I have a few days to fill in Alaska

Posted by Lauren Pearce on March 18, 2011 at 2:08am

I will be in Denali National Park on business in June. While there I will have a chance to explore the park with a bus tour and maybe even a hike. I am planning on going 3-4 days earlier than my business trip to make a full vacation out of it.

 

What else should I see?

 

I LOVE kayaking, hiking, anything outdoors and natural. Originally I wanted to see Glacier Bay, but the fact that the lodge won't be open and the difficulties of getting from Juneau to Anchorage have me second guessing that. What about Katmai? Is it doable to see both National Parks during my trip? or should I just stick close to Anchorage?

 

Any info what so ever would be nice. 

 

Thanks!

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Replies

  • Ed Wetschler March 19, 2011 at 5:16pm
    Excellent advice from GreenGlobalTravel and Neil Darish here. I'm also going to email you the pdf of a story I wrote on wildlife in the Anchorage area. For anyone else reading this thread, I'll post that story on Tripatini as soon as I can.
  • Neil Darish March 18, 2011 at 5:56am

    SInce you are thinking outdoors, and National Parks, how about the largest National Park in America?  Wrangell St. Elias National Park. WSENP is twice the size of Denali and has 4 major mountain ranges.

    Check out the NPS.gov site, The National Park Service says this about WSENP: "More superlatives than any other National Park."  And so few people know about it.  

    You can also visit my McCarthyLodge.com site.  We are part of a tiny remote community in the center of the park.  Budget, Enterprise and other car rentals are available that allow you to drive the Denali highway and the McCarthy Road. There are also shuttles and 3-flights daily from Chitina to McCarthy-Kennecott.

     

    Some amazing Kayaking is in Valdez (actually.in the water outside of Valdez).  Anydar Adventures and Pangea are the two big companies that run great Kayaking adventures. The full day Columbia Glacier tour is well worth it (I did it in 2008).

    Hope this helps.

    Neil

  • GreenGlobalTravel.com March 18, 2011 at 2:32am

    We did a tour of the Kenai Fjords I would highly recommend. Saw seals, whales, sea otters, glaciers and more, and it's fairly close to Anchorage. You can read all about our trip to Anchorage and Denali here: http://www.greenglobaltravel.com/destinations/north-america/169-des....

     

     

  • Ed Wetschler March 18, 2011 at 2:12am
    The thing about Anchorage is that there's an awful lot of wildlife near and, frankly, in town. I'm about to run out of the house, but I'll try to find an article I wrote about that, and I might throw in some other ideas as well.
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