Alaska Non-Cruising Trip Report
Sep 13th, 2009, 08:31 AM
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Alaska Non-Cruising Trip Report
We just returned from 9 days in Alaska and had a wonderful time. We had been on an Alaskan cruise about 10 years ago and really wanted to go back to see the interior as well as lots of wildlife. Our expectations were certainly met and exceeded. Great weather was just the icing on the cake.
August 30th we flew from Nashville via Salt Lake City to Anchorage. Arrived mid afternoon and checked into our hotel, Fairfield Suites by Marriott, which we used points for. Since we were pretty tired from the trip we just went into Anchorage and walked around a bit and ended up having dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse which was awesome. We had an early night as we had an earlier morning ride on the motorcoach to Denali.
August 31st we arrived at the Egen Center to catch the 7am motorcoach to Denali National Park. The ride took about 5 hours with one stop along the way. We arrived at the train station and entrance to Denali about 12:15. At that point we grabbed our luggage and went to meet our hosts from the North Face Lodge. We started our long 90 mile drive to the lodge at about 1pm on the Camp Denail/North Face buses. Along the way we saw all kinds of wildlife and had plenty of stopping time to take pictures, etc. We also stopped about 4:30 and had a wonderful picnic by the river. We arrived at the lodge about 8pm where we were welcomed by Megan and Fritz who were our guides/hosts for the week. The rest of the week was spent on amazing hikes which were led by naturalists, biologists, etc. from the lodge. The food and lodging was amazing based upon the fact we were in the middle of nowhere. I would highly recommend doing the flight seeing tour with Kat Air of Mt. McKinley. Absolutely beautiful! We were so lucky to see it clearly for two days in a row.
September 4th we ended our stay at North Face and headed back to the Denali entrance where we took the train back to Anchorage. The train ride was gorgeous. Definitely splurge on the gold car service for the view and private viewing deck. We spent the night in Anchorage and then were off to our next destination.
September 5th we took an early morning float plane with Trail Ridge Air to Redoubt Mountain Lodge (RML) www.redoubtlodge.com in Lake Clark National Park. Words cannot describe the beauty of the lodge's location on Crescent Lake. Flying and landing on the turqouise glacier laker surrounded by mountains and glaciers was amazing. Our plane was met by Heather and Ryan who are the managers of RML. They made our trip amazing. From Heather's fantastic food to Ryan's guiding and fishing skills our trip could not have been better. If you want to see bears then this is the place to go. We saw so many bears fishing for and eating salmon. Mother bears and cubs that were so adorable! We also tried our hand at fishing and brought home about 35 pds of salmon which we caught ourselves! Ryan was a great instructor for two novices. He also cleaned, fileted and vacuumed packed the fish for us so that we could easily check it in a cooler on the flight home. They also have kayaks which we used both days we were there and got so close to the bears it was unbelievable! I would definitely recommend going here.
September 7th we flew back to Anchorage and did some site seeing there. The Anchorage History Museum was very interesting. We then flew back home on the 8th. What a great trip! Please feel free to ask me any questions or to go into more detail if you are interested. Thanks!
August 30th we flew from Nashville via Salt Lake City to Anchorage. Arrived mid afternoon and checked into our hotel, Fairfield Suites by Marriott, which we used points for. Since we were pretty tired from the trip we just went into Anchorage and walked around a bit and ended up having dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse which was awesome. We had an early night as we had an earlier morning ride on the motorcoach to Denali.
August 31st we arrived at the Egen Center to catch the 7am motorcoach to Denali National Park. The ride took about 5 hours with one stop along the way. We arrived at the train station and entrance to Denali about 12:15. At that point we grabbed our luggage and went to meet our hosts from the North Face Lodge. We started our long 90 mile drive to the lodge at about 1pm on the Camp Denail/North Face buses. Along the way we saw all kinds of wildlife and had plenty of stopping time to take pictures, etc. We also stopped about 4:30 and had a wonderful picnic by the river. We arrived at the lodge about 8pm where we were welcomed by Megan and Fritz who were our guides/hosts for the week. The rest of the week was spent on amazing hikes which were led by naturalists, biologists, etc. from the lodge. The food and lodging was amazing based upon the fact we were in the middle of nowhere. I would highly recommend doing the flight seeing tour with Kat Air of Mt. McKinley. Absolutely beautiful! We were so lucky to see it clearly for two days in a row.
September 4th we ended our stay at North Face and headed back to the Denali entrance where we took the train back to Anchorage. The train ride was gorgeous. Definitely splurge on the gold car service for the view and private viewing deck. We spent the night in Anchorage and then were off to our next destination.
September 5th we took an early morning float plane with Trail Ridge Air to Redoubt Mountain Lodge (RML) www.redoubtlodge.com in Lake Clark National Park. Words cannot describe the beauty of the lodge's location on Crescent Lake. Flying and landing on the turqouise glacier laker surrounded by mountains and glaciers was amazing. Our plane was met by Heather and Ryan who are the managers of RML. They made our trip amazing. From Heather's fantastic food to Ryan's guiding and fishing skills our trip could not have been better. If you want to see bears then this is the place to go. We saw so many bears fishing for and eating salmon. Mother bears and cubs that were so adorable! We also tried our hand at fishing and brought home about 35 pds of salmon which we caught ourselves! Ryan was a great instructor for two novices. He also cleaned, fileted and vacuumed packed the fish for us so that we could easily check it in a cooler on the flight home. They also have kayaks which we used both days we were there and got so close to the bears it was unbelievable! I would definitely recommend going here.
September 7th we flew back to Anchorage and did some site seeing there. The Anchorage History Museum was very interesting. We then flew back home on the 8th. What a great trip! Please feel free to ask me any questions or to go into more detail if you are interested. Thanks!
Sep 13th, 2009, 08:17 PM
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Sounds wonderful. I enjoyed the Redoubt Lodge website too. We've considered Alaska several times -- and like the idea of an independent trip rather than strictly a cruise. I always get sticker shock when I look at the prices of the nicest accommodations. But, seeing Mama bear and cubs sounds priceless!!
Sep 14th, 2009, 04:57 AM
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We had a little sticker shock too but it included everything...food, drinks (including beer and wine), all the guides, fishing and recreation equipment, etc. I would definitely recommend late August or early September as the colors were beautiful and the salmon are running. The bears look so good too as they are all healthy and getting close to hibernation time.
Oct 26th, 2009, 11:50 AM
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We flew over Redoubt Bay and did a one day fishing event with plenty of bears. We saw all black bears up very close(just feet from our boat), but grizzlies from a pretty far distance. We fished in a place called Wolverine Creek(I believe). was just amazing, I can only imagine staying for several days.
Oct 26th, 2009, 01:53 PM
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travel_princess, can you tell me more about your trip? Where did you get the information re the lodge, hikes, etc.? Where could we get information about this whole trip package -- I like the idea of having everything be included.
Also, were the hikes for hard-core hikers, or could day hikers do it? Thanks!
Also, were the hikes for hard-core hikers, or could day hikers do it? Thanks!
