Alaska 2013: Trip Overview

A few days ago, my husband Jared and I returned from an 11 day trip to Alaska. Though we've both traveled to wild places and national parks throughout the United States and Canada, nothing compares to the rugged, untamed beauty that is Alaska. I had high hopes for this trip, and I was simply blown away.

Taking photos in Denali

I spent several months extensively researching lodging, tours, and activities for our trip, mostly by lurking on Trip Advisor. If you haven't used Trip Advisor, I highly recommend it as a planning resource.

Alaska is a huge place, and we were limited on time and budget, so we decided to split our trip between the Kenai Peninsula (mostly focusing on the Seward area) and Denali National Park. This turned out to be a great decision. We were also fortunate to have mostly good weather (only a couple of rainy days).

Beautiful drive along the coast to Seward

For us, it was all about the wildlife. We had many fantastic sightings, but we also worked super hard to make that happen (two full days on a boat, three full days on a bus in Denali). We were worn out, but it was worth it. We saw just about every mammal that I was hoping for, aside from a wolf. Jared had a great time birding during our boat tours in Kenai Fjords National Park, though he was disappointed with the bird turnout in Denali. Evidently, it's been a particularly bad year for birds, since they had a late spring/summer. Still, we started our trip hoping to get at least 50 bird species, and we ended up with over 100. Not bad!

On the lookout for birds!

The next few weeks, I'll write about each part of our trip, sharing plenty of photos and videos. For now, I leave you with our trip outline and a mammal list. More to come!

Day 1: Travel day, flight to Anchorage
Day 2: Drive to Seward, with beautiful scenery and plenty of stops
Day 3: Small boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park
Day 4: All day hike to the Harding Icefield
Day 5: Larger boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park
Day 6: Explore more of the Kenai Peninsula, Cooper Landing, spend the night in Girdwood
Day 7: Drive from Girdwood to Denali
Day 8: 6:30am bus to Wonder Lake in Denali
Day 9: 5:30am bus to Eielson in Denali
Day 10: 5:30am bus to Wonder Lake in Denali
Day 11: Drive south back to Anchorage, explore the area until evening flight

Trip mammal list:

2 Red Foxes

3 Porcupines
1 Lynx
Many Red Squirrels
Many Arctic Ground Squirrels
14 Grizzlies

Many Dall Sheep

1 Coyote

Many Caribou

Many Moose

1 Mountain Goat

2 Hoary Marmots

Many Harbor Seals

Many Stellar's Sea Lions

Many Sea Otters

Many Dall's Porpoises

Several Fin Whales

Many Humpback Whales

Many Orca (Killer Whales)