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Seward to Nome

Places to Visit

Every place on the trail, from Mile 0 in Seward to the end of the trail in Nome, in the order you would reach them.

Seward to Knik

Southcentral

From the ice-free port at Seward over the Kenai and Chugach Mountains to the old outfitting town of Knik, the stretch of the trail you can reach by road, rail and bike path.

A braided river runs through a green valley below jagged peaks.
  1. SewardMile 0

    Mile 0 of the historic trail: a tripod and the historic Iditarod Trail monument stand on the shoreline of Resurrection Bay beside the Alaska SeaLife Center.

  2. Moose PassRailroad community

    A railroad community in the Kenai Mountains near the Johnson Pass Trail, a 23-mile segment of the historic trail system.

  3. GirdwoodTrail town

    Founded in 1906 as a place to rest and resupply before crossing the Chugach Mountains, Girdwood keeps some of the most easily reached and historically intact segments of the trail.

  4. Eagle RiverTrail valley

    The Eagle River Nature Center sits on the trail at the north end of the Crow Pass traverse, in a valley Army explorers on the Iditarod once called a miniature Yosemite.

  5. AnchorageConnecting trail · Ceremonial Start

    A blank spot on the map when the trail opened in 1910, Anchorage became a stop on its main route after 1915, and every March the Ceremonial Start of the sled dog race runs through it.

  6. EklutnaDena’ina village

    A Dena’ina Athabaskan village site established in 1650 and once the winter crossing of the Knik River on the historic trail.

  7. WasillaRace headquarters

    Home of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Headquarters, with a replica public shelter cabin, and near Reflections Lake, the old ice crossing of the Knik River.

  8. KnikGold-rush outfitting town

    The last major outfitting town before the goldfields, home to 1,500 people at its peak, until Anchorage and the railroad passed it by.

Skwentna to Kaltag

Interior/Rivers

Over the Alaska Range at Rainy Pass to McGrath, the goldfields around Iditarod and Flat, and the Yukon River at Kaltag: winter country beyond the road system, reached by plane and, in winter, by trail.

Pink alpenglow lights snowy hills above a line of dark spruce.
  1. SkwentnaRiver crossing

    The historic Alaska Road Commission shelter cabin at the Skwentna Crossing is one of the public shelter cabins between Knik and Kaltag, open in winter without a reservation.

  2. Rainy PassAlaska Range crossing

    The trail’s way over the Alaska Range, between Puntilla Lake and the BLM’s Rohn shelter cabin.

  3. McGrathInterior hub

    The largest community on the trail between the Alaska Range and Norton Sound, with regular flights from Anchorage, and the gateway to the ghost town of Iditarod.

  4. TakotnaRiver town

    Founded at the farthest point a supply sternwheeler could reach on the Takotna River, and joined to the Ophir goldfields by old mining roads.

  5. IditarodGhost town

    The boomtown that gave the trail its name: 2,000 people by August 1910 a few miles from the Christmas Day 1908 gold strike, abandoned now, on state public land.

  6. KaltagYukon River village

    A Koyukon Athabascan village on the Yukon River at the head of the Kaltag Portage, the old trade route over the mountains to Unalakleet.

  7. GalenaConnecting trail · Yukon River town

    A Yukon River town on the trail’s northern routes, where the community sold the Alliance’s trail products during the 2016 race to raise money for its Winter Carnival.

  8. Tolovana RoadhouseConnecting trail · Serum Run roadhouse

    A roadhouse on the Fairbanks-to-Nome mail trail and the first transfer point of the 1925 Serum Run to Nome.

Unalakleet to Nome

Bering Sea Coast

Down the Kaltag Portage to Norton Sound and along the coast, village to village, to the beaches at Nome that were once filled with gold.

A packed winter trail runs across open snow toward low mountains.
  1. UnalakleetNorton Sound village

    A beachfront community on Norton Sound inhabited for almost 2,000 years, at the coast end of the Kaltag Portage, with daily flights from Anchorage.

  2. GolovinCoast village

    The Inupiaq village of Chinik, where John Dexter’s trading post became the center for prospecting news on the Seward Peninsula and the supply point for the Council goldfields.

  3. SolomonGold camp

    A gold camp at the mouth of the Solomon River, where the 1913 storm stranded the engines of the Council City and Solomon Railroad, the Last Train to Nowhere.

  4. NomeEnd of the trail

    The last stop on the historic trail, a gold town since the strike of 1898, where the whole community turns out each March for the finish of the sled dog race.

All Places, A to Z

The order follows the visitor guide’s main route from Seward to Nome. Places on connecting trails are listed beside the stop they connect to.