shoonye

I am looking for advice on our early fall trip itinerary to Alaska. We are a couple in our early thirties and moderately active. We will be traveling with our daughter who just turned 4 year old. We have been to Alaska before and in that trip we covered Anchorage, sights along the Seward Highway, Seward, Palmer, Hatcher Pass, Talkeetna (including flightseeing trip over Mckinley) and Denali NP. I state this so you understand some of the destination choices we will be looking to make this time round.

We have three key goals in this trip in order of importance - viewing the aurora borealis, calving glaciers and bear viewing. Our initial sketch of the plan is below. The questions we are

a) What's the best and most affordable way to view grizzly bears. We have seen bears in Denali and were more hoping to see the larger coastal bears catching salmon. Some of the quotes we have received for trips out of Homer or Soldotna and one through Katmailand from Anchorage are $675 and above. Is there a more affordable way to do this? what is the better base to do the trip from - homer, soldotna, kenai or anchorage. Would it be better to fly to King Salmon ourselves

b) Recommendations on an outfitter that can help with a gentle float and fishing trip on the Kenai. Our daughter is very excited about the idea of fishing after participating in an ice fishing outing earlier this year but otherwise we are complete beginners and will be looking for some casual fishing.

c) Where is the best spot to stay in Fairbanks. Any recommendations on lodges on the outskirts from where we can view the northern lights will be very helpful. I checked the Aurora Boreal Lodge and they are sold out for our dates

d) Lastly, we also have a choice of flying first to Fairbanks and then fly out of Anchorage. I reasoned that it may be better to reach Fairbanks towards the end of our trip to maximize the dark time. I did check the moon set times and it looks like the moon will be setting before midnight on all of the days. Any thoughts on this reasoning or if there would be other circumstances due to which flying first to Fairbanks may be better.

9/6: Arrive in anchorage
9/7: Anchorage or Kenai (bear viewing trip)
9/8: Cooper Landing (half day fishing and float trip)
9/9: Whittier (Prince William Sound cruise)
9/10: Drive to Glenallen (via Matanuska Glacier)
9/11: Drive to fairbanks
9/12: Fairbanks
9/13: Fairbanks
9/14: Morning flight to Barrow
9/15: Afternoon flight from Barrow to Anchorage. Night flight out of Alaska.

dfrostnh

Have you checked if bears are catching salmon that time of year? I would think the salmon runs would be over by then.

shoonye

From what I've been able to research, there will be salmon from late aug to mid Sept. But it will not be spawning like in July at Brook Falls where bears congregate to catch them. It will be more like bears scattered all around. I've also read that the Lake Clark area is a good time to see bears at this time. Again, all of this is only my preliminary reading and looking for advice from experts on the forum.

spaceheartl4

I stayed at Pike's Waterfront Lodge in Fairbanks for a conference in September 2011. When you arrive you can have them put you on the "aurora call list", and when they spot the northern lights they will call your room and let you know, so you don't have to wait around! Although there are some other properties around, we still saw the aurora with no trouble the first two nights, and I got some nice pictures. It was cloudy for the rest of the week, though, so weather might be an issue.

shoonye

Just thought I would put in a quick update - we are now going to a different destination instead, as it happens on the other side of the continent - Panama

MichelleY

Be sure to report back to us on Panama!