I'm heading to Anchorage in 3 weeks for 6 nights (fri - thur). I will be staying there at least the first night and then the plan "right now" is to head towards Denali for a few days. I was thinking about the Primrose ridge around the Savage river for one day hike. After the 20th the road is open to mile 20 which may open up another option or two.

We did not win the road lottery (17 - 21) but because of the lottery the hotels that are still open will be booking up soon so I need to firm up some plans with hotels.

I spent 7 months all over Alaska working on a government project in 2002 but have not been back since. Excited that all my time will be free time.

North, South, East and West there are so many options. I think just spending more time in one area is the better decision. We will not have overnight supplies besides normal emergency stuff in the pack.

Any secrets or ideas from you locals or anyone else?

Thanks,

Your plan's fine as long as you're content with going somewhere the fall colors will be long past, with brown tundra and relatively stark scenery. I'm not saying this is bad--just a choice you have to be aware you're making.

If you were thinking of yellow trees, colorful tundra, etc, you might think about Denali State Park, Peters Hills, Chugach, Kenai Mountains--somewhere like that.

Colors may be a bit early this year--there was a lot of yellow around the Mat Glacier a week ago.

chugach mtn boy wrote:Your plan's fine as long as you're content with going somewhere the fall colors will be long past, with brown tundra and relatively stark scenery. I'm not saying this is bad--just a choice you have to be aware you're making.

If you were thinking of yellow trees, colorful tundra, etc, you might think about Denali State Park, Peters Hills, Chugach, Kenai Mountains--somewhere like that.

Colors may be a bit early this year--there was a lot of yellow around the Mat Glacier a week ago.

Yea, the last time I was in Denali it was late July and the colors were amazing. We know we will be on the edge of snow but the trip is because of one work evening for my GF. I love her travel schedule

1) We were there during the peak travel time and had no trouble getting hotel reservations. The number of tourists is down this year.

2) What do you want to do ? hike, camp, boat ride, kayak, see animals? That will help us recommend stuff YOU like.

3) Are you driving or do you have access to a plane? that will also help us. Did you want to focus on the Denali area?

For the time being, I'll assume your driving.....in which case, we headed South: (Next time I'll drive North.
We flew around the state, but this was our one outing in a rental car) (not cheap BTW). If we had driven North, I could tell you what was cool up there. But as it was, we flew North, way way way North.

What I liked:
We really enjoyed the Kenai Peninsula. Seward was neat and a lot of fun. It is a beautiful harbor town, surrounded by mountains. You could spend hours just watching the mist linger on the mountains! Seward gave us some up close and personal time with glaciers, which I really enjoyed. (Glaciers are my favorite.) There is a good place to eat there in Seward called The Petite Barn. The owner is a hoot (very very nice) and we had the best food of our whole trip there (organic, healthy, excellent quality). The Harding Ice Field was really neat to hike up to. One of the best hikes of my life. We saw black bears there, just a few feet from the trail. I'm not sure what it would look like this time of year, but I would imagine it is still gorgeous. We also got kayaks there and explored. We left right from Seward and explored around, but you might get to see some really neat stuff if you take a small boat ride out to Kenai Fjords National Park and make a day of it. As it was, we had otters floating around right outside our hotel room window. So, you don't have to go far to see some cool critters. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and were pleasantly surprised. It was sparkling clean and the staff were extremely helpful and kind. It was also the same price as other hotels that we stayed at that were pretty run down.

We wanted to stay at a wilderness lodge, but the ones we found booked up early. That could be a really neat experience.

Homer was cool, too. They have an excellent book store, The Homer Bookstore, with top notch book selection and super staff, (fyi) and the bar there (the Salty Dawg) was well worth experiencing. The place is crowded in dollar bills and people. The Homer spit is worth seeing. You can camp out there, surrounded by water, which was pretty cool. There is a hotel out at the point which served up a nice breakfast. When we were there, we saw so many eagles, it was stupid. They are like pigeons there! Lots of birds in Homer. I didn't do this, but it looked like fun....take the ferry over to Kachemak and kayak there. Tons of camping and cool wildlife.

-TL

As you indicated, you will be on the edge of snow. Denali Park had a low of 28 a couple days ago. If the road is still open, you can certainly drive to the base of Primrose Ridge and hike Mount Margaret. I've done that hike one evening after work when I was working in Denali Park. I've also headed south from the same parking area and climbed some unnamed peaks up the Savage and Sanctuary Rivers. One nice peak that I'd like to climb in that neck of the woods is Fang Mountain. It's just south of the headwaters of the Savage River.

tigerlilly wrote:1) We were there during the peak travel time and had no trouble getting hotel reservations. The number of tourists is down this year.

2) What do you want to do ? hike, camp, boat ride, kayak, see animals? That will help us recommend stuff YOU like.

3) Are you driving or do you have access to a plane? that will also help us. Did you want to focus on the Denali area?

For the time being, I'll assume your driving.....in which case, we headed South: (Next time I'll drive North.
We flew around the state, but this was our one outing in a rental car) (not cheap BTW). If we had driven North, I could tell you what was cool up there. But as it was, we flew North, way way way North.

What I liked:
We really enjoyed the Kenai Peninsula. Seward was neat and a lot of fun. It is a beautiful harbor town, surrounded by mountains. You could spend hours just watching the mist linger on the mountains! Seward gave us some up close and personal time with glaciers, which I really enjoyed. (Glaciers are my favorite.) There is a good place to eat there in Seward called The Petite Barn. The owner is a hoot (very very nice) and we had the best food of our whole trip there (organic, healthy, excellent quality). The Harding Ice Field was really neat to hike up to. One of the best hikes of my life. We saw black bears there, just a few feet from the trail. I'm not sure what it would look like this time of year, but I would imagine it is still gorgeous. We also got kayaks there and explored. We left right from Seward and explored around, but you might get to see some really neat stuff if you take a small boat ride out to Kenai Fjords National Park and make a day of it. As it was, we had otters floating around right outside our hotel room window. So, you don't have to go far to see some cool critters. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and were pleasantly surprised. It was sparkling clean and the staff were extremely helpful and kind. It was also the same price as other hotels that we stayed at that were pretty run down.

We wanted to stay at a wilderness lodge, but the ones we found booked up early. That could be a really neat experience.

Homer was cool, too. They have an excellent book store, The Homer Bookstore, with top notch book selection and super staff, (fyi) and the bar there (the Salty Dawg) was well worth experiencing. The place is crowded in dollar bills and people. The Homer spit is worth seeing. You can camp out there, surrounded by water, which was pretty cool. There is a hotel out at the point which served up a nice breakfast. When we were there, we saw so many eagles, it was stupid. They are like pigeons there! Lots of birds in Homer. I didn't do this, but it looked like fun....take the ferry over to Kachemak and kayak there. Tons of camping and cool wildlife.

-TL

Thanks! We're flying into and out of anchorage and we have a car. We are really looking for out of the way day hikes between 6 and 10 hours. As we get closer I've kind of narrowed things down but any new ideas will be considered.

We won't have any camping supplies and I think I've decided on heading north. I've been to Seward and it's a great area but my girlfriends only Alaska experience has been twice by cruise ship so I'm thinking big Alaska verses the SE type of environment. We may day trip down to the Kenai and do one night if we only spend 2 or 3 days up in Denali. I've been to Seward and the Harding ice field has some good hikes. I've been right up on the Exit glacier.

I wish we had a plane

A town of McCarthy is an amazing place to visit. Google it if you haven't been there before. I don't know though if the McCarthy road would be snowfree by the time you get there.

I am curious to know why you would recommend McCarthy!!!

I went there. The only thing that was mildly amusing was going to the general store because it was crammed with stuff wall to ceiling. Oh, I also experienced "Tater Tot Casserole"... not my taste.

Albeit, it was the middle of the summer and the Iditarod was not running.

The Iditarod doesn't travel anywhere near McCarthy.

McCarthy is nice because it's remote and in a scenic setting. It's also a great jumping-off point for some backcountry travel. As for the town itself, well, at least it's not Barrow or Bethel.

Also, the Lakina River bridge was damaged earlier this year and vehicle travel was restricted, then prohibited, then restricted again. Verify that you are able to drive across the bridge before you start the long drive to McCarthy.

My bad. I read this too quickly and thought it said McGrath.

Well I won't be going to MaCarthy although I would love to get to Wrangle - St Elias someday. After giving some more thought I think I will get down the Kenai for at least one night. It's only 2 1/2 hours down (nothing in terms of driving in Alaska). I'm going to put the Harding Ice trail on my list as one of our day hikes. I've been to the Exit Glacier and wanted to do that trail but didn't have any time. I'm thinking I can head south first and avoid the road lottery crowd up in Denali and then head up there Sun or Mon.

We did some good hiking in Kachemack Bay Park - a short hop across the bay on a water taxi from Homer. I remember it as fairly civilized - our camp site on the shore had a table! Hiking was quite spectacular with glacier lakes and such and it was on trails, unlike most places in Alaska.