Piercing Through Alaska’s Wilderness by Train

The Alaska Railroad, which turns 100 this year, takes visitors through 470 miles of wilderness

Passengers of the Alaskan Railroad experience all of Alaska's wild beauty. Courtesy of Alaska Railroad

“Folks, it’s 300 feet straight down to the bottom of Hurricane Gulch,” the Alaska Railroad conductor declares, “and ... hold on. I don’t know why we’ve paused. Let me find out.”

Passengers glance at each other quizzically, peering out the window to see that, yes, it’s a long, long way down to the bottom of Hurricane Gulch from the railroad trestle that crosses it, and our train is, well, stopped dead, right in the middle of the nearly quarter-mile bridge over the chasm 170 miles north of Anchorage.