening is required to enter.

Totem poles and a locomotive built in 1907 are outside this station, the headquarters of the Alaska Railroad since 1915. Photographs and plaques inside explain the history of the railroad, which brought an influx of people into the city during the early 1900s. During February's Fur Rendezvous Festival, model-train buffs set up their displays here.

Housed in a rustic log cabin, the center has a sod roof festooned with huge hanging baskets of flowers. Anchorage is a major stopping point for cargo jets en route to Asia, and a signpost out front marks the mileage to many international destinations. After a stop in the cabin, step out the back door to the more spacious visitor center stocked with brochures.

Anchorage's premier fine-arts gallery, the International Gallery of Contemporary Art has changing exhibits monthly and features some of Alaska's most forward-thinking work.

This tiny park has a viewing platform dominated by a monument to Captain Cook, whose explorations in 1778 led to the naming of Cook Inlet and many other geographic features in Alaska. Mt. Susitna, known as the Sleeping Lady, is the prominent low mountain to the northwest, and Mts. Spurr and Redoubt, active volcanoes, are just south of Mt. Susitna. Denali, Mt. Foraker, and other peaks of the Alaska Range are often visible from more than 100 miles away.

Local anglers line both banks of this quiet creek, where salmon run upstream from June through August in the reflection of Downtown's towers. Successful fishermen clean their catch on the footbridge, which provides prime people-watching over the water. Visitors can stop at the Bait Shack ( 212 W. Whitney Rd.) to rent reels and waders and purchase fishing permits. Farther upstream (follow Whitney Road and turn left on Post Road) is the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery, birthplace of more than six million sport fish each year. The public building has video screens and windows overlooking the hatchery floor. Outside, salmon congregate in the clear shallow water as they try to leap up the waterfalls cascading over an artificial dam.