Feasts and beasts: Four incredible experiences you can only have in Alaska

"Sit" in Tlingit language, Mendenhall Glacier isn't far from downtown Juneau. Located in Tongass National Forest, it's the only glacier in the region accessible by road. There's a visitor centre which can be reached by taxi, rental car, tour bus or a city bus (though you'll need to note a near 2.5km walk from the city bus drop-off point). Hard to miss at nearly 1km wide and more than 20km long, the glacier has ice up to 500m deep and is an unforgettable scenic landscape.

There are five short walks or hikes accessible from the visitor centre, with several vantage points. Should you wish to see it up close, you can step into glacier boots and fly via helicopter to land on the glacier itself. If you fancy drinking flowing water fresh from the Little Ice Age (maybe?), it can be done.

Dog sledding has a long history in Alaska. The Iditarod trail in particular became a history book chapter after a 1925 diphtheria outbreak during a challenging season in which the region's only plane was grounded. Lives depended on a relay of 20 mushers and their teams of dogs to deliver vials of medicine to the remote town of Nome. Now a popularised and highly competitive annual long-distance race, the Iditarod stretches 1510 kilometres and takes between 8 and 15 days to complete.

This is the cultural history you'll be introduced to should you opt into a dog sledding experience, whether watching mushers at work or hopping on a sled yourself. Rounding corners pulled along by a team of 16 Alaskan huskies, who bark with excitement anticipating their musher's signal to go, is a singular kind of experience.

Wherever you travel in Alaska, there's a good chance you'll see halibut or salmon (or both!) on the menu. And order them you should. Local guides will delight in telling you of their five varieties of salmon and the "helpful trick" those in the know apparently use to remember them all. I dare not spoil the reveal, which I will say was not as good as the salmon itself but a quick chuckle nonetheless.

King crab legs are another Alaskan specialty. I was lucky enough in Ketchikan to find myself next to a retired fisherman and his wife at my seafood feast, who stepped this first-time crab sampler through the best ways to get the most meat with the least effort. There are also options to combine a hearty seafood meal with a traditional tribal performance recounting some of the history of the Tlingits.

Of course you can hunt that intel down yourself, but sometimes it's nice to be pointed in the right direction from the start, and provide a little tip to show your gratitude - as it turns out, many "local" guides are young students who are on summer break earning their college tuition money.

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