Thanks, @gouf78. That’s helpful. Sometimes I forget how rainy Alaska usually is. I was there for a week in 2013 and again in 2014, and both times it was in the 90s without a drop of rain. The Mosquitos weren’t troubled though.
Thanks for all the advice. @MomofJandL @noimagination @AKFirefly and others!
We finally made lodging reservations (we’re slow like that). We do have a rental car reserved. Here’s where we are staying and for how many nights:
Anchorage - 1 night (near airport, late arrival)
Homer - 2 nights
Seward - 2 nights
Talkeetna (by Denali) - 3 nights
Anchorage - 1 nights
We had another place in Talkeetna just reply by email with availabilty after we booked elsewhere. We could cancel the first place if the new one is better. Does anyone happen to have any experiences with the Swiss-Alaska Inn vs. the Denali Overlook Inn both in Talkeetna?
Talkeetna only had those 2 places available, but there was room at several places in the other towns. We aren’t that picky about lodging beyond sleeping 4, so other than Talkeetna, the places we are staying are fairly generic sounding.
We considered one night in Girdwood after Talkeetna. Is that worth giving up a day in Talkeetna? My husband goes to a lot of summer conferences at ski resorts, so isn’t that excited about his impression of that area.
What activity reservations should we make before we go?
We will probably mostly be hiking, kayaking, and the like. We are all good for ~4-8 mile hikes with significant altitude changes but no technical climbing. We took a guided glacier hike in the Canadian Rockies once upon a time, and really enjoyed that, so would like to take the kids on something like that. Are there any places where you have to make reservations to hike?
I’m not much into fishing, but my husband and son will probably want to do one fly fishing guided thing. We will probably want some flightseeing thing if the weather is good. We don’t want extreme river rafting (scary experience before kids that we aren’t really over), but mild river tours or powered boats would be fine. Ferries or viewing glaciers from the ocean are probably fine if DH and DD use scopalamine patches, but we will probably reserve there based on weather. Dog sledding would be fun, though my husband and I will be missing the malamute mix we had years ago (best dog ever) the whole time. Seeing orca, moose, and/or bears (safely) would be nice.
Pros to Girdwood would be many great hiking trails as well as the possibility of visiting Portage Valley or Whittier on the way. I would personally rather spend the night in Anchorage but others will feel differently.
I’m wondering what you mean by “Talkeetna (by Denali)”. You can go flightseeing from Talkeetna, and that’s where climbers leave for Denali, but there isn’t anything by Denali NP other than the dedicated park entrance area. The town of Talkeetna is 150 miles away. Can’t comment further, but I bet there are many options for fly fishing and river boating in the Talkeetna area.
Harding Icefield Trail at Exit Glacier near Seward is exceptional and recommended if the weather cooperates. Might be a bit on the long side, so do your own due diligence. Seward is a good place for a tour boat, Homer for fishing.
Would you be willing to share? H and I are trying to decide if we’re going to go white-water rafting in Vancouver when we’re there in late August. I’ve been a few times before, and I’ve done Class III and IV, but over 15 years ago when I was a lot younger. The outfitter I’ve been looking at has dozens and dozens of rave reviews, including for safety. They’re actually recommended by AARP. The trip we’re looking at is only 2.5 hours.
@noimagination Thanks for the tip that we should look at the map in more detail. We had friends who stayed in Talkeetna and liked it a lot. They gave us the impression it was near Denali, but I guess they didn’t go into the park. I think there will be plenty to do in the Talkeetna area, but we’ll look for details.
@teriwtt I’ll PM you with the story. In summary, no one was terribly hurt, but my husband and I spent about 20-30 minutes not knowing whether the other had survived.
I would suggest that you cut one night from Talkeetna and add Girdwood. We did the same trip. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g28923-i349-k7173844-Girdwood_Portage_Whittier_activities_information-Alaska.html
We returned from our trip on Monday, and I wanted to say thanks to the folks who provided recommendations. We had a great time and enjoyed Alaska.
We went to Homer first and went on a guided kayaking tour. Lots of sea otters and a great guide. Scopalamine patches worked fine for my husband and daughter, despite fairly high waves on the crossing. We also took some nice walks both by the Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center and up in the hills at the Wynn Nature Center. Saw lots of eagles and a moose. Nice town.
Next, we went to Seward. We hiked to Russian Falls on the way there, and saw a whole lots of salmon not making it up the falls. We took a helicopter ride to the Godwin Glacier and a two hour hike on that. We were happy to be able to show our kids what it’s like to hike on a glacier, because we’d loved it years ago on a glacier near Banff and Jasper in Canada. We also did the Exit Glacier hike, but only to the side of the glacier, not up to Harding Icefield because the weather seemed iffy and dinner was calling. My husband was tempted by the Mount Marathon trail in Seward, which he probably could do, but I pointed out that we wanted him to be able to walk the following days, which he probably couldn’t if he did Mt. Marathon.
Then we drove up to Talkeetna, and enjoyed that town also. We met a friend of friends who is a pilot and recommended one of the flightseeing companies that lands on a glacier near Mt. Whitney/Denali. That was a great flight and we could see the top of the mountain, which isn’t always possible for many visitors. We drove up to Denali National Park the next day and took the 8-hour bus tour. That was a long day, but we saw lots of bears, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, and more. Great views, though Whitney wasn’t visible. I’m a night owl, so I didn’t mind driving back to Talkeetna late, and it wasn’t even really dark. We also did ziplining, some geocaching, walked around some lakes, and chatted with the friendly locals.
In Anchorage we walked along the beach some and went to the Anchorage Museum and the Alaska Native Heritage Center (and did a short dog sled ride there).
We were lucky with the weather. It only rained the first and last days, which were mostly driving and museum days, anyway. There were some misty days, but even to a Californian not enough to call it “rain”. Really no bugs to speak of, too. I never used the bug spray.
Anyway, thanks!
Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, thanks! I am bookmarking it for the next year. Maybe I will run the Moose Tooth again. 