What's a good 3-day itinerary for Anchorage?

Three days, three concentric rings outward from downtown. Day 1 stays walkable. Start at Snow City Cafe on West 4th Avenue by 8am for reindeer sausage and sourdough pancakes, then walk the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail from Elderberry Park heading northwest. The paved path runs flat along the mudflats of Knik Arm, and at low tide the grey silt smells like cold iron. In August the temperature hovers around 17°C with overcast skies, which is ideal walking weather. Turn back after 5 kilometres at Westchester Lagoon. By 11:30am you're at the Anchorage Museum on C Street for 2 hours. The Smithsonian Arctic Studies wing on the second floor is the only reason to go. Lunch at Glacier Brewhouse on West 5th at 2pm. The spruce-tip ale tastes like wet pine needles, which sounds odd but works. Walk to Ship Creek at 4pm to watch sockeye salmon fighting upstream. Dinner at Simon and Seafort's on L Street by 7pm. Ask for the rail-side window table facing Cook Inlet.

Day 2 requires a car. Drive 25 minutes northeast to the Alaska Native Heritage Center on Heritage Center Drive by 9:30am. The center opened in 1999 and sits on 26 acres with five full-scale village reconstructions. The birchbark and driftwood smell sharp in the cool morning air. Spend 2 hours here. Then drive 15 minutes south to the Alaska Botanical Garden on Campbell Airstrip Road. The wildflower loop is 1.2 kilometres and peaks in August. Lunch at Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria on Old Seward Highway at 1pm. Order the Avalanche pizza with roasted garlic and provolone. The wait runs 30-40 minutes on weekdays. Afternoon at the Alaska Zoo on O'Malley Road by 3pm. The zoo has housed orphaned wildlife since 1969 and is small enough to finish in 90 minutes. Dinner at Spenard Roadhouse on Spenard Road at 7pm for duck-fat fries and king crab mac.

Day 3 is Chugach State Park, established in 1970 and covering nearly 500,000 acres of backcountry pressed against the city's eastern edge. Drive to the Glen Alps trailhead off Toilsome Hill Drive by 8am. The parking lot fills by 10am on summer weekends, so early arrival matters. The Flattop Mountain trail climbs 400 metres over 2.4 kilometres. The last 200 metres are a rock scramble, hands on cold granite, wind steady at 15-20 km/h. The summit view stretches from Denali to the north to the Kenai Peninsula to the south on clear days. Mid-August often brings low cloud, which limits visibility to Cook Inlet. Descend by 11am. Drive south on the Seward Highway along Turnagain Arm, stopping at Beluga Point at mile 110 for bore tide timing if you're lucky. Potter Marsh boardwalk at mile 117 takes 30 minutes. Late lunch at Chair 5 in Girdwood at 2pm, 60 kilometres from downtown.

Practical notes for first-timers. Anchorage is a car city. The People Mover bus covers downtown but not Day 2 or 3 destinations. Rental counters at Ted Stevens International Airport are a 5-minute walk from baggage claim. Sunset in mid-August falls around 10pm, so daylight is not a constraint. Temperatures drop to 10°C after 8pm. A packable rain shell handles the afternoon drizzle that rolls in off Cook Inlet 3-4 days per week. Bear spray is $45 at REI on Northern Lights Boulevard if you're heading into Chugach. You likely won't need it on Flattop, but the trailhead signs require it in your pack.