Matanuska-Susitna Borough

The county in brief

A traveler's read on Matanuska-Susitna Borough

Twenty-seven miles long and accessible from a paved highway pullout — the Matanuska Glacier inside Mat-Su Borough is the only road-accessible glacier in Alaska where visitors can walk on the glacier's surface without a helicopter, boat, or expedition guide-required permit. The public hike-on access point at Glenn Highway MP 102 (Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site) requires a licensed-guide-led tour to descend onto the ice per a 2023 Alaska Department of Natural Resources permit reform; previously self-guided ice access was permitted but rising visitation forced the rule change after multiple unattended-visitor incidents. The Glenn Highway (AK-1) from Anchorage through the Matanuska Valley to Glennallen is designated an All-American Road by Federal Highway Administration — the only Alaska road with that designation — and the byway crosses the Chugach Mountains' western flank with frequent glacier viewpoints. Matanuska-Susitna Borough is the fastest-growing borough in Alaska (per the Alaska Department of Labor's 2020 Decennial annual estimates) and the second-largest US Census 'county equivalent' by area at 24,682 sq mi — larger than 9 entire US states.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race officially starts in Willow (population 2,396) every March, with the ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage and the restart 50 miles north at Willow Lake; the 998-mile race to Nome routes mushers across the Alaska Range and through the Yukon River valley over 8-15 days. Finger Lake State Recreation Site (Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, 41 sites) accepts rigs to 35 ft on first-come basis with no hookups; the alternative Kepler-Bradley Lakes State Recreation Area (a day-use site) is the other Mat-Su DPOR base. Palmer (population 7,074, the borough seat) and Wasilla (population 9,054, the borough's largest city) anchor the southern Mat-Su population. Chugach National Forest and Mat-Su Borough's vast unsubdivided lands permit dispersed camping in most areas under 14-day stay limits, though the brown-bear food-storage advisory is active April-October per the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Bear Safety guidance. The Hatcher Pass Road climbs from Palmer at 235 ft to Hatcher Pass at 3,886 ft through Independence Mine State Historical Park (a 1937-43 abandoned gold mine, now a self-guided museum); the road closes seasonally with snowpack typically October through May per Mat-Su Borough Public Works.