Joe_H

I thought I’d share a trip report with you all. I really appreciated everyone’s thoughts/ideas regarding Alaska on this forum. It helped immensely in our trip planning. To give you some background, I traveled with my wife (both mid 30’s) and our 2 year old. We are from the Chicago area. Our last two vacations were to Glacier Natl Park, Montana (without kid) and Banff/Jasper Natl Park, Canada (with kid). I was somewhat hesitant bringing a 2 year old to Alaska (with the long flight coupled with Alaska’s remoteness). Everything worked out perfectly. We avoided the long boat tours and long hikes. We were in Alaska from June 9th to June 18th.

Day 1: Flew into Anchorage, stayed at Springhill Suites. The hotel was fine, but I wasn’t thrilled about the location. Next time I will drive to Girdwood or stay at a downtown hotel.
Day 2-4: Took the long drive to Homer. Stopped along the way at a few waypoints, including the Alaska Wildlife Conservatory, ate at Gwin Lodge in Cooper Landing, excellent meal. Stayed at Alaskan Suites in Homer. The cabin was really nice and would recommend if you can afford it. I noticed that many locals go to this hotel for romantic getaways. Next year, they are building 5 new cabins next to the existing 5 cabins. For dinner, I ended up buying halibut off of a private boat, excellent on the grill. I would have loved to have gone fishing, but it was inclement weather that day and a 6 hour trip would not have pleased the missus. We did take the trip to Halibut Cove. The little boy enjoyed the trip. (1 hour boat ride was probably the limit for him) In hindsight, I would have saved Homer for another trip when the boy is older since it is mainly a fishing town.
Day 5-6: Drove to Seward. Stopped along the way in Kenai, Shilak Lake, stayed at Spruce Moose B&B in Moose Pass (~15 miles from Seward). Excellent place, they have two houses on the property, very secluded. Met some more locals, recommended Ray’s restaurant and Yoly’s. Specifically told us to avoid Chinook’s. We ate at Ray’s and enjoyed the food, I certainly recommend. We went to the Sealife center, watched deckhands fillet fish and hiked to Exit glacier, the little boy enjoyed all of it.
Day 6-8: Drove to Talkeetna, enjoyable drive. Stayed at Gate Creek cabins in Trapper Creek. The cabins were awesome. The cabins are perfect for a family that enjoys hiking, 4 wheeling, snowmobiling. In hindsight, I should have stayed in Talkeetna, Trapper Creek was a little far out. It was ~35 miles to Talkeetna from the cabins. We ate at the Roadhouse and the West Rib, normal fare with huge portions. I took a flightseeing trip over Denali, the weather cooperated, probably the highlight of the trip. My wife booked a trip the next day and the weather wouldn’t allow any flightseeing. We took a drive to the north and south viewpoints of McKinley, the weather was fairly clear that day. Awesome drive.
Day 9: Drove to Hatcher Pass, stayed at Hatcher Pass cabins, perfect place, close to Independence Mine. We hiked the Mine. My wife took a horseback ride at the Butte (I owed her one for my flightseeing ride) I was pleasantly surprised at the Mine, I wasn’t expecting much, but it is a neat place.
Day 10: Flew out of Anchorage, the little one slept the whole way back, a godsend. By the way, I was also pleasantly surprised at the downtown Anchorage area, the art shops were pretty cool. I would recommend spending some time there if you can.

I will go back.

Budget Queen, I am glad you told me to avoid the Kenai Fjords tour, flightseeing with little boy, you were right, the boy would have driven everyone crazy.

Thanks for all your help.
Joe

Mama

Thank you Joe for a nice report. Do you remember if Sprighill Suites has working washing machines and dryers?
What did you have for lunch at Gwin's Lodge in Cooper Landing,

Joe_H

We stayed at Springhill Suites the first night, did't spend a lot of time there. They did have a nice continental breakfast (w/ wafflemaker). I would be surprised if they had a washer/dryer, but I don't know.

Gwin's Lodge: I had a hamburger, my wife had the quiche. Both were excellent. I had the chowder as well, pretty tasty. I try to sample the chowder at every place, fyi, the best chowder I had was at Halibut Cove outside of Homer. I imagine most everyone eats at Gwin's at one time or another as there aren't a lot of places along the way.

Pat2003

Joe, thank you for posting your experiences on traveling in Alaska with such a young child.

I just called SpringHill Suites last night and asked about washer/dryer. They do have them. We are staying there in August for a short night.
We never stopped at Gwin's but after reading so many recommendations here I guess we have to stop there this year on the way to Homer.

Joe, maybe you can repost this report with another title something like <traveling in Alaska with 2 year old>. There were a number of questions asking about taking a bus in Denali, flightseeing, Kenai Fjords cruises, bear watching trips with a child as young as 4 year old. I hope you will include a little more information about visiting Alaska with a small child. I think that many young posters on this board would be grateful to learn more on how you managed to have a successful trip with your son/daughter(?).

birder

Did they say why you should avoid Chinooks in Seward? We ate there twice last year and it was fantastic. Maybe b/c it's nonsmoking and that ticks the locals off? The food was fantastic, the view was gorgeous, and the prices were good. I wonder why the locals say to avoid it ....

Joe_H

The response that I was told was that Chinook's is popular because of the location and that Ray's is popular because of the location and the food. Apparently, the locals believe the food quality is better at Ray's.

Again, I haven't eaten there. Who knows. If you had a good meal and enjoyed yourself, that's all that counts. As always, food quality is very subjective and often based on things unrelated to food quality such as service, atmosphere, crowdy/uncrowdy, etc.

As suggested, I will post the thread under "trip report with 2 yr old" when I get a chance.

Joe