Alaska's big-city dwellers (folks in Anchorage, like myself) get a lot of ribbing for being "30 minutes away from the real Alaska." But all that infrastructure also creates easy access to some pretty legit outdoor adventures -- and the options just keep getting better.
1) Epic flightseeing
If you, like me, prefer looking at pictures of North America's highest peak to actually putting in the effort of climbing up it, you can have the best of both worlds (seeing and sitting): Take a flightseeing tour of the mountain.
You can hardly throw a stick in Talkeetna without hitting a Denali flightseeing operation, including K2 Aviation, Sheldon Air Service, Fly Denali and Talkeetna Air Taxi, all of which can land you on any of several glaciers and give you airborne views over parts of Denali National Park that most land-bound travelers never visit.
No time to drive to Talkeetna? You can also fly straight from Anchorage's Lake Hood with Rust's Flying Service or K2 Aviation. (No matter which of the two companies you book through, you end up on the same plane.)
2) Ziplines in Southcentral
Southcentral has finally gotten its zipline game on, gaining back ground on Southeast and pretty much every ecotourism destination. Nowadays you can choose from three zips without having to drive far, but check first -- they usually don't open until May.
• Denali Zipline Tour in Talkeetna (nine zips, three suspension bridges and a rappel).
• Stoney Creek Canopy Adventures in Seward (eight zips, a suspension bridge and an aerial walkway).
• Two high-speed ziplines (the Nitro and the G2) from MICA Guides in Glacier View, about 100 miles north of Anchorage on the Glenn Highway. They even offer a dual zip so you and a buddy can race to the bottom.
3) Spencer Glacier public use cabin
The Spencer Glacier whistle stop -- a jewel of the Alaska Railroad system -- is already pretty spectacular: After a short rail trip, beginning June 1, you can trek right up to the glacier, paddle your way through icebergs and into the splashy but mild Placer River, or hire a guide to help you do any of the above.
That said, the area's about to get even better with the addition of the Spencer Bench public-use cabin, located about 5 miles from the whistle stop -- a nice hike for the ambitious. You can reserve the cabin on recreation.gov and, while you're in the area, don't miss the great views over the Placer River Gorge. A timber bridge about a half-mile from the whistle stop offers the first great lookout, and is a destination itself. Visitors can continue another mile to another overlook, which will eventually be the site of a second bridge.
Spencer Glacier cabin can be reserved through the recreation.gov during the offseason, but through Alaska Railroad during the summer passenger season. Go to the Alaska Railroad website for more information.
4) Backpacking to Caines Head
The Resurrection Bay area is positively littered with public use cabins and great camping spots. One of the most popular -- with good reason -- is Caines Head, a few miles south of Seward. You can paddle there, take a water taxi, or hike about 5 miles each way along the rocky beach. If the mild, sometimes crowded North Beach of Caines Head is too civilized for you, trek overland to the wilder, stormier South Beach, or hike above treeline for breathtaking alpine views.
If you do hike to Caines Head, be warned that you must time your trek with the tides; a couple stretches of beach are only accessible on very low tides. Search for "Caines Head" at dnr.alaska.gov for important safety information plus links to reserve the nearby Derby Cove and Callisto Canyon public use cabins. (http://1.usa.gov/1OjIsFe).
5) Bag an epic hike
Those of us who grew up with the Chugach front range as our backyard can forget that our "ordinary" day hikes could be trips of a lifetime for some folks Outside. There are a number of hikes guaranteed to knock the socks off even the most jaded Alaska city-dwellers. Take Lost Lake on the Kenai Peninsula, the hike up to Crow Pass near Girdwood, or diminutive but spectacular Portage Pass in Whittier. Still not wild enough for you? Head down to the Kenai Peninsula, and take a water taxi to more remote trails, like the 1.9-mile Alpin Ridge trail or the 12.6-mile Emerald Lake Loop in Kachemak Bay State Park.
6) Early-season angling
Memorial Day weekend tends to be the opener of the Alaska fishing season, but what if your angling itch is already too strong to resist? Fortunately, there are ways to scratch it. Highly regarded rainbow trout fishing is open in the Kenai River until May 1, when it closes until June 11 to protect spawning fish. Trout more than 2 feet long can sometimes be caught, especially between Skilak and Kenai lakes. Perhaps the premier spring Alaska sport fishery is the run of hard-fighting steelhead up the Situk River in Yakutat, a spendy trip that can also be a memorable one. But remember, it's April. The Situk River Fly Shop was reporting whiteout conditions on April 14 with 3 inches of fresh snow. And a devoted angler like Rudy Tsukada, who fishes from his kayak year-round in Cook Inlet, hauled in a 35-inch king salmon on April 12. Before he launched, the Anchorage resident drove through a snowstorm near the Hope Cutoff and another near Ninilchik. The surf was up and, as Tsukada noted on his blog, "it's snowing and sleeting to the point where it hurts." Even when it pays dividends, spring fishing in Alaska isn't for wimps.
Anchorage freelance writer Lisa Maloney can be reached at lisa@maloneywrites.com. Mike Campbell of Alaska Dispatch News contributed to this report.