Had another thought: I don't know about the roads at that time of year, but Kennecott is really interesting - an abandoned mining town. But a very nice lodge, lots of hikes, glacier climbing, and touring the mill and power plant. I can't remember but I would guess 60 miles of dirt road. been twice and flew in the first time in small plane, incredible scenery.
I have been to Kotezbue, and while interesting, not so great other than the sun did not go down. OK hotel; I would be more interested in flying to Nome; more town, more history; there are some dog kennels there (used to be anyway) and I would try to get a good dogsled ride somewhere if there is snow.

What fun!
Our daughter lives in Anchorage so we have been a number of times. Only once in late May, early June. I would take everything except the 85; you wide angles are fine, you don't need more. What you do need is more time in Alaska. It is so big and varied. What you see is so dependent on the time of year. One time in Valdez we saw eagles everywhere, then in another visit, no eagles. For example the water fowl should be coming in in May. What to do and see? Well Denali is great, but a total crap shoot as to what you see. Sometimes nothing in wildlife, sometimes a lot. You will want your best telephoto on 7D; I would look at the trip by boat out of Seward, to see water fowl and glaciers and maybe some whales. Done that 4 times and good weather only once. There are waterbird preserves south of anchorage on the drive toward Seward, ask some locals as to when the birds come. One of the things that should be great while you are there; get a small plane to fly you across the inlet from Homer toward Katmai and there should be a lot of bears on the beach; that is probably my best recommendation. But ask and see if the bears are there before you agree. Good luck. Send PM if you want more.

Look at the Mephoto (spelling???) Travel tripod. The carbon one is just under 3 lbs. Holds a large Canon and lenses just fine if you are careful. I like night photos when I travel and it does great.

Blue Mosque Istanbul 5Dmk3 tripod

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She barrel racing??? shots from by the Alleyway or from the left of the alleyway facing the barrels is a good place. Shoot as the rider is coming out of the third barrel; that can be really nice., Need a short telephoto, high shutter speed.

I rarely shoot at my house, so my solution living in the mid-South is not to use A/C in my car. Old fashioned, leave the windows down and when I arrive to shoot, camera and lens are in good shape. Did that for two weeks in Costa Rica, never had condensation. No A/C in lodges either; guess I don't mind sweating.

Hey, what did you pay for your camera? I am not familiar with your model, but on google price looks like $250 - $350; forgive me if I am wrong.

Your 100x photo is very pleasant. As a dedicated bird photographer, if I went to shoot that same bird from the same distance it is likely I would choose my 1DX and 600mm F4, and likely would get a somewhat better photograph, but my gear cost about $18,000. That is a lot for small improvements, but my goal is to get my photos published in bird books and magazines. What is your goal? Nice picture?? Well you got that. Be happy.

Seriously, in the 100X photo your camera may have focused on the twigs in front of the bird because they look real crisp. One advantage of my gear is that I can get spot focus and get it on the bird.

I think you should be very pleased with your camera and the results. What you see in magazines come at a very high price in gear and time spent getting the shot. For example, I have some fabulous shots of loons with their babies; some have been published, some have won prizes. Cost to get those? 25K of gear, Flight to Toronto, Rental car for a week; motel & meals for a week, hiring a fishing guide with a boat for 5 days, spending 5 long days in that boat, humped over a camera. But, I achieved my photographic goals and had a great experience, and it was within my budget. I fell in love with loons when I was young, then moved to the South, so for me this trip was fulfillment of a long held dream. And it was worth it to me.

So define your photographic goals, check your budget, and see if you can make your goals. If you just want some pictures out in your backyard, I think you are doing pretty dang well.
Keep shooting, and good luck.

1DX and 600mm F4.0

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Get the 300 f2.8. Other than FF the 7Dmk2 the 1DX only offers small improvement while the lens is fab!

fuji top of the line bought Xmas of 14 sold it two months ago.

Well there are times when you really do need to denoise to help a photo. My favorite is Topaz, but I have tried several. Frequently you need to add masking in PS to your techniques so that you only denoise part of the image, and retain sharpness to the subject.

Here is a pygmy kingfisher shot in a very dark mangrove swamp at 10,000 ISO with Canon 5Dmk3 and a 70-200 f2.8 lens with almost no denoising. It could benefit from masking the bird and denoising the background, but I have not gotten around to that. BTW, The Topaz remask plugging works really well and faster for me than PS

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Well there are times when you really do need to denoise to help a photo. My favorite is Topaz, but I have tried several. Frequently you need to add masking in PS to your techniques so that you only denoise part of the image, and retain sharpness to the subject.

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You use it when you need more "reach" and have enough light. I routinely use a 1.4X and a 2X doing bird photography added to my 300mm f2.8 or my 600mm F4. Elliott is correct. Quality of the tele-converter is critical. The latest version of the canon ones I think is version III (that's what I have) and you can get very sharp photos using them. Understand that keeping a 1200mm lens rock still while you shoot is a challenge and will require much improved technique.
Another way to get more reach is to use a crop factor camera like a Canon 7Dmk2 which has advanced focusing and does very well in bird photography.

I am a fairly serious bird photographer, and I have a devout belief that prime lenses are always better than zooms for super telephotos. I will agree that they are excessively expensive. However, while you tie up a lot of money, they don't drop a lot in value, so you can get most back. I shoot canon FF with a 1DX or 5Dmk3, mostly with either a 300mm f2.8 or 600mm f4, but a lot of my buddies with similar gear have pickup up a 7Dmk2 to get more "reach" with the crop factor. With the longer lenses you will need to micro focus each one, and practice better technique to get rid of movement when you press the shutter. If you look at used lenses, my version II 600mm focuses much faster and better with the same body that I used when I had the older version I 600mm. If you are into birds, you will really use the f4 compared to higher f stops with the long zooms as many shots are in dim light. I think the quality of the sensor, the quality and speed of the focusing system is way more important than FF vs crop. I am trying to figure out how I can fit a 7Dmk2 into my budget.
Bill

I use a "bean bag" fairly often. When driving around in Alaska or in a national park like Yellowstone, you can get good shots from the car shooting out the window. Sometimes I get out of the car and flop the bean bag on the hood and shoot from there.

I got mine from Art at birdsasart.com and filled it with about 4 lbs of beans. If I take it when I fly, it goes empty and then fill with beans on arrival. Works very well.
Bill

Yeah I bought a fujifilm. Took excellent photos but focus is slow compared to my Canon DSLR. So sold it. I am 75, I can still carry the heavier camera!

AMEN! Said better than I can