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8.14.2023

The Last Frontier

Alaska has been on my list for years; it is wild and untamed. It is dark and cold. It is  full of large creatures. It has very few roads. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. Well, I guess supposedly you can see Russia from some parts of the state, but I did not experience that myself. 

What I did experience were adventures, beautiful scenery and some challenging backcountry hikes. Here are some of the highlights from the trip. For context, I flew into Anchorage and planned most of the outings within a few hours drive of the city. I have noted the driving times below.


Denali NP – it is worth taking a bus on the Denali road (you can do an audio tour or just take the normal park bus depending on what you like. We just took the simple one, and you can see lots of animals and possibly Mt. Denali if the weather cooperates, which it did not do ☹). This is 3 hours north of Anchorage by car or you can take the train.  

There are a couple of short hiking options near the visitor’s center or you can get a permit and a (free) bear canister from the building by the bus depot and tromp around the back country (no trails), fording rivers, whacking bushes and fleeing bears, which is what we did (minus the bears). The park road is about 100 miles long and currently it is closed due to a landslide at mile 42 (supposedly to be fixed in 2025), but there are still plenty of hiking zones to choose from. 

Teklanika River

Hatcher Pass – great views and lots of hiking opportunities with different lengths depending on fitness level. This is about 1 hour north of Anchorage by car.  Note: it is a dirt road part of the way, but it is very smooth and we had no issues whatsoever. We also did the Bomber Traverse, a hike starting from the Gold Mint Trailhead and continuing past the Mint hut, the backdoor gap, the Bomber hut and the Snowbird hut (and many glaciers!). This hike is about 25 miles in total, with about 7 or 8 of them off trail, so we ended up doing it in two days. If you want to sleep in the huts, you can join the Mountaineering Club of Alaska (MCA), or you can just camp near the huts (or anywhere) for free. 

Pennyroyal Glacier -- Backdoor Gap -- Bomber Traverse

Seward – port city, gateway to Kenai Fjords and the start of the Iditarod trail; Great place for hiking, eating, and lots of walking along the water. Lowell point walk (about 2 miles each way), Sweet Darlings for ice cream and Firebrand BBQ for their pork belly are a must. We also hiked up the famous Mt. Marathon, which is a 3,000 foot climb in 1.5 miles if you use the official race trail or about 2.5 miles if you go via the hiker route. The views from the top are fabulous! 3 hours south of Anchorage by car.

View from Mt. Marathon

Kenai Fjords NP – The Exit glacier and Harding icefield are beautiful. The Harding Icefield trail is a 4.1 mile each way out and back which is about 3,000 feet of climbing, but the views of the glacier along the way as well as the icefield at the top are stunning. It is well worth the climb, but I suggest you start early as we were the first ones to the top and had the view to ourselves (around 8:30 am) but there were a lot of people heading up when we were headed down. 20 minutes from Seward by car. 

Harding Icefield

Anchorage – you can rent bikes and ride (or walk) along the coastal trail which goes from downtown to Kincade point, about 10 miles each way. It is a very pleasant and flat bike trail along the mud flats. I would recommend Snow City CafĂ© for breakfast/lunch, but be prepared to wait a little while (you can put your name in and walk around while you are waiting or you can grab a mug of coffee and sit outside and enjoy the weather). 

Chugach National Forest – there are so many hikes and so little time, but two that we did that I would recommend are the Lost Lake trail and Crows Pass. The Lost Lake trail is about 20 minutes from Seward and is about 7 miles each way, but it is only about 2,200 feet of gain, so it is uphill but not too strenuous. Again, I suggest starting early, as there were a lot of people on the trail on our way down. The Crows Pass trail is a 21 mile trail each way, but if you start on the south end near Girdwood (about one hour south of Anchorage), you only need to go about 4 or 5 miles before you see all of the good stuff (the Crows Pass cabin, the Raven glacier, great views) and can turn around and go back. After that it is very brushy, so save your energy for something else. Part of this trail follows the famous Ididerod trail too! 

Lost Lake

And just like that, the one week trip was sadly over. 

Have you ever been to Alaska? What was your favorite thing that you did? Have you been to any of the places on my list? 

22 comments:

  1. This looks beautiful! I have not been to Alaska but my husband took the boys up there, via Yukon, in 2019 and they loved it. My husband really likes the North, and he thought the trip was amazing - such great people he met too. He went in late August so there were no bugs whatsoever! They also did not see any wildlife at all!

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    1. No bugs!? He must have gotten lucky! We had quite a few mosquitoes and biting flies although it was not quite as bad as July in the Sierras! However, we did have to get our bug nets out and did spend one evening in the tent so that would avoid the biting flies in one area which were not that fun. It is a beautiful place and the people were really nice! I will definitely have to go back there to explore more.

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  2. Wow! This is so beautiful...and remote! I have to admit that going to Alaska would be low on my priority list; something about the isolation and rugged terrain kinda stress me out? I'm just so impressed with all your hiking and adventures! I DO really want to go back to Iceland though. I visited on a layover and a proper visit has been on my bucket list ever since.

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    1. I also have Iceland on my list but I need to rework my vacation schedule as I often go in September and I think Iceland's summer is pretty short so I need to make sure I will not freeze my booty off and will be able to do some hiking etc. and I know the huts close and the weather gets worse somewhere around the end of August.. It's on the list! I have heard that the hiking is excellent, the biking is excellent, the ring road is really cool and the people are really nice (they were part of Denmark at one point, which I think is supposedly the happiest nation in the world or something, so maybe it rubbed off!)

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  3. Wow! Gorgeous photos! I have not been to Alaska but it is somewhere I would like to go eventually. I think Phil and I would enjoy it. And the boys would maybe in 15 years when they are hearty enough to hike and not complain. ;) Similar to how I have memories of my grandparents going to Hawaii, I also remember them going to Alaska or I remember them talking about going to Alaska. They did a ton of traveling, especially for their generation!

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    1. I am not sure if anyone from my family went to Alaska, as it was not really somewhere we could drive to, and we did mostly driving vacations in our family. However, ironically, one of my uncles and his family went on an Alaskan cruise about three weeks ago and they loved it! So I think no matter how you swing it, Alaska is a pretty cool destination. Even my Mom (not really much of a traveler) says she would consider it!

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  4. I've never been to Alaska or HI but I want to go!!! So jealous. I would definitely do the coastal trail by bike.

    I'm torn because I feel that there is still so much to see within a few hours of where I live, but I'm also interested in coming out west to explore.

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    1. Once you retire, you will be able to do both!! Isn't that wonderful? :)

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  5. These photos are gorgeous! You really packed a TON into your week! My family and I went to Alaska for a week in 2018 -- it was so amazing! We ate at the Snow City Cafe and loved it. We also went to Seward and Homer. Such a beautiful place. I hope we get to go back someday!

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    1. I did also have Homer (and deep sea fishing!) on my list but man the time does fly when you are having fun! Plus things are not super close together and we tried not to just be in the car driving every day, although we did spend a lot of time in the car anyway! I would be curious to know how you liked Homer, as I do plan on going back again to see more things, as I definitely did not feel that I had enough time there!

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  6. This is J at jellyjules.com

    I have been in Alaska, but have not done any of the things you mention. I lived in Fairbanks when I was a kid, we moved back to California when I was 9. My mom moved back up to Alaska in 1993, and my brother and sister in law followed in 1994. To Juneau. My daughter and I visited Juneau in 1999, and I went to Anchorage in 2008 because my mom was in the hospital there. I didn’t do anything fun in Anchorage though, it was February and I mostly stayed at the hospital with my mom. However, I will be in Alaska soon! Fairbanks, train to Anchorage, trip to Homer, then Juneau. I’m looking forward to it.

    Your pictures are lovely, it looks like you had an amazing time. I’m hoping that we will see Denali from the train, I guess that all depends on the weather.

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    1. Your trip sounds great! I think a train ride would be a lot of fun. I hope. That you get to see Denali as it was a bugger not to see it when I was there but I guess I'll just have to go back!!

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  7. This whole trip sounds AMAZING. No, I've never been to Alaska. This all looks so beautiful, but there are a lot of places in the US I've never been to that are a little closer- like Utah, or the Grand Canyon. So I'm not sure if I'll ever get to Alaska- but you never know.

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    1. Alaska is great, but you are right, there are so many fun places to go and we have to prioritize! For the US, I would definitely put the Sierra Nevadas, Rockies, Grand Canyon, Yosemite the California Coast ahead of Alaska, but there is a certain emptiness about it that is appealing! Hopefully you will have time to see all of them in the end and you will not have to choose!

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  8. Thank for for a glimpse into Alaska! Never been but always wanted to. My plan is when the kids are able to handle longer hiking, we will go. Right now R has to be bribed to move his feet lol

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    1. Well once he starts hiking, it will be fun, but there are also a lot of other animal and nature things too see without too much effort. You could take the boat out to the glaciers, or rent ATVs or take a helicopter ride etc. I think there are enough things to do that everyone would be happy!

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  9. This trip sounds amazing, and exactly the kind of things I'd expect you to do while in Alaska. I've never been but I'd love to go someday. One of my friends recently went on an Alaskan cruise and talked about how great it was - she wants to go back!

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    1. My uncle just went on an Alaskan cruise and said the same thing! I think it is a bit different than your normal beach cruise, but there are some really cool little inlets and passages with glaciers and things that you probably do not see too many other places! We are trying to convince my Mom to do something like that (she is not as much of a traveler) and hopefully my trip is inspiring her!

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  10. Beautiful! So you rented a car then I assume? Who did you travel with? I have never been to Alaska but it is very intriguing and looks gorgeous! Did you have to do a lot of pre-planning? Without knowing much about it, it always feels a bit like a trip that would require a good amount of planning, logisitics, etc since things are spread out, no? Also, I don't know how you can publish a vacation post with views like that and only have SIX pictures!! hahaha!! I either take WAY too many photos or am the world's most indecisive person, because I can't narrow down photo choices to save my life. Which is why I usually just give up and like, include them all. LOL!!!

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    1. Yup; we rented a car. We kind of had to because our venues were not that close together. We could have taken the train, but we would have then still had to get a shuttle or tour from the train station. Plus we slept in the car more than half of the nights! I traveled with my backpacking/running friend Bugsy; we take a hiking trip every summer for a week.

      I am going to say that you are.....INDECISIVE! Or maybe just enthusiastic! :) You tell me! I just checked and I have about 1,100 photos/videos from the 10 days we were there. What is your normal photos per day count on a vacation?

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  11. I have not been to Alaska but I'd love to go. I once worked on a (lidar) dataset from an Alaskan glacier and it was so cool to see it in "3D" on my computer screen.

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    1. Whoa! I had to Google lidar dataset, so thanks for teaching me something new today. That would be way cool to see the glacier in 3D! I was so impressed by the Harding Icefield, which is like 30 miles long and feeds into or contributes to (I am not sure of the terminology) about 30 different glaciers, which is very impressive.

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