WIHorseman

My wife and I are going to take a short vacation in Alaska from June 15th to the 23rd. I know it too short but we will return there next year for a longer stay. Our plan calls for us to fly into Anchorage and rent a car for the week. We have never been to AK before but want to maximize our time seeing the the sights available by car around the coast and nearby mountains and glaciers. We’ll visit inland including Denali on another visit but are hoping those of you who may be able to help us plan a great trip with not to miss suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Tony

frjeff Loc: Mid-Michigan

You might want to look into a one day wildlife tour with a photog guide. Not cheap, but a friend of mine got some astounding shots he’d never found on his own. Just incredible.

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

Wife and I, in 2015, spent 2 weeks in AK through a tour company, first week ground and 2nd week cruise. It is a wonderful place to vacation and see all that nature has to offer. If you are planning to rent a car to go to Denali, hold your horses. The drive to the innermost part of Denali is treacherous to say the least. In fact, there is a certain point on the road to Denali which is you must have a permit to get past. If you do happen to get past that point, you need nerves of steel, because the road winds around mountains, often with 2 lanes squeezing into 1 lane, where one vehicle must wait till the oncoming vehicle passes, and often with the edge of the vehicle's tire only a few feet away from a 500' drop down the mountain. Our trip to Denali was on a special tour bus. (pictured at 1:24 into the slideshow below)..the driver had been making that trip for the past 20 years. When we got back past the checkpoint, I thanked God for the safe trip there and back.

Slide Show of Alaska 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmTMuCJb3kg

Our favorite portions of the land around Anchorage included:

• Anchorage Museum
• Simon & Seafort's Saloon & Grill
• Denali Backcountry Lodge
• Wolf Den Kennel - a dog training facility for Iditarod race
• Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge - hotel
• Talkeetna, AK - Mahay's Jetboat tour into Devil's Canyon

WIHorseman

Any chance you can get the name of the guide or firm he works for? Thanks for the suggestion.

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

The bus tour company was "Denali Backcountry Adventure" as shown on the side of the bus in the slideshow, and the driver/tour guide we had was Martin Brenner. This was 4 1/2 years ago, so who knows if he's still doing such driving through the mountain passes of Denali?

Also, the tour company that we used for the entire 2 weeks, land and cruise, was John Hall's Alaska.

frjeff Loc: Mid-Michigan

The photography tour out of Anchorage was through:

https://www.viator.com/Anchorage-tours/Photography-Tours/d4152-g12-c26028

Lots to pick from. Enjoy!

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

A possible 2-3 day trip would be to drive from Anchorage south to Whittier and take the Alaska Marine Ferry from Whittier to Valdez ( 8 hours or so) across Prince William Sound. At Whittier you can drive up the Richardson Highway to Glennallen and then west on the Glenn Highway back to Anchorage. This trip takes you across several mountain ranges and a great introduction to Prince William Sound. You can also pass Glennallen and go up to Fairbanks and then down the Parks Highway back to Anchorage.

If this trip seems too much, there are day cruises out of Whittier that takes you up to College Fjord to numerous glaciers. There are day cruises out of Seward that take you to the Kenai Fjords National Park.

If you like to do some hiking, there is Portage Pass near Whittier, at the top you overlook Potage Glacier and Passage Canal. I can give you a list of other day hikes of various levels of physical activity depending on your interest.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

This is a great itinerary for a week’s stay. There is so much up here that a week is hardly enough to time to do much more than scratch the surface. The good thing is this will give you a good idea how to plan your longer visit.

Something a bit unique is to visit the musk ox farm just out of Palmer. Another thing is to drive up the Glenn Hwy to the Matanuska Glacier, about a two hour drive from Anchorage. You can drive to a large parking area, after paying a fee, and hike to the glacier. You can even go on a guided tour that takes you inside ice caves in the glacier. Just a couple thoughts.

rsnoeyink Loc: Schererville, Indiana

My wife and I got on a plane in Anchorage (Russ's) and flew to Katmai, where the bears catch salmon in the river. It was an awesome and beautiful plane ride there and back, and of course seeing the bears close up was amazing too. It is not cheap, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think took about a thousand pictures that day.

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BrHawkeye

Alaska Museum was a good suggestion for things to do in Anchorage. Another spot that I'd highly recommend is the Alaska Native Heritage Center in a wooded setting on the edge of Anchorage. It includes a Welcome House where visitors can see Native dancers and storytellers and watch artisans at work. Beyond the Welcome House is a trail around a pond that takes visitors to the traditional buildings of several Native cultures where they may encounter scenes such as sealskin cleaning.

Girdwood, a half hour south of Anchorage along Turnagain Arm, has a jade shop where you can see huge chunks of Alaskan jade slowly being sliced and a place where you can pan for gold. The hotel there is one of good spots in that town to consider for lunch.

The three-hour drive south from Anchorage to Seward is as picturesque as it gets outside Switzerland.

National Park

It would involve a fair amount of driving given your short time frame, but in addition to Denali you may want to drive south of Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula and down to Seward where you can take a boat tour to the Kenai Fjords National Park. And on your way to or from Denali go to the Iditarod Museum in Wasilla.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Plan several days in Seward. A beautiful drive, and you can take a whale/glacier cruise, you can walk up to the Exit Glacier, go to the aquarium, and see some awesome scenery. Homer is a much longer drive, but a very neat little town. You can go sea kayaking, and can reserve a float-plane day trip to Katmai to see the grizzlies. (These may be all booked up, as will be a lot of lodging. We found that at least half of all lodging was reserved a year before our trip a few years back.)

JanSIrons Loc: Central Illinois USA

I'd head south to Chugach State Park & maybe south to Seward & maybe the Kenai Peninsula. That was our favorite part of our trip to Alaska. Denali was OK but SO vast. Enjoy!

Cheers!

Bultaco Loc: Aiken, SC

A Raindeer farm is close to the Musk Ox farm. We enjoyed it.

WIHorseman

Hpucker99

Sounds like you hit the trip we are interested in on the head. We would love to get a copy of your suggested short hikes and points of interest. You can contact me directly via my email at wihorseman@icloud.com if you don’t mind sending me the additional info directly. Since I’m a UHH to start with taking photos is a huge part of our intended reason for making this trip. We are both in relatively decent health and love hiking. Next year I’m sure we will return to AK and make a trip to Denali. Now that we. Are both retired we have a great deal more flexibility to go places we have only dreamed about in the past. Our biggest. Problem is scheduling a horse and house sitter to free up time to get away. Thanks so much for the great advice and help. Tony