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August 1-9, 2026
Guided trip with Expeditions Alaska - Bremner Airstrip to Iceberg Airstrip - with a few wonderful deviations from what some people do on this route
I have been very fortunate to do a lot of wonderful hiking trips this year. When I saw @wsp_scott's recent post about Alaska 2027, I remembered that I hadn't done a trip report for the second even more fantastic part of our 2026 summer experience in Alaska. So here it is, and I hope it can be helpful the way @b.stark's 2019 report was helpful to me.
On our first trip to Alaska in 2025, we did a terrific guided backpacking trip with Expeditions Alaska on WSENP's Goat Trail. We selected that trip because we had heard great things about the Goat Trail and because we were concerned that the Seven Pass Route might be too much for us (well, really just me). When we finished the Goat Trail, we knew we would be back for more...
The name Seven Pass is misleading; it's not seven passes, and the name should be much grander, something like GLORIOUS GLACIERS. The scenery on this route was spectacular every minute, with beautiful mountains, glaciers, rivers, lakes, skies, rocks, and flowers. So many of everything! We lucked out with 100% perfect weather the entire time. The only thing I didn't like about this trip was bushwhacking through the willows, but that's part of hiking in this region and you just have to accept it if you decide to do a trip here. This wilderness experience was greater than any I had ever had in my life. There was no trail for 9 days, and we saw more bears than people (only 2 people way off in the distance on our 7th day that we never saw again). What a special place this is!
Day 0 and Earlier
When flying, I always try to get a window seat, and when skies are clear and we're over interesting parts I pay close attention to the map and try to figure out what I'm seeing down below. When we flew to Anchorage, I lucked out with incredible views as we were passing over the area where we'd be on this part of our trip.
After my husband and I and our friend finished backpacking 3 nights on trail in Denali State Park, we geared up for the main part of our trip. We joined the rest of our group (one of our friends from home and his brother) and our fabulous guide, Garrett, whom we had been with last year on the Goat Trail. Garrett drove us in the van on the long drive to McCarthy. We stopped for a mid-morning break at Matanuska Glacier, which is right by the road, and enjoyed that.
Pretty flowers started right away - there were many beautiful ones of all different kinds throughout the trip
I got to sit in the front seat and enjoyed this scene on the highway a little bit past the Glennallen truck stop. Mount Wrangell is on the left, and if I remember correctly Blackburn and maybe Regal are on the right.
We stayed the night at Kennicott River Lodge (cabin with bunks) and ate at The Potato. Lovely scenery from the cabin and while walking across the bridge to and from the town. (For anyone who's curious, the town's population is ~100.) This is the Kennicott River and Glacier, with Root Glacier tucked in on the right.
Day 1
After breakfast at The Potato (our meals in McCarthy are always at The Potato - yum!) we got to the airstrip, weighed our packs (yikes!) and got ready. I absolutely love these flights!
We landed at Bremner airstrip and waited for the second plane, which was fun to watch come in for its landing.
We explored the old mine site for awhile. Lots of interesting stuff!
Lots of beautiful flowers in that valley, including our first of many, many gorgeous dwarf fireweed
And a ground squirrel saying hello to us
We got on our heavy packs, and as soon as we started sidehilling on the rocky slope, I was struggling under the weight, even though I had trained a lot. Just a few pounds too many. My husband saved me (and the pace of our group) by taking a couple of my things. And he never once made me feel bad about that. I am so lucky.
I was thrilled to see this gentian. I had never, ever seen a teal colored flower before. We saw a few more later that evening, all closed up. We never saw them again after that.
Another flower I really enjoyed
We made it to our first night's camp at this lovely lake.
Day 2
Fun to wake up and see the cloud covering all the low-lying spots we had walked through the previous day.
We got started and headed up toward the first pass.
So many rocks. And so many cool rocks to look at underfoot. A constant theme on this trip!
Always so exciting to get to the top of a pass - looking behind us...
and ahead...
Soooooooo many rocks going down down down the other side of this first pass
And lovely flowers once we got beyond all the rocks
And this little tree all by itself!
We went a little further down beyond the tree, saw our first grizzly thrashing around in willows (I didn't get a good picture), and set up camp. We were going at a pretty slow pace; I recently watched a YouTube video of someone's trip and they did our Days 1 and 2 (minus the old mine camp exploration) in just one day. Oh well.
Day 3
The next morning we had our first river crossing. Garrett, our guide, scoped out a decent place to cross where the willows wouldn't be too thick and the rushing water wouldn't be too challenging. In this picture, you can see Garrett's tiny body amidst the big willows. They were challenging to bushwhack through partly because they were tall and hit me in the face and partly because the ground below was never smooth and easy stepping; instead, there are little holes and slippery roots you had to navigate while avoiding the worst of the branches trying to attack you. I don't like them! But they're worth it for the rest of the fabulous experience.
Going up after the river - more beautiful flowers!
Our first cotton grass. I absolutely loved this whenever we saw it in boggy stretches. This and the dwarf fireweed were my favorites!
I've become very interested in geology and tried to learn as much as I could ahead of time about Alaska's geology. The main thing I learned was that it is very complex and there is still a lot of uncertainty about some things. So I don't know much, but I do know that the rocks were fascinating. In this picture, the transition between dark rocks and light rocks is NOT because of a shadow. There was a very abrupt change and I took the picture looking back trying to capture it.
Lovely scenes along this rocky water
Going up another pass - so many rocks again. A couple people in our group didn't like this aspect of the route, but I tend to like these rocky areas. Interesting footing for each step. Always better than thrashing through the @!#$%^&& willows!
We set up camp early and those who wanted to swim (never me in this cold water) enjoyed a restful afternoon.
Day 4
More fascinating geology to observe
And another tree all by itself
Hello Moon!
We were making our way toward Bremner Glacier, and our first views took my breath away. I wanted to run toward it like Dorothy and the Emerald City. But the Wicked Witch put something between us and the glacier...
and that something was this:
Willows! Today was our very longest day AND our very lowest mileage day. Getting around the willows and across the river and up the rocks and through more willows took forever! But once we had those glacier views I really didn't care. I just stared at it whenever I could. @b.stark's photos from his 2019 trip had been so enticing to me! And speaking of @b.stark, when we passed this nest I thought of you and how badly you had been stung.
Glorious!
At one point while we were resting, I took more flower photos.
What a thrilling scene!
Steep descent
Yes, we saw Mr. Black Bear the next morning.
We camped close to the glacier that night and had terrific sunset views on a little ridge just above camp.
Later
Day 5
This was a THRILLING day. Crossing the glacier was spectacular and I could not stop grinning the entire time! With Garrett leading the way, I didn't have to worry about where to go or how to do it. (My husband and I would not have had the experience or knowledge to do this on our own.)
The morning started, though, with a visit from this black bear (zoomed in), that Garrett judged to be a juvenile who didn't know enough to be scared of us and kept trying to come closer than desired to camp. With lots of yelling - and almost use of bear spray - the group finally got it to leave. We packed up and got on our way.
When we first approached the glacier, the cloud covering it was thick. But as we made our way onto the glacier, the cloud lifted. Spectacular!
Huge boulder that you see from a distance when above the glacier
Hmmm... how are we going to get off this thing? While we rested, Garrett scoped out a possible exit. We weren't going to exit where people typically do and go up above the glacier for another one of the passes. Instead, we were heading further up and around (south), which proved to be a terrific deviation.
I named this the Blue Palace.
But we needed to get across this. Yikes. If I could include video, you'd see why it was a problem. There was no way we could walk across. But there was a land/rock bridge...
...that Garrett got us down. When it was my turn, I found it quite difficult and rather stressful, as I felt that my spikes weren't doing a good enough job of digging into the steep icy slope. But one step at a time (one slow step at a time) I got down.
On the other side, there were of course lots of rocks to cross, but then such fabulous scenes and beautiful flowers by the water!
I take a lot of photos...
When we arrived here, we could not believe our eyes. All that sand! All of us either live in Michigan or have lived in Michigan (including our guide), and anyone from Michigan can tell you about the amazing sand dunes at Sleeping Bear and elsewhere along the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior coasts. But to see such sand in Alaska right next to glaciers and mountains shocked us. We camped there that night and absolutely loved it!
Great sunset and post-sunset views from camp
Day 6
I woke up early the next morning, and with bear spray in hand had a great time roaming around enjoying all the Alaska-meets-Michigan scenery.
We had a relaxed morning in camp, and at one point I looked up and saw a big brown head coming over a hill toward us. Bear!!! It quickly ran away, and after awhile we went to look at its tracks. Here's a picture showing where it jumped over a little gap; you can see paw prints on both sides.
We went exploring from camp for a bit and eventually packed up to continue on our way.
Walking up this valley was very beautiful, and this soggy area was filled with vast quantities of fluffy cotton grass. I delighted in every scene.
One of many more river crossings, this one filled with dwarf fireweed along the edges.
We had another fairly early camp at another beautiful spot where some people swam/bathed in a small pool. And then we had another bear sighting, perhaps the same one from that morning. It never got close to camp but was off in the distance for awhile as we yelled at it, it went away, it came a little closer, we yelled again, and finally it went away for good. At one point it stood up on its hind legs but I unfortunately wasn't quick enough with my camera to capture that. But I did get a long (1.5 minute) video of it climbing up up up the dune and have a screenshot from that. It looked very strong and powerful as it motored up that dune. Glad it finally decided to move away from us!
Day 7
Beautiful morning at camp
We continued on our way up the valley and loved being next to this raging glacial river. So much power in that water!
Always more flowers.
I absolutely loved the fluffies!
The mountain and glacier views along this stretch were outstanding.
Same bear?
Later in the day, Garrett gave us a choice. Camp down low or expend a bit more energy for an epic camp up high. The answer was obvious. Oh my.
3:00 am !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Day 8 - our last full day - not wanting to be this close to the end
We went behind camp to explore and delighted in the scenery back there.
Eventually we packed up and made our way back down. We did not end up hiking on the glacier there as many groups do. That was ok, as we had already spent an amazing full day on Bremner and had enjoyed so many other special things that were really terrific.
The boys were tired.
While hiking up the valley the previous day, we had seen way off in the distance behind us two backpackers whom we never saw again. That night at camp, we used binoculars and saw a tent down below us on the way to Iceberg. When we saw this plane, we guessed that they were getting their pickup that we'd be getting the next day.
So lush and green here!
We set up our final camp (boo hoo) below these fabulous mountains and glaciers. Hard to believe none of these have names. Then we went exploring and had a great evening.
Any ideas?
Day 9 - Final day - boo hoo
We made our way to Iceberg airstrip and had extra time for some great exploration in that area.
In one limited spot, there were a bunch of bubbling pools from the permafrost below - I have fun videos of these!
Dwarf fireweed everywhere around here!
The airstrip is on top of that flat gray sandy area.
The control tower - haha
Our ride back to McCarthy
And what a ride it was! View over Iceberg Lake and all the braids of the glacial rivers...
and if you look closely through the haze, Mt. St. Elias is way off to the south. What a spectacular place this is!
Guided trip with Expeditions Alaska - Bremner Airstrip to Iceberg Airstrip - with a few wonderful deviations from what some people do on this route
I have been very fortunate to do a lot of wonderful hiking trips this year. When I saw @wsp_scott's recent post about Alaska 2027, I remembered that I hadn't done a trip report for the second even more fantastic part of our 2026 summer experience in Alaska. So here it is, and I hope it can be helpful the way @b.stark's 2019 report was helpful to me.
On our first trip to Alaska in 2025, we did a terrific guided backpacking trip with Expeditions Alaska on WSENP's Goat Trail. We selected that trip because we had heard great things about the Goat Trail and because we were concerned that the Seven Pass Route might be too much for us (well, really just me). When we finished the Goat Trail, we knew we would be back for more...
The name Seven Pass is misleading; it's not seven passes, and the name should be much grander, something like GLORIOUS GLACIERS. The scenery on this route was spectacular every minute, with beautiful mountains, glaciers, rivers, lakes, skies, rocks, and flowers. So many of everything! We lucked out with 100% perfect weather the entire time. The only thing I didn't like about this trip was bushwhacking through the willows, but that's part of hiking in this region and you just have to accept it if you decide to do a trip here. This wilderness experience was greater than any I had ever had in my life. There was no trail for 9 days, and we saw more bears than people (only 2 people way off in the distance on our 7th day that we never saw again). What a special place this is!
Day 0 and Earlier
When flying, I always try to get a window seat, and when skies are clear and we're over interesting parts I pay close attention to the map and try to figure out what I'm seeing down below. When we flew to Anchorage, I lucked out with incredible views as we were passing over the area where we'd be on this part of our trip.
After my husband and I and our friend finished backpacking 3 nights on trail in Denali State Park, we geared up for the main part of our trip. We joined the rest of our group (one of our friends from home and his brother) and our fabulous guide, Garrett, whom we had been with last year on the Goat Trail. Garrett drove us in the van on the long drive to McCarthy. We stopped for a mid-morning break at Matanuska Glacier, which is right by the road, and enjoyed that.
Pretty flowers started right away - there were many beautiful ones of all different kinds throughout the trip
I got to sit in the front seat and enjoyed this scene on the highway a little bit past the Glennallen truck stop. Mount Wrangell is on the left, and if I remember correctly Blackburn and maybe Regal are on the right.
We stayed the night at Kennicott River Lodge (cabin with bunks) and ate at The Potato. Lovely scenery from the cabin and while walking across the bridge to and from the town. (For anyone who's curious, the town's population is ~100.) This is the Kennicott River and Glacier, with Root Glacier tucked in on the right.
Day 1
After breakfast at The Potato (our meals in McCarthy are always at The Potato - yum!) we got to the airstrip, weighed our packs (yikes!) and got ready. I absolutely love these flights!
We landed at Bremner airstrip and waited for the second plane, which was fun to watch come in for its landing.
We explored the old mine site for awhile. Lots of interesting stuff!
Lots of beautiful flowers in that valley, including our first of many, many gorgeous dwarf fireweed
And a ground squirrel saying hello to us
We got on our heavy packs, and as soon as we started sidehilling on the rocky slope, I was struggling under the weight, even though I had trained a lot. Just a few pounds too many. My husband saved me (and the pace of our group) by taking a couple of my things. And he never once made me feel bad about that. I am so lucky.
I was thrilled to see this gentian. I had never, ever seen a teal colored flower before. We saw a few more later that evening, all closed up. We never saw them again after that.
Another flower I really enjoyed
We made it to our first night's camp at this lovely lake.
Day 2
Fun to wake up and see the cloud covering all the low-lying spots we had walked through the previous day.
We got started and headed up toward the first pass.
So many rocks. And so many cool rocks to look at underfoot. A constant theme on this trip!
Always so exciting to get to the top of a pass - looking behind us...
and ahead...
Soooooooo many rocks going down down down the other side of this first pass
And lovely flowers once we got beyond all the rocks
And this little tree all by itself!
We went a little further down beyond the tree, saw our first grizzly thrashing around in willows (I didn't get a good picture), and set up camp. We were going at a pretty slow pace; I recently watched a YouTube video of someone's trip and they did our Days 1 and 2 (minus the old mine camp exploration) in just one day. Oh well.
Day 3
The next morning we had our first river crossing. Garrett, our guide, scoped out a decent place to cross where the willows wouldn't be too thick and the rushing water wouldn't be too challenging. In this picture, you can see Garrett's tiny body amidst the big willows. They were challenging to bushwhack through partly because they were tall and hit me in the face and partly because the ground below was never smooth and easy stepping; instead, there are little holes and slippery roots you had to navigate while avoiding the worst of the branches trying to attack you. I don't like them! But they're worth it for the rest of the fabulous experience.
Going up after the river - more beautiful flowers!
Our first cotton grass. I absolutely loved this whenever we saw it in boggy stretches. This and the dwarf fireweed were my favorites!
I've become very interested in geology and tried to learn as much as I could ahead of time about Alaska's geology. The main thing I learned was that it is very complex and there is still a lot of uncertainty about some things. So I don't know much, but I do know that the rocks were fascinating. In this picture, the transition between dark rocks and light rocks is NOT because of a shadow. There was a very abrupt change and I took the picture looking back trying to capture it.
Lovely scenes along this rocky water
Going up another pass - so many rocks again. A couple people in our group didn't like this aspect of the route, but I tend to like these rocky areas. Interesting footing for each step. Always better than thrashing through the @!#$%^&& willows!
We set up camp early and those who wanted to swim (never me in this cold water) enjoyed a restful afternoon.
Day 4
More fascinating geology to observe
And another tree all by itself
Hello Moon!
We were making our way toward Bremner Glacier, and our first views took my breath away. I wanted to run toward it like Dorothy and the Emerald City. But the Wicked Witch put something between us and the glacier...
and that something was this:
Willows! Today was our very longest day AND our very lowest mileage day. Getting around the willows and across the river and up the rocks and through more willows took forever! But once we had those glacier views I really didn't care. I just stared at it whenever I could. @b.stark's photos from his 2019 trip had been so enticing to me! And speaking of @b.stark, when we passed this nest I thought of you and how badly you had been stung.
Glorious!
At one point while we were resting, I took more flower photos.
What a thrilling scene!
Steep descent
Yes, we saw Mr. Black Bear the next morning.
We camped close to the glacier that night and had terrific sunset views on a little ridge just above camp.
Later
Day 5
This was a THRILLING day. Crossing the glacier was spectacular and I could not stop grinning the entire time! With Garrett leading the way, I didn't have to worry about where to go or how to do it. (My husband and I would not have had the experience or knowledge to do this on our own.)
The morning started, though, with a visit from this black bear (zoomed in), that Garrett judged to be a juvenile who didn't know enough to be scared of us and kept trying to come closer than desired to camp. With lots of yelling - and almost use of bear spray - the group finally got it to leave. We packed up and got on our way.
When we first approached the glacier, the cloud covering it was thick. But as we made our way onto the glacier, the cloud lifted. Spectacular!
Huge boulder that you see from a distance when above the glacier
Hmmm... how are we going to get off this thing? While we rested, Garrett scoped out a possible exit. We weren't going to exit where people typically do and go up above the glacier for another one of the passes. Instead, we were heading further up and around (south), which proved to be a terrific deviation.
I named this the Blue Palace.
But we needed to get across this. Yikes. If I could include video, you'd see why it was a problem. There was no way we could walk across. But there was a land/rock bridge...
...that Garrett got us down. When it was my turn, I found it quite difficult and rather stressful, as I felt that my spikes weren't doing a good enough job of digging into the steep icy slope. But one step at a time (one slow step at a time) I got down.
On the other side, there were of course lots of rocks to cross, but then such fabulous scenes and beautiful flowers by the water!
I take a lot of photos...
When we arrived here, we could not believe our eyes. All that sand! All of us either live in Michigan or have lived in Michigan (including our guide), and anyone from Michigan can tell you about the amazing sand dunes at Sleeping Bear and elsewhere along the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior coasts. But to see such sand in Alaska right next to glaciers and mountains shocked us. We camped there that night and absolutely loved it!
Great sunset and post-sunset views from camp
Day 6
I woke up early the next morning, and with bear spray in hand had a great time roaming around enjoying all the Alaska-meets-Michigan scenery.
We had a relaxed morning in camp, and at one point I looked up and saw a big brown head coming over a hill toward us. Bear!!! It quickly ran away, and after awhile we went to look at its tracks. Here's a picture showing where it jumped over a little gap; you can see paw prints on both sides.
We went exploring from camp for a bit and eventually packed up to continue on our way.
Walking up this valley was very beautiful, and this soggy area was filled with vast quantities of fluffy cotton grass. I delighted in every scene.
One of many more river crossings, this one filled with dwarf fireweed along the edges.
We had another fairly early camp at another beautiful spot where some people swam/bathed in a small pool. And then we had another bear sighting, perhaps the same one from that morning. It never got close to camp but was off in the distance for awhile as we yelled at it, it went away, it came a little closer, we yelled again, and finally it went away for good. At one point it stood up on its hind legs but I unfortunately wasn't quick enough with my camera to capture that. But I did get a long (1.5 minute) video of it climbing up up up the dune and have a screenshot from that. It looked very strong and powerful as it motored up that dune. Glad it finally decided to move away from us!
Day 7
Beautiful morning at camp
We continued on our way up the valley and loved being next to this raging glacial river. So much power in that water!
Always more flowers.
I absolutely loved the fluffies!
The mountain and glacier views along this stretch were outstanding.
Same bear?
Later in the day, Garrett gave us a choice. Camp down low or expend a bit more energy for an epic camp up high. The answer was obvious. Oh my.
3:00 am !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Day 8 - our last full day - not wanting to be this close to the end
We went behind camp to explore and delighted in the scenery back there.
Eventually we packed up and made our way back down. We did not end up hiking on the glacier there as many groups do. That was ok, as we had already spent an amazing full day on Bremner and had enjoyed so many other special things that were really terrific.
The boys were tired.
While hiking up the valley the previous day, we had seen way off in the distance behind us two backpackers whom we never saw again. That night at camp, we used binoculars and saw a tent down below us on the way to Iceberg. When we saw this plane, we guessed that they were getting their pickup that we'd be getting the next day.
So lush and green here!
We set up our final camp (boo hoo) below these fabulous mountains and glaciers. Hard to believe none of these have names. Then we went exploring and had a great evening.
Any ideas?
Day 9 - Final day - boo hoo
We made our way to Iceberg airstrip and had extra time for some great exploration in that area.
In one limited spot, there were a bunch of bubbling pools from the permafrost below - I have fun videos of these!
Dwarf fireweed everywhere around here!
The airstrip is on top of that flat gray sandy area.
The control tower - haha
Our ride back to McCarthy
And what a ride it was! View over Iceberg Lake and all the braids of the glacial rivers...
and if you look closely through the haze, Mt. St. Elias is way off to the south. What a spectacular place this is!
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