favorite time for Alaska trip
Jul 2nd, 2007 | 08:57 PM
#21
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Thanks for all of the posted info. My 2 friends & I are going on MY dream vacation Aug 15-30 and these have been the most articulate postings of those I've researched! We are the last in our hiking group to go and we're well prepared. One question...is Chicken really just a kitschy tourist stop?
Jul 2nd, 2007 | 11:10 PM
#22
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 116
Likes: 0
Chicken, Alaska: Population of one dozen people - http://explorenorth.com/library/comm...a/chicken.html
I've never been there so can't say with certainty but haven't heard anyone speaking about it with enthusiasm. Perhaps if you're passing by anyway, but a special trip? I guess someone who's been there could better answer that question.
I've never been there so can't say with certainty but haven't heard anyone speaking about it with enthusiasm. Perhaps if you're passing by anyway, but a special trip? I guess someone who's been there could better answer that question.
Jul 3rd, 2007 | 04:17 PM
#23
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 112
Likes: 0
I live here in Alaska and always recommend visiting friends to rent an RV to see the state.
The reasons have been stated elsewhere in these posts (availability of hotel rooms, reservations, etc) but the best reason is the ease and convenience they afford the traveler.
In an RV, you go when and where you want so there is no need to 'arrive' at a destination by a certain time. Plus, because you have everything at hand, you save hours on un-packing and packing checking in and out of hotels.
Granted, the experience is generally more solitary than mixing it up with other tourists, but that is the way we at least like to travel.
Europeans who come for the Alaskan experience are very savvy travelers and typically rent motorhomes to travel just that way.
Chicken is a small goldmining site along the Top of the World Highway. It has one commercial building as I recall which serves as Liquor Store, General Store and gas station. In smaller communities like chicken, the locals can be quite odd. (The world is on a tilt and all the loose nuts end up on top here in Alaska).
May/June is best in my opinion - better weather fewer if any bugs and less crowded as days are getting longer as we approach summer solstice (June 22nd).
August/September will have better colors and the weather is transitioning to fall/winter.
At summer solstice, sunset is at 11:45pm and sunrise is about 4am. But it never gets dark - just sort of like dusk.
Wildlife is best seen early in the morning. Bear viewing trips probably better in fall when bears are loading up for winter on late run salmon and berries (inland from the coast).
Kayaking out of Whittier is best in my opinion because you can be dropped off by the glaciers and paddle among the ice chunks. Seward would be next. Everybodies favorite town here is Homer - exceptional beauty, artsy locals, which we call the banana belt of Alaska because the winters are less harsh there. And if you can get across the bay to Seldovia that would be even better.
Also consider a flight seeing trip in the Ruth Amphitheater - you see Denali up close if it is out and you could also land on the glacier - a surreal experience.
The best highway to see wildlife is the Denali Highway - which goes from Cantwell (just south of the entrance to the Park) across to Paxson. It's 100 miles of hardpack gravel but the views are stunning and the wildlife amazing.
It opens to traffic Memorial Weekend and there is a caribou herd that migrates across that area.
The reasons have been stated elsewhere in these posts (availability of hotel rooms, reservations, etc) but the best reason is the ease and convenience they afford the traveler.
In an RV, you go when and where you want so there is no need to 'arrive' at a destination by a certain time. Plus, because you have everything at hand, you save hours on un-packing and packing checking in and out of hotels.
Granted, the experience is generally more solitary than mixing it up with other tourists, but that is the way we at least like to travel.
Europeans who come for the Alaskan experience are very savvy travelers and typically rent motorhomes to travel just that way.
Chicken is a small goldmining site along the Top of the World Highway. It has one commercial building as I recall which serves as Liquor Store, General Store and gas station. In smaller communities like chicken, the locals can be quite odd. (The world is on a tilt and all the loose nuts end up on top here in Alaska).
May/June is best in my opinion - better weather fewer if any bugs and less crowded as days are getting longer as we approach summer solstice (June 22nd).
August/September will have better colors and the weather is transitioning to fall/winter.
At summer solstice, sunset is at 11:45pm and sunrise is about 4am. But it never gets dark - just sort of like dusk.
Wildlife is best seen early in the morning. Bear viewing trips probably better in fall when bears are loading up for winter on late run salmon and berries (inland from the coast).
Kayaking out of Whittier is best in my opinion because you can be dropped off by the glaciers and paddle among the ice chunks. Seward would be next. Everybodies favorite town here is Homer - exceptional beauty, artsy locals, which we call the banana belt of Alaska because the winters are less harsh there. And if you can get across the bay to Seldovia that would be even better.
Also consider a flight seeing trip in the Ruth Amphitheater - you see Denali up close if it is out and you could also land on the glacier - a surreal experience.
The best highway to see wildlife is the Denali Highway - which goes from Cantwell (just south of the entrance to the Park) across to Paxson. It's 100 miles of hardpack gravel but the views are stunning and the wildlife amazing.
It opens to traffic Memorial Weekend and there is a caribou herd that migrates across that area.
