August? November?

Thinking of end of june or mid july or early august

Do head up to Denali, the scenery is fantastic. You have to go in with the park service bus. I would want to do the longest possible tour into the park, then come back and stop get off and then back on.

I have 6 full days. Denali would be 1 or 2 days, right?

We were there the first of September and the weather was wonderful, no bugs, the fall colors had kicked in so the tundra was a beautiful pinky purple and the trees were gold. It was spectacular. The mountain cooperated so we got to see it on three different days. That said, it historically is only out of the clouds one day in three on average. So one or two days would be fine if it was clear. The thing that blew my mind was that it was still visible from Fairbanks. We also had nice animal shots, bears, moose, dall sheep, etc. up close and personal.

I also would want to get some glacier shots, from the water if possible, so try to work that in too.

Have a wonderful trip.

I loved Homer- best halibut I had on the whole trip there. We took a boat over to Halibut Cove for dinner and I highly recommend. It is a beautiful spot, several artist studios , boardwalk to walk around the area and a great restaurant. We went on the evening/dinner trip. The restaurant has a large deck with a big outdoor fireplace built into the rock- dress warm if you want to eat outside, which we did. Love that place.

I also loved Talkneetka- cute little town with several good restaurants. We happened to be there on Jul 4 so lots of people around- funny parade where nearly every float was some type of decorated moose. If you remember the town in the TV series Northern Exposure - apparently it was patterned after Talkneetka .

I also loved Denali- took a bus trip through the park- had a grizzly right beside the bus.

My cousin took a bear viewing trip from Homer- saw lots of bears but the trip is quite spend- I think $600 for a day so I did not go. She saw lots of bears though.

Went whale watching - saw the whales doing bubble net feeding and it was amazing- you can U tube bubble net feeding and observe.

It was a great trip- we were there early July

Thanks for the replies so far.

What I have so far is 2 days in and around denali and 1 day for 26 glacier cruise from whittier. Where do we go during the remaining 3 days that we have there? Any other national parks that we could drive to?

Flight seeing is not an option.

This is the iterinary that I am looking at:

Saturday late night arrive in Anchorage.
overnight in Anchorage.

Sunday Drive to seward and kenai fjords NP
overnight in Seward /whittier?

Monday 26 glacier cruise from whittier
overnight in Anchorage/talkeetna?

Tuesday drive to Denali early morning. 13 hour bus ride
overnight in talkeetna or somewhere else?

Wednesday, backup day for denali incase weather is bad on monday.
Need some other plan if weather was good on Monday.
overnight in talkeetna or somewhere else?

Thursday morning Drive towards wrangell st elias NP
overnight where near wrangell St elias?

Friday evening Drive towards anchorage

Saturday take flight home.


2 drivers. We do not like camping. We need hotel/motels.
Please suggest the right towns to overnight for each day of the iterinary above(except the obvious days-first and last)

Is it practical and enjoyable?

There are plenty of hotel/motels at Denali with shuttles that take you right over to the park. I would opt to do that rather than Talkeetna if you are doing the 13 hr trip so you don't have to drive so far so early in the morning. We were on a 6:30 am tour which would mean leaving Talkeetna by 5 or so to be sure there were no glitches.

Stay flexible, you may find you would like to do some of the other things that the park offers on your second day.

We are going to Alaska at the end of August. I bought a Northern Lights coupon book, which has a coupon for 2 for one nights at some Denali hotels, as well as a lot of other attractions and dining. Well worth the cost, if only to use for our 2 nights at Denali.