Author: Mary H.

Fairbanks was the unexpected. There are little mountains, and it looks nothing like the coast or Denali. We checked into The Grizzly Lodge because they provide wake-up calls for the northern lights. However, being the beginning of the season, seeing the lights was a slim chance. The first night, nothing. But the next day we drove up to the Chena Hot Springs resort where we enjoyed lunch at the resort restaurant and, of course, the hot springs. Although, they smell of sulfur, it’s a relaxing time at the end of a busy trip. We followed that adventure with dinner at The Pump House, which was one of my top 10 meals of my life.

Our last night in Alaska and we finally saw the northern lights. A little after 3 am we heard the wake-up call, “Northern lights, north deck!”. Everyone in the lodge was rushing outside. The hosts of the lodge gave instructions for the best viewing and pictures. The naked eye cannot always see the lights; you’ll get the best sights with the camera. On my phone, it automatically took the pictures using night mode and they look great. Being the beginning of the season, the full sky was not lit but there was definitely something happening due north. The Aurora Borealis that night was green, which is what most of Alaska will see through the season. The experience can last any amount of time, but this probably went on for around 45 minutes.

The final day before our flight home, we went to North Pole, a small town outside of Fairbanks. This town is always decorated for Christmas and has the biggest gift shop I’ve ever seen. After perusing the giftshop, we walked over the Antler Academy where we met Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Blitzen, Comet, Dasher, etc. While a tourist trap, it’s a fun opportunity to feed and pet the reindeer. Reindeer are not native to North America, they’re actually the Caribou’s European cousin. Any reindeer in Alaska are domestic and probably named after the iconic legends we know from the stories. They are not the friendliest of animals and really only care about you if you have food, but it was still fun to say, “I got to pet Dancer, Prancer, Dasher, and so on”. Afterwards, we wandered back over to the giftshop to make sure we didn’t miss anything. It’s so big, it can be overwhelming and walking through a few times was not a bad idea.

Back to the Grizzly Lodge, we packed up and headed to the Fairbanks airport. There’s a little pizza place by the runway where we stopped for dinner. As our flight wasn’t until 1 am, we had plenty of time to shop in the airport and play several games of cards. Finally, we’re flying home after hours in the Airport. For those flying out of Fairbanks, purchase seats on the left side of the plane just in case the northern lights show. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side and had no way to changing seats. Just something to keep in mind for next time!

That’s all for the Alaskan Adventure of 2023. In future posts, I’ll share more about what to pack and where to eat. Also, coming soon, posts about St. John USVI, UK, and more.

Two weeks in Alaska went by way too quickly. We’re already at day 9 and heading to Denali out of Palmer. One of the most breath-taking experiences in my life and possibly the best US National Park, we saw Denali three ways. I encourage anyone and everyone to splurge on the flight seeing tour. Denali Air is minutes from the park entrance. Additionally, if you get the evening tour, you’ll have especially beautiful views based on the sun shining on the mountains. Don’t worry about glares and reflections through your phone, there’s a fix! You can edit out most of the reflections easily through the gallery/photos app. Just to prove it to you, here’s an excessive amount of pictures from our flightseeing tour.

There are numerous cabins to rent through VRBO or AirBnB around the park but be careful to check the amenities. And yes, plumbing is an amenity in Alaska. Our cabin was right by the Denali Air runway and a few minutes’ drive from the park entrance. On day 10, September 5th, we drove into the park and hiked. The Savage Alpine Trail is amazing, however, most it is on a ridge and can be very windy. We experienced 60 mph winds and had to turn around before we reached the end. The views were still spectacular, and the fall colors had started to show. Of course, souvenirs were a must, so we also ventured into the gift shop. It is important to know that the Denali Mountain is almost never seen from the ground, which is why you must also do the flightseeing tour. A great way to see different areas of the park since you can only hike so far. Pictures below are of the hike for the Savage Alpine trail and the Savage River loop. See if you can spot the Arctic Ground Squirrel.

Our final day in Denali involved a 6 am bus tour. The Denali Tundra tour is one of the few ways to see past mile 15 on the park road. This tour is around 5 hours with stops every 90 minutes and will go to mile 43 on the park road. We spotted several Moose, some Ptarmigan, a Caribou, and a Grizzly Bear. Add the animals to the fantastic views and it’s a great tour. The elevation near the end is around 4,000 feet, which in early September has the potential for snow! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen fall colors combined with white snow, but it’s something I’d love to see again!

That’s it for Denali. A bit of advice to anyone planning an Alaska trip, stay another day in Denali. The only thing I would change about this trip would be more time in the park to fully enjoy the beautiful land and the animals. No worries, I’ll be back one day. It’s time to drive to Fairbanks.

Well, we’re half-way through the trip. It’s September 3rd. Hopefully, you’re still reading and enjoying the posts, or at least the pictures. We left McCarthy on the east side of the state and drove west towards Palmer. Wrangell-St. Elias was still in view! See the picture below. Now I’m not sure what mountain that is, but I can tell you that Mount Wrangell is in that direction and it’s a volcano, which I thought was really cool. My next Alaska trip will probably include a flight-seeing tour of Wrangell-St. Elias just so I can get a closer look at this beautiful mountain. For now, we’ll continue with the actual itinerary and discuss Palmer.

Our entire reason for staying in the town of Palmer is because it’s about an hour from Matanuska glacier. However, the tour I had scheduled for ice climbing on day 8 had to cancel and we were left with a free day. For those interested in ice climbing or just a glacier trek book with Nova Alaska. Due to the cancellation, we ended up booking a glacier trek the next day with Glacier tours [WINTER & SUMMER Alaska Glacier Tours ⋆ MATANUSKA GLACIER (glacier-tours.com)].

For day 8, as a last-minute decision we drove to Hatcher Pass and hiked. As far as wildlife, at this point the little mouse below was most we had seen. This also used to be a mine, but now serves as a great spot for hiking and exploring.

I mentioned in a previous post that our dog sledding got cancelled and we rescheduled farther north. This is farther north. Alaska Helicopter Tours [AK Helicopter Tours | The Ultimate Alaskan Experience (alaskahelicoptertours.com)] is fantastic. I highly recommend the splurge of booking this tour. It’s a helicopter ride to Knik Glacier where Dog Camp lies during the summer, but along the way you’ll spot Dall Sheep, Black Bears, and Moose, or what our pilot called “Alaska Bingo”.

48 sled dogs live on Knik Glacier through the summer with trainers helping prepare the dogs for the Iditarod race. All the dogs are owned by a 5-time champion and several of the dogs are winners of the race as well. Fun fact: you can adopt a retired sled dog! Not only did we get to go dog sledding, but we also played with a couple of the puppies, mushed the dog sled ourselves, and learned about the operation. Everything must be flown back down at the end of the summer. The dogs and all of their stuff, the trainers and the insulated little huts that they live in. Everything goes by helicopter. But it’s so worth it for the dog sledding experience!

Best day ever!! Other than the other 13 days in Alaska.

Such as day 9, we finally got to visit Matanuska Glacier. Collect glacier water, jump over a crevasse, crawl inside an ice cave, and have the best time while on this glacier tour. I’ll let the pictures tell you about the rest of the tour.

Goodbye ocean and otters! It’s day 6 and we’re heading for the McCarthy Road. You will find various reports of the McCarthy Road and some may scare you away from the drive. However, don’t be intimidated by what you read. This road is well-traveled through the summer, and they shut it down by mid-September. There’s plenty of potholes along this dirt road, but you’ll have great opportunities to see the landscape of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which is the biggest in the US and three-times the size of Switzerland. Don’t be too scared of the one-lane bridge that sits 238 feet over a gorge and overlooks the Kuskulana River. It’s a highlight of the McCarthy Road adventure!

Another part of the adventure is the footbridge at the end of the 60-mile road. There are no personal vehicles from tourists in McCarthy, so you either take the shuttle or walk. It’s less than a mile to walk into town and much appreciated when you’ve been riding in a car the last several hours.

This is a time commitment as it takes at least 2 hours each way, but the tiny town of McCarthy offers several semi-rustic hotels plus there’s a lodge at the Kennecott mines not too far away. Full disclosure, the original plan was to drive to McCarthy and back in one day, but spending the night is a much better option. Since we weren’t planning on staying in McCarthy, but booked a room in Chitina, right before the road starts, we had a change of plans at the last minute. Ma Johnson’s Hotel is a great option for staying in McCarthy. However, had I researched, we would have stayed at the Kennecott Lodge. Ma Johnson’s did not have ensuite bathrooms, ergo you shared with whoever else was in the hotel. Overall, a rustic adventure in a tiny town of around 200 residents. The bar across the “street” had a great night with an Anchorage-based band and many campers coming in for the party. While not our scene, they sounded like they had a great time. Unfortunately for us were loud enough that we didn’t fall asleep until well past midnight.

The morning of day 7, Ma Johnson’s provided breakfast in a little building across the street and then we rode the shuttle from McCarthy to Kennicott. If you have the time, it’s highly recommended to take the 2-hour tour of the Kennecott mines. These mines were built in 1911 where copper and silver were mined for around 28 years. We opted out of this and just walked around admiring the view. Afterall, this part of Wrangell-St. Elias has a different landscape than we found anywhere else.

Saying goodbye to Kennecott and McCarthy, we hiked back to our car and drove the 60 miles out to Chitina. We then continued on to Palmer to check into the AirBnB for the night.

**Day 8 coming soon**

Let’s jump into day 3. If you have no idea what I’m talking about then go back to my previous post. Believe me, you don’t want to skip Homer.

Day 3: First of all, we experienced several itinerary changes over the 2 weeks. One of those was on this day. We arrived in Seward from Homer only to find out that our helicopter tour and glacier dog sledding was canceled due to lack of snow on the glacier. The company recommended that we try a little farther north. Alaska Helicopter Tours was able to provide that amazing experience we had been looking forward to just a few days later than planned. With the dog sledding canceled, our day became relaxed, and we were able to rest before our day cruise on day 4.

Day 4: I highly recommend booking this: Kenai Fjords National Park Tour Cruise | Kenai Fjords Tours (alaskacollection.com). Incredible views, glaciers, sea creatures, and other wildlife cannot cover how amazing this tour really is. There’re a few options for different cruises, we went for the Kenai Fjords Tour. We saw Dall porpoises that look like tiny killer whales, a fin whale, sea lions, seals, otters, puffins, and a few other birds. It felt like the jackpot for sightings on this tour. Unfortunately, most of what we saw is not documented, but find below bald eagles and some blurry sea lions. Fun fact: sea lions don’t bark like seals; they actually sound like a growl/roar.

This tour not only covers the Kenai Fjords National Park, but you also pass through the Gulf of Alaska and find several waterfalls on your way to the glacier. Isn’t that water beautiful?

Aialik Glacier is 600 feet high and about a mile wide. We saw it from around half a mile away and it still seemed majestic. Our captain had perfect timing as we got to eat our lunch at the glacier. Through the binoculars, we also found a ton of seals, however they mostly looked like black dots from our distance. Wait for it…. the glacier calved right in the middle!! That was amazing to experience between seeing this massive glacier calve and hearing the ice fall, it felt surreal. [The picture on the right is zoomed in slightly and has better color, but the one on the left better shows how wide it is]

Day 5: At the time we thought that day 4 was the perfect day, but soon realized there wasn’t just one. After our tour, we drove up to Girdwood, a small ski resort town and checked into our VRBO. The morning of day 5 we set to find the train station. Find the link here: Alaska Railroad | Alaskan Tours & Vacations | Train Packages. The Glacier discovery train from Girdwood to the Spencer Glacier Whistle stop provided the perfect day trip. Spectacular views of mountains and valleys were along the way to Spencer Glacier. The route goes through the Whitter tunnel which is a great place to stop for lunch going or for dinner on the way back. Spencer Glacier resides among the Chugach National Forest and is an easy hike. If you’re super adventurous and have the time, book the rafting trip down the river. It looked like a lot of fun and will probably make the itinerary on the next Alaska trip. Another adventurous option if there’s time is the cabin overlooking Spencer Glacier and the surrounding area. We didn’t know it existed until we saw way up the mountain, but it definitely looked like the ideal retreat from civilization.

That’s all for day 5. On day 6, we packed up the car and headed to McCarthy. Keep an eye out for the next portion of our Alaskan Adventure.

Anyone else spend more time researching their next destination than doing literally anything else? Well, the first time I ever did that was for Alaska… and it was worth it! Over a year of planning paid off making the trip unforgettable. For this post, I’m going to start discussing the itinerary. It’s easy to spend numerous hours researching and thinking that your trip will go perfectly but in reality, schedules will shift. That is part of why I will split the itinerary into several posts.

From Charlotte to Anchorage to Homer:

August 26th: Skipping over the exciting 10+ hour flight, 2-hour delay, and layover in Dallas, we finally got to Anchorage about 12 am and picked up the car. If you plan on driving the McCarthy Road or Dalton Highway very few companies will allow it. We booked with Alaska 4×4 Rentals (alaska4x4rentals.com), which is a locally owned car rental company, so they understand Alaskan roads and conditions. We drove to the hotel for the night and somehow managed to get up the next morning ready for the start of our Alaskan adventure.

Day 1, August 27th: You know you’re still in the US when there’s a Walmart. Alaskan Walmart is really no different except you’ll find 2-foot-long green beans (vegetable grow bigger due to the amount of sun they get in the summer). While in Anchorage, we picked up snacks (not green beans) and went to REI for bear spray, bear horn, etc. For the record, I could’ve spent as much money in REI as we spent on the entire trip as it’s the second largest in the country, but off we went to find a glacier.

We drove from Anchorage to Homer with stops in Byron Glacier for a hike and the town of Whittier for lunch. A rainy day in Alaska is expected and shouldn’t stop anyone. By the time we hiked to Byron Glacier, we understood why everyone says to bring your rain jacket! After attempting to walk on a slick piece of ice that broke off of the glacier, we didn’t make it far and decided to stop for a picture. But it was still pretty fun for a first glacier encounter, and we didn’t break anything. Whittier isn’t too far unless the one-way tunnel stops you. That was a fun surprise. One disadvantage of researching so far in advance is that you may forget certain things when the trip finally arrives. For instance, I forgot that there’s a toll and schedule for the tunnel to Whittier. The tunnel is a mile long, but don’t skip it and miss out on The Swiftwater Cafe for fresh Alaskan crab legs! The perfect first lunch to have while in Alaska. Whittier is tiny and needs no more than a couple of hours to see so finish the drive to Homer after lunch.

Day 2: It was day 2 when ‘Misty Mountains’ from The Hobbit was stuck in my head. Just to be clear it was due to the clouds and mountain views (pictures at the top of the post) not because there was a dragon or fire. (In case you haven’t heard it: Misty Mountains – YouTube.) Be sure to walk the Homer Spit and keep an eye out for sea otters, seals, and starfish! Always keep your binoculars handy. The Land’s End Resort, Homer Alaska Hotel | Land’s End Resort | Heart of Kachemak Bay (lands-end-resort.com), was the perfect spot for being near the water. If you don’t want to go outside in the rain, they have ocean view rooms!

Not only are there remarkable views and playful otters, but you’ll find several adorable shops and fantastic restaurants. My favorite earrings are from RAu GOLD. It’s owned by an Alaskan family and the gold mining goes back several generations. Alaskan gold makes a great souvenir, plus it easily fits in any size luggage!

On the morning of day three, Homer said goodbye with a beautiful double-rainbow. Stay tuned for the rest of day three.