Introduction & Arrival
About three weeks ago, Sam had a crazy idea to visit Alaska. (We didn’t even realize that there was a direct flight from EWR to Alaska, but there is!) Alaska is huge, about 1/5 the size of the lower 48 states. There was no way we would be able to see all the places we would want to visit in a short 4 day trip, but we decided it would be worth it to see what we could. Alaska typically takes a lot of advanced planning, and many of the limited supply of hotels and car rentals (we ended up renting with Turo) ran out before we decided to book. With a bit of maneuvering, we were able to work out logistics.
The one condition on going – Sam insisted that we take a flightseeing plane to properly view Mt. McKinley FKA Mt. Denali and land on a glacier there.
After doing some research, we realized that the weather is very unpredictable and constantly changing in Alaska. In order to have the highest chances of doing the flight seeing plane activity, we scheduled it for the first morning of our trip and kept the rest of our itinerary relatively flexible to be able to reschedule if necessary.
Day 1 – Denali
As luck would have it, we woke up Monday morning to a foggy cloudy sky. We called Talkeetna Air Taxi, the reputable carrier that we were using and received confirmation that our 830 tour was cancelled. (Side point – Talkeetna Air Taxi was the only tour company Rita was comfortable flying with. Their pilots have years of experience, they use the most updated technology to fly and predict the weather patterns and they offer a full refund, even if you cancel right before you go with no reason necessary. Moreover, we called them about 10 times before booking and asked them every question possible about the experience and their safety. Finally, they were willing to have us fly on separate planes and land on the same glacier. So Rita agreed to give it a shot.)
Now that our 8:30 tour was cancelled, we pivoted and headed north 2 hours to Denali National Park and Preserve to spend the day there and hopefully catch the 6:30 PM flight seeing tour. (It doesn’t get dark until about 11 PM here, so activities can go on all day.) In Denali, private cars are only allowed to drive until mile 15 in the park. To get further, you have to get a ticket for a hop on hop off bus or a wildlife sightseeing tour. The ride to Denali was rainy, cloudy and foggy and we were bummed about the day. When we got to the bus depot to buy a ticket, our bad luck continued when we learned that the next availability wasn’t for another 2 hours! It seemed like everything was going wrong. We decided to drive to mile 15 and hike the 2 mile trail by Savage River. It was an easy, flat loop, but it was windy and cold. We also didn’t see any of the wildlife that visitors usually see, with the exception of the Alaska ground squirrel and the short billed gull. At 2 PM there was an Alaska Huskies dog demonstration. This time we were successful, but it meant that we had an extra hour to sit around and see the dogs. Sam was able to pet a dog and we saw the way that they live. These dogs are used by the park as work dogs to maintain and patrol the park. Their bodies are built to withstand the freezing winter temperatures (furry coat, bushy tail, wide compact paws, long legs) and the park takes care of a large herd of dogs. Finally at 2 PM we listened to a short ranger talk about the dogs and got to see them run a sled.
The weather was still crummy at this point and we weren’t sure our flight would be one, but we had to leave the park by 3 PM if we had any chance of making it. As we got closer to Talkeetna, the weather seemed more and more promising. The clouds cleared and the sun came out. The company confirmed that our 6:30 tour would be on!
Once we got there, we were checked in, weighed (to make sure the plane was balanced) given boot covers and prepared for takeoff. There were 10 people on our plane. By this point, Rita decided to go on the same plane as Sam. We flew for about 45 minutes until we reached the glacier. The pilot gave us a detailed tour of the skies and what we were seeing down below. We landed in the glacier and got out for beautiful views of the mountains. We spent about 20 minutes on the glacier walking around, taking pictures, eating the fresh snow and enjoying the views. It was an incredible experience to be on the glacier!! The views of the snow capped mountain peaks were amazing. We also got to see other planes landing on the glacier – how cool!! After we took all of our pictures, it was time for the flight home. Thank you Hashem, we landed safely and lived to tell about the experience.
Day 2 – Road to Seward
Since we didn’t know when we would be able to do the flightseeing plane, we kept Tuesday’s itinerary open and flexible. Given that we were able to do the glacier landing on Monday night, we had the entire day Tuesday to drive from Talkeetna to Seward and stop wherever we wanted along the way. The drive was gorgeous and even though we didn’t see any of the wildlife, we still enjoyed the beautiful scenic views of Turnagain Arm. Some of the highlights / recommended stops include:
- Potter’s Marsh
- McHugh Creek
- Beluga Point
- Dall Sheep Viewing at Windy Corner
- Salmon Viewing at Moose Creek
- Views of Kenail Lake
- We skipped the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center because we hoped to see wildlife in the wild (more on that later!).
We got to Seward around 3:30 PM after the leisurely drive. We headed to Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park and were convinced by the ranger to do the Harding Icefield Trail to the Marmot Meadows viewpoint. It was an intense 3.0 mile trail (1.5 miles out and back) with 1685 ft elevation! We did it in about 2 hours and enjoyed the beautiful views of Exit Glacier. The hike had many switchbacks and kept us on our feet, but we enjoyed the satisfactory feeling of completing it!
Although it was still bright daylight when we finished, we decided to head to the hotel and call it an early night since we had a very early start on Wednesday.
Day 3 – Kenai Fjords
The weather in Seward was spectacular with the sun shining and warm temperatures- even the locals were surprised! The trip to Seward wouldn’t be complete without a wildlife cruise tour into Kenai Fjords National Park. Most of the park is water, specifically ice, making it most accessible by boat. We chose to do a 6 hour tour with Major Marine to see the sea life and closeup views of the glaciers. We had an incredible time and the captain was great at describing what we saw. We saw 2 types of puffin, gulls, orca whales, dall’s porpoise, stellar sea lions, and otters. But the highlight of the trip was seeing the humpback whales bubble feeding. We also visited Holgate glacier and learned about it’s changing features. The tour was most worthwhile and we highly recommend it!
We then roamed around Seward for a few hours until our next adventure – rafting in Resurrection River near Exit Glacier. We did this activity with Kenai Backcountry Adventures. Our guide Dalia navigated us down the river, which was particularly challenging that day as the high temperatures had melted more ice which significantly raised the water levels and created new channels in the river. Dalia was a champ and we loved the thrilling activity. The beautiful backdrop was an added bonus! Overall it was an amazing day!
Day 4 – Road to Anchorage
In the morning we first stopped at the Byron Glacier Trail at the Portage Recreation Area. It was a short 2 mile round trip walk to views of the glacier. We also got to see more salmon at a nearby stop.
Since we hadn’t seen any major wildlife, we decided to stop at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which cares for many types of injured wildlife and allows visitors to see the native animals. We saw black bears, grizzly bears, moose, elk, caribou, porcupine, bison, reindeer and other animals including the bald eagle, our national bird! We really enjoyed this stop and are glad that we had the opportunity to see wildlife, even if they were behind cages. Surprisingly, the animals were extremely active, with the grizzly bear coming right up to his fence not more than 5 feet from us. Our last attempt to see wildlife in the wild was in Kincaid State Park in Anchorage, but unfortunately we were unsuccessful there too!
We ended the day at an escape room in Downtown Anchorage (with a group of 6 Texans) and luckily we were clever enough to beat the room with 2 minutes remaining!
Overall Alaska is an incredible place to visit with tons of unique opportunities. Although we covered a lot in 4 days, driving about the distance from NYC to DC, there was way more that we didn’t get a chance to see – even in the Anchorage area. Sam is already planning our next trip back to visit other parts of the state!
