The Last Frontier
We set out to explore the last frontier with Brit’s family. We flew from Kansas City to Fairbanks, Alaska with our layover in Seattle. From Fairbanks we got our rental car and drove to our Airbnb near Denali National Park. This was one of the most amazing Airbnb’s we have ever stayed in. The host was incredibly accommodating and thought of every possible thing we might need during our stay. We also got incredible views of Denali National Park from the large windows in the living room and bedrooms.
Our first two days of the trip were spent exploring Denali National Park. Denali is comprised of six million acres of wild land with one road traversing through. This park was absolutely beautiful and must be added to your list if you’re planning a trip to Alaska. The highlight of the park is North America’s tallest peak, Denali at 20310’. It is said that your chances of seeing the Denali mountain is pretty tough. It is partially visible 30% of the time and the chances of seeing the summit are much less due to cloud coverage. We were lucky! We not only saw Denali once, but three times during our visit! We even got to see the peak on a clear day. It was a breathtaking sight to see.
Even if you’re not able to see Denali there is still so much to see and do in this park. One of the unique aspects of this park is that it has very few marked, designated trails. The park emphasizes trail-less exploration of the vast wilderness. We mostly stuck with the designated trails during our visit. We did a bit of our own exploring along the roadside but did not venture out into the vast wilderness on our own very far. The park’s bus system makes it easy to get off at stops and explore whatever area of the park you’d like. Here is some info on the bus system used in the park.
Reservations are required for the bus. There is an option of a narrated bus tour and a non-narrated, or transit bus tour. We chose the transit bus. This is the option to choose if you’re interested on getting off at stops to hike or explore the park at your own pace rather than traveling with a group on a specific tour timeline. The transit busses still provide some narrated information about the park and stop for wildlife when spotted.
The bus stops every 90 minutes for restrooms. You can get off the bus at a stop and decide to go for a hike or explore.
When you are finished exploring you walk along the road and flag down another transit bus going your direction. The bus will stop to pick you up unless it is full. If it is full the bus driver will let you know to wait for the next available bus along the route.
The transit buses are green whereas the narrative buses are tan. If you get off at a bus stop to hike, you’ll need to flag down a green bus for a ride to your next destination.
Here are our top 5 recommendations during a visit to Denali National Park:
Riding the green bus: we spent part of one of our days in Denali just riding the bus through the park which took several hours. This was the best way to see as much of the park as we could since we could only drive to mile 15 in our personal vehicles. The bus ride was a lot of fun and allowed for us to see the beautiful views for hours. We got to see Denali for the first time from the bus windows and even had some wildlife viewings! We brough coffees and snacks on the bus and just sat back and enjoyed the views. Unfortunately, the entire road was not open during our visit, but we made it to about mile 30.
Horseshoe Lake Trail: This is an easy 2-mile hike located near the Denali Entrance. The hike offers stunning views from beaver dams, cozy woods, rivers and a beautiful lake. This trail was out first official hike in Alaska, and it ended up being one of our favorites of the whole trip.
Savage River Loop: Located in the Savage River area of the park between mile 13-15. This hike you can access by private vehicle. This is an easy two-mile loop that takes you around a portion of the savage river.
Savage Alpine Trail: At 4 miles and 15,000 ft of elevation gain, this was a tough hike! We highly underestimated how long this hike would take us and how tiring it’d be. You begin the hike by climbing a steep hill for almost a mile and you continue to climb higher into the mountains. We were definitely feeling the effects of higher altitude on this hike. Although this is a tough hike, it was well worth it for the amazing views! The trail offers several great panoramic viewpoints of the mountains as you’re climbing up. On this trail we got views of Denali several times! We also had our first moose sighting on this trail! This hike is highly recommended as long as you plan ahead and have enough time to complete it.
Sled Dog Demonstration: Denali is the only national park that houses sled dogs. Denali has had sled dogs for about the past 100 years, well before any visitors came to the park. The first sled dogs were purchased in 1922 with the role of assisting with marking park borders and building patrol cabins in more remote parts of the park during the winter months. Today the sled dogs are still used in the winter months to transport rangers into the vast wilderness to help keep the terrain as pristine as possible. In the summer, park rangers offer 30-minute demonstrations to allow visitors to interact with the sled dogs and learn about the history and roles of the dogs. These demos are free and do not require reservations. We were allowed to wander through the kennels and interact with the dogs before and after the demonstration which was pretty fun!
After our explorations through Denali National Park, we journeyed south through Anchorage and onto the Seward Highway to Seward, Alaska which would be our destination for the next several days. The drive from Denali to Seward was packed with beautiful views and fun stops. Here are some of our favorite things to do along the drive:
Alaska Wild Harvest: this store found off the main highway by a few miles is a great spot to sample and shop for some of Alaska’s unique goods. The main attraction is Alaska’s birch syrup made from the local birch trees. This type of syrup is rare, and Alaska is the largest producer of it. At this store you can sample the syrup as well as by some to take home. They even have travel sized syrups to fit in your suitcase. They sell a lot of other Alaskan goods from local products such as jams, honey, soaps and more. This is definitely worth a stop!
Talkeetna: this is a quirky fun town located farther up the road from Alaska Wild Harvest store, about 15 miles off the highway. This town’s main attraction is the cute general store, Nagley’s. The most unique aspect of this town is that the town’s mayor is none other than a cat! The cat is said to be found roaming through Nagley’s store. Unfortunately, were not able to find him while we were there. This town has a lot of cute shops and restaurants to check out. We highly recommend Conscious coffee if you’re in need of some caffeine. This town is definitely worth a visit to explore and support some great local stores and people.
Turnagain Arm (Beluga Point and Bird Point): The Turnagain arm is a narrow waterway that branches off of Cook Inlet. This part of the drive had absolutely stunning views as it hugged the coastline for about 40 miles. One of our favorite stops along this stretch was Beluga Point lookout which gave us a chance to get out and explore along the rocks by the coast and take in the amazing views of the mountains meeting the ocean. Beluga Point was insanely windy! We felt like we were going to be blown away. Bird point offers similar views to Beluga Point. Both are well worth a stop to get out and explore and take in the amazing scenery.
Girdwood, Alaska: a small skiing town just off the Seward Highway. You can get a great view of a glacier from Glacier Creek Bridge. We also went on a short waterfall hike, Virginia Creek Falls. It is a very short hike so it is definitely worth it for the beautiful views it offers. It feels like you’ve been transported to the Pacific Northwest as you’re surrounded by towering trees, moss, and ferns.
Tern Lake: where the Seward and Sterling highways meet.
From here we traveled on to Seward, Alaska which was our home for the next several nights to explore the Kenai Peninsula. Seward is beautiful coastal town and the gateway to explore Kenai Fjords National Park. Our first night in town we spent exploring the harbor.
Our first day in Seward we set of for the Kenai fjords boat excursion through the Kenai Fjords tour company. There are several options of tours to choose from with different lengths of time and stops. We chose the Kenai Fjords National Park tour. The tour departs at either 8am or 11am and lasts 6 hours. We chose the 8am tour. Lunch is included! We even got fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Warning, the boat can be quite cold if you’re seated outside due to the high winds once the boat gets moving. So be prepared and bring lots of layers! There are seats available inside, but inside seats are limited. This tour is highly recommended to explore Kenai Fjords National Park to its fullest. The first part of the trip takes you past some incredible scenery including lush forests and snowcapped mountains. As you get out into open water the boat can get quite choppy. We got a little seasick the father out we went. Luckily it subsided part way through the tour.
In the first stretch of the tour, we got to see a lot of wildlife! We saw a group of whales, puffins, bald eagles and stellar sea lions.
At the halfway point of the tour, we came to Aialik Glacier. This was an amazing sight to see. The captain parked the boat here for a while so we could enjoy all the views. We got to witness several calving’s of the glacier which is the breaking off of ice chunks from the edge of a glacier falling into the water. One of the boat assistants retrieved a few chunks of the glacier that were near the boat and let the passengers hold and take photos with it which was a pretty neat experience.
At this stop we also got to see a lot of seals who were hanging out on all the floating ice chunks. They were quite entertaining to watch!
On the journey back we weaved through the majestic sea stacks. This was an amazing journey with such beautiful scenery along the entire way.
The next day we took a road trip from Seward to Homer, Alaska. Homer is known for the Homer Spit which is a strip of land jutting a few miles into Kachemak Bay. Along the spit you can enjoy shops, art galleries, restaurants and beaches. We found a great pizza place right along the water for lunch. We had never had such amazing views while enjoying pizza. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring shops, stopping for ice cream, and walking the beaches along the spit. This is a fun town with some amazing scenery and definitely worth a visit.
Our last day in Seward we spent trekking the Harding Icefield trail, which is part of Kenai Fjords national Park in the Kenai Peninsula. Covering 700 square miles, Harding Icefield is the largest icefield that is located entirely in the United States. This hike is strenuous at about 8.2 miles roundtrip and gaining about 1,00ft of elevation each mile with a total of 3,500 ft of elevation gain. So, plan for majority of the day to complete this hike. Every part of the trail offers different views from forests, to open meadows, to sweeping mountain views and snowy ice fields! Towards to end of the hike as you are getting closer to the ice field you traverse through several snow patches which slowed us down a bit, but it was fun! This was definitely a challenging hike due to the length and elevation. But is well worth it once you get to the end and take in the breathtaking view of the icefield that goes on for miles and miles.
After this hike we headed back to Seward and wound down and relaxed with some food and coffee. The next day we unfortunately had to leave this beautiful state and head for home. This was an amazing trip filled with once in a lifetime experiences. We are thankful for the experience of getting to travel and explore with family.
