Alaska Nature Guides

Join a great naturalist guide for a hike or custom day trip in the spectacular South Denali area. They’ll pick you up in Talkeetna for a 3-mile Talkeetna Lakes Hike or heli-hike, or meet them an hour north in Denali State Park for an easy Byers Lake Nature Walk or exhilarating Denali Wilderness Hike. Join a scheduled trip, or they can customize a private trip to fit your schedule, activity level, interests, and group. They specialize in custom trips for families, groups, photographers, and birders. Their trips feature the area’s most experienced guides, stunning views of Denali, and great wildlife. They’ll take you to pristine natural areas where their guests make a close connection to Alaska’s natural landscape while moving under their own power and using all five senses. They give back, supporting local community and conservation groups by donating time, money and materials to projects such as the building of a community playground, sponsoring the Youth Conservation Corps, and volunteer trail days. They teach Leave No Trace to youth groups and to their guests, and keep the areas they visit free of invasive plants and litter.

Chugach Adventures

Chugach Adventures (formerly known as Chugach Adventure Guides and Class V Whitewater) was founded in 1996. The company explored & pioneered the Spencer Glacier area in 2000 and partnered with the Alaska Railroad starting in 2001 to offer trips via the Glacier Discovery Train to Spencer Glacier.
In the Fall of 2012, long-time Chugach guides and Girdwood locals, Melanee and Ari Stiassny, purchased the rafting business. Melanee & Ari share a passion for Alaskan adventure with their three kids. In winter 2015 /16, Chugach Adventures was awarded a ten year permit with the USFS Chugach National Forest to continue operating tours at Spencer Lake and are stoked to be now offering kayaking, overnight camping, heli hiking, and glacier salmon bakes at Spencer Glacier.

“We believe strongly in sharing our local stories and firsthand experiences of what we have seen and witnessed as Spencer Glacier has receded thru the years. We are committed to finding ways to protect our environment and aim to share our knowledge to our guests.”

Diamond M Ranch Resort

Located in the heart of Alaska’s scenic Central Kenai Peninsula, the Diamond M Ranch Resort and RV Park is owned by the Martin Family. Active in their local community, the Martin’s run their working ranch alongside their award-winning RV Park, sumptuous suites carefully modeled after historic Gold Rush era buildings, and a lovely selection of cabins with a variety of different accommodations to meet your needs. There is access to Tent Camping, many different RV site options, and a variety of amenities on the property. Diamond M Ranch Resort partners with many local groups and businesses for tours, fishing and more. When you stay at the Diamond M Ranch Resort, you have three generations of active outdoor-loving Alaskans to help direct you to the best fishing guides, fishing holes, restaurants, cultural exhibits and so much more. We have a blast taking our guests out on mountain hikes and hosting those delicious Saturday evening potluck and baked salmon socials! When you come into the Diamond M Ranch Resort, you’re not just coming into a business, but also into a warm and welcoming family. We look forward to meeting you and helping you have an Alaskan experience that you’ll never forget.

Expeditions Alaska

Expeditions Alaska offers a diversity of wilderness and adventure trips in all corners of wild Alaska, specializing in small groups and custom trips; grizzly and polar bear photo tours, backpacking and sea kayaking, rafting trips, hiking, camping and landscape photography trips. With more than 15 years in the field, guiding and leading an array of trips both in Alaska and internationally, owner and guide Carl Donohue works closely with various local small businesses, including employing Native Alaskans and local residents as possible. iceberg_06_084 Paying attention to detail, Expeditions Alaska follow critical Leave No trace backcountry travel practices and employ environmentally sound, sustainable ecotourism and adventure travel programs. Expeditions Alaska donates a percentage of all profits to various Alaska conservation and social charities, as well as organizations working at the international level. Expeditions Alaska are involved with Patagonia’s Common Threads Initiative, as well as contribute to national conservation efforts in opposing oil development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the proposed open pit Pebble Mine scheme near Bristol Bay. Carl asserts “We make every effort to be good and caring stewards of the wilderness through which we trek.”Carl also makes a concerted effort to educate and inform Expeditions Alaska guests on the vital need for healthy natural environment and strong sustainable business models.

Explore Fairbanks

Explore Fairbanks is a non-profit destination marketing and management organization whose mission is to be an economic driver in the Fairbanks region by marketing to potential visitors and optimizing the visitor experience. Explore Fairbanks markets Fairbanks as a year-round destination by promoting local events, attractions and activities to independent travelers, group tour operators, travel agents, meeting planners and the media.

Great Alaska Adventures

Great Alaska Adventures is one of Alaska’s true originals. Begun as a homesteader-based air taxi that morphed into a fishing lodge, we are now a one-of-a kind tour operator/sustainable lodge and fly in wilderness and bear viewing camp.

All that change has given us a unique perspective on the sustainability of any destination resort, but especially one that relies upon the natural resource that is Alaskan wilderness.

Always appreciative that we’ve been able to earn a (mostly) solid living doing what we love, Co-Owner Kent John was past president of the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association, the non – profit that spawned the great sustainable certification program that is Adventure Green Alaska.

As an operator, we have always promoted a sustainable and minimal impact ethos and believe strongly that in addition to sharing nature’s bounty with guests, it’s our responsibility to also share the challenges that that bounty faces. It’s especially powerful when the guests have just had their lives changed forever by those same animals that they now know are threatened.

Great Alaska is proud to be listed as sustainable by Adventure Green Alaska.

Knik River Lodge

Comfortable Lodging – Epic Outdoor Adventures – Award Winning Food Just a one-hour scenic drive from Anchorage, Knik River Lodge offers a remote lodge feeling with easy access. Located at the edge of the Chugach wilderness the outdoor adventures are limited only by your imagination, and having helicopters on site makes getting there easy! Summer dogsled tours on the glacier, heli hiking & biking, glacier tours, aurora viewing, Inspired meeting facilities are perfect for weddings, retreats and small conventions year round.

Spirit Walker Expeditions of Alaska

Spirit Walker Expeditions is a local, guide-owned and operated business based in Gustavus, the gateway to Glacier Bay. Since 1987, they have taken the leading role in offering sustainable, guided, small group, sea kayaking expeditions throughout Southeast Alaska, with an emphasis on wilderness stewardship, safety, education, fun, and minimal-impact wilderness travel. Built upon the ethic of offering premium trips with a thoughtful approach, Spirit Walker continues to make environmental stewardship and respectful wildlife viewing top priorities while being a positive and contributing member of Gustavus and the surrounding communities. Their trips take a natural approach – from the locally sourced food served on trips to selecting hardened tent-sites and hiking routes – and are designed to offer visitors a chance to make a lasting connection with their surroundings in the most organic way possible. Local trips – such as their Wilderness Isles adventure – are designed to provide an entirely human-powered experience by paddling to a nearby Wilderness area, hiking through 10,000 year old forests, and returning by kayak. Celebrating 30 years of premium guided sea kayaking expeditions in 2017, Spirit Walker offers trips for beginners, experienced paddlers, families and independent travelers. Day trips, remote wilderness expeditions and lodge to lodge adventures!

Sunny Cove Kayaking

Sea kayaking along the coastline of pebbled beaches, sculpted cliffs and hanging glaciers where the wildlife is abundant and the forests untamed makes us realize we all share in the role of preserving the natural beauty of our area. Sunny Cove Sea Kayaking provides a wilderness experience with a variety of tours from 3-hours to multi-day kayak/camping trips in Resurrection Bay, Fox Island and the Kenai Fjords National Park. We choose areas that are best able to absorb our footprint and practice a Leave No Trace philosophy — we leave behind only our respect for the wilderness and its inhabitants. Sunny Cove takes an active role in advocating for wild lands to be left wild and supports local and statewide conservation efforts with donations and volunteer work. We provide our guide staff with training in natural history, local marine wildlife and the impact of our presence on vegetation, wildlife, and climate change — they in turn pass this information along to our kayakers. It is our hope that through our efforts in operating in a sustainable fashion, we will ensure that all of us and our grand kids can enjoy this beautiful place we call home.

Alaska Sea Kayakers

Alaska Sea Kayakers is the purveyor for quality equipment and guide services, serving Western Prince William Sound. Alaskan owned and operated, we promote environmental awareness through our sea kayaking operations. We are equipped and staffed to offer the safest and most enjoyable kayaking experience on the Sound.