Alaska must see's

[NOCK NOCK]

Heading up this later summer for 10ish days, what are some MUST do's?
Flying in to Anchorage, then motorhoming it to Talkeetna (jet boat ride, and ATV ride), Denali, Fairbanks, then down Richardson Hwy, Palmer, Wasilla, Whittier, Seward, Soldotna, Homer.
Planning on a boat day cruise that will take us to see a glacier fairly close(Suggestions???) maybe a little do it yourself shore fishing, and mostly general sightseeing stuff. 

[mjustice79]

Book a flight seeing your with K2 Aviation. They have a couple of different packages. I took the one with the glacier landing. Almost got to go to Denali base camp to drop off a base camp manager for a climbing team. It was an amazing time. Highly recommend that.


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[CAMPMEAT]

10ish days won't be enough Chris. We flew into Anchorage, rented a vehicle and drove around seeing the sights.

Homer Spit for the best Halibut Fish and Chips.

Kenai

Denali Park. You have to take a bus into to park, which was 90 miles oneway from what I remember.

Going to Fairbanks is a LONG ways from Anchorage. It doesn't look like it on the map. In fact, everything is a long ways away.

We did this. Anchorage to Denali to Glenallen to Kenai and spent 4 nights there, right on the Admiralty Inlet in a cabin we found by accident and visited Homer Spit and then just drove around enjoying ourselves..

[NOCK NOCK]

There will be more trips in the future Steve. Yes, we are looking into a heli ride, that looks like fun.
I’m thinking/hoping the Richardson hwy will be kinda cool to get off the beaten path a lttle (at least from the most popular tourist stuff) in this area. I drive for a living so miles don’t bother me. Do several hundred every day.

[dhjnesommer]

If you are going through Palmer, head on up to the Matinuska Glacier. You can park and walk right up on it. With such limited time getting a chartered flight burns up a lot of hours just waiting. Another option is stopping in at Portage Glacier on your way down the Kenai Peninsula. When you are just heading out of Anchorage before Alyeska, look up on the cliffs to your left (as you're heading south) and you will almost always see Dall Sheep and maybe a goat or two. If you look to the right and you will probably spot a few Beluga Whales (they look like white beach balls floating around in the Cook Inlet). There are so many great sights to see that are drivable too. Eklutna Lake and Thunderbird Falls. The Eagle River visitor center is one of the most beautiful spots around and you will see tons of wildlife. It is worth the short drive and your hike could be hours or minutes.  That's one I wouldn't skip. I used to live up by Hatcher's Pass but it's not worth going up there especially in an RV. If you plan on doing all that driving, I would definitely get an Alaskan Milepost. Weather can be great or total crap so a place that you might really like will look just like Western WA in the rain and clouds. With the Milepost you can see a lot more of the off the beaten track stuff that is very accessable. Also, halibut charters are all day but you will fill your freezer for a while. If you are around during a good salmon run, the Russian River combat fishing is novel and you will not regret the three fish limit. There is a very picturesque Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchick (on the Kenai Peninsula) that is worth stopping at. In a clear day you can usually see the active volcanos on the other side of the water giving off steam.
Regardless of where you go, you will love it! Enjoy and don't eat the muktuk!

[KFhunter]

I flew into Fairbanks, farted around there for a while then rode the train to Denali,  the train was pretty good you see stuff you can't see from the highway.  The weather was perfect so I hung out between the cars in the open air and took a ton of pictures.  Or I would hang out in the observatory of one of the double Decker cars.

In Denali I did a plane ride all around mt Mackenzie but no glacier landing..I been on plenty of glaciers 
I would have loved to take the bus ride but I didn't have enough time, next time I guess. 

I boarded the train in Denali and took that to Anchorage, the ride again was long and awesome, more pics.

Once in Anc I rented a vehicle and took the pass to Seward AK and did some fishing, got a mess of halibut from the chicken patch and boated a few salmon

We stayed in Seward a day or two in a VRBO which was nice.  Then back up to ANC and home.

All in all it was a good trip, but like stated there just isn't enough time!

[actionshooter]

I wouldn't try to stretch it too far with only 10 days, you spend all your time traveling. Denali is a must, spend some time in the air with a sightseeing flight.

[wapiti hunter2]

Fairbanks is not worth the trip. Flat not great scenery, and buggy. After Denali, take the Denali highway from Cantwell to Paxon. Fish the lakes. Camp where you want. Then go south on highway 4 to Gakona and on south to Chitna and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Back to Valdez. Return to Anchorage. The Richardson Highway is a super highway for tourists.

[Skywagon_185]

In Talkeetna, I'd recomend Talkeetna Air Taxi for a Denali flight.  I did it in my own airplane several years ago.  Spectacular place.  The Sheldon amphitheatre and Ruth Glacier are extraoridinary!!

[brewzer13]

Sounds like you are doing almost exactly what we did a few years ago. The jet boat tour and we did a back country jeep tour where we drove the jeeps and then panned for gold out of Talkeetna, lots of fun on both. Denali park was great, you have about a 25% chance of seeing the mountain anytime of the year. Stop in North Pole at the Santa Claus house, open year round and feed the reindeer. Take a side trip outside of Fairbanks to see the pipeline and also some of the old gold dredges, a great chance to see moose and there is Cheena Hot springs not too far away. We've done the train from Anchorage to Denali and back, but its an 8 hour ride but you see a lot of area that is only accessible by train or plane. Hit all the towns between Fairbank and Anchorage, as each has some real hidden gems to check out. In anchorage, the Alaska Native heritage center was a great place for some hands on cultural stuff, same with the Anchorage museum in downtown. All the gold shops and fur traders along 4th ave and its where the ceremonial start of the Iditarod is held. They have a pretty nice zoo south of town, and you can hit Moose's Tooth Pizza and pub! Girdwood and Alyeska are cool stops on your way south, Portage glacier is nice and you can take the tunnel to Whittier from there. Cool shops in Whittier and some historical spots. If you are near Seward on the 4th of July, they have a big celebration for the Mount Marathon foot race, crazy folks running up the side of the mountain and back down. We did a glacier boat tour out of there and it was cool but its an all day tour. Got to see whales and other wildlife along the way. Kenai and Homer were great and you can grab a charter easily from both for salmon and halibut. That's going to be some long driving taking the loop like that but you'll see some great scenery along the way. Lots of streams along the way if you want to take a pole and get some graylings or char, just check the fishing rules. Be prepared for all types of weather along the way and all types of bugs.

[CAMPMEAT]

There will be more trips in the future Steve. Yes, we are looking into a heli ride, that looks like fun.
I’m thinking/hoping the Richardson hwy will be kinda cool to get off the beaten path a lttle (at least from the most popular tourist stuff) in this area. I drive for a living so miles don’t bother me. Do several hundred every day.

I used to drive lots of miles per day, unto 600 in my semi truck. BUT, does your wife enjoy it ? Mine did ok..


Anyhow, you're gonna love it...

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Phillips Cruises will take you on a nice 26 glacier cruise out of Whittier. They take you up through College Fiord and around Esther Island. Some of them go into Lake bay to the salmon hatchery which can be fun. You go right through the gillnet fleet working on the hatchery produced chums.

If you had more time, I'd say to get on the ferry in Homer and head over to Kodiak.  That's your best chance to see some big bears. But it's an all day ferry ride both ways so probably not the best way to spend your time.  A shorter and more spectacular Ferry ride is out of Whittier to Cordova where you can see glaciers up close, see moose and bears and nesting water fowl, and local characters. There's some great hiking trails in the area too. Then hop the ferry over to Valdez and head back to Anchorage or up to Fairbanks. Or head north from Glenallen and hit the Denali highway which will take you to Cantwell, not to far south of the Denali Park entrance.

If you do get to Fairbanks you can head north to Central an old mining town and Circle at the end of the road at the Yukon River.  And on the way you can stop at Chena Hot Springs. There is still active gold mining going on in Central. 

[CaNINE]

We really enjoyed the Homer area and Halibut cove...beautiful.

Drove to Talkeetna and took a flight up to Denali. The glacier landing and views from the air are other worldly.  All of the “foothill” mountains approaching Denali are higher than Mt. Rainier. That puts some sense of scale on the place.

[WaltAlpine]

Exactly what wapiti said.
I would definitely add the flight around Denali. It is other worldly to be that closer to a mountain that big when you are that high up.
And...plan on going two or three times to get to all of the places that you mentioned


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[asmith]

If youre going to be in Fairbanks, might as well take the short drive to visit Santas house in the Northpole!