Kincaid Park, Anchorage

Perched atop a knoll with great views of Cook Inlet and the mountains that surround Anchorage—including, on clear days, Mount McKinley (“Denali” in Athabaskan), North America’s highest peak—this 1,400-acre park (bigger than New York’s Central Park) marks the terminus of the city’s quirky “Planet Walk.” Starting downtown at the corner of Fifth Avenue and G Street, then continuing out the Tony Knowles Trail, distances are marked in proportion to the solar system: The sun is at the trail’s beginning, Mercury a block on, earth three blocks, and so on. And here, 11 miles out, is Pluto. Yep, still here, despite the former planet’s demotion by astronomers to “dwarf planet” in 2006. Often considered the best sunset view in Anchorage, the park is a fine place to ponder the scale of the universe.

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