The boundlessness of the place will grab you first, for there is nowhere as far-flung as Alaska. It will alter your concept of space.
Glaciers calve into the sea, Arctic tundra stretches beyond the horizon, rugged and expansive mountains reach into the sky, wildlife is abundant, and humans are scarce.
The Land of the Midnight Sun has a whopping 238 million acres of public land. The around-the-clock daylight of summer, the vast geographic distance from the Lower 48, and the variety of cultures set it apart. From our state-of-the-art headquarters in the historic Matanuska Valley outside Palmer to one of our operations bases in Fairbanks or Petersburg, we’ll outfit you with everything you need for an expedition into the wild.
No other organization offers the breadth of opportunities in Alaska that NOLS does, from the Arctic Circle to the Southcentral coastal ranges to the Southeast archipelagos.
Backpacking, sea kayaking, or mountaineering: no matter how you choose to explore Alaska, you’ll learn with NOLS all you need to know about living and traveling in this vast wilderness.
A snow class at NOLS. Soon "rest step" and "self arrest" will be part of your outdoor vocabulary. Matanuska Glacier
Photo: Madhu Chikkaraju
Year Founded: 1971
