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Input on June 2020 travel plans
Would appreciate input on our travel plans. What are we missing that we shouldn't?To do that, what would should we give up? Suggested places to dine in the various areas? A little about us. Two 50 year-old adults and one 14 year-old teen girl. We are not "sit and chill" kind of vacationers. We love to go go go and see, do experience, explore. Our interests are learning about the culture, wildlife, glaciers, scenery. We want to hike easy hikes and maybe one that more difficult. We have some friends in Alaska who will be loaning us there pop-up camper to use so we will be staying in RV parks with a little pulled camper. While Alaska is much larger than Texas where we live, Texas is still quite large so we are used to driving long distances to get to places. We live in a large city now and will drive more than hour just to meet someone for dinner as that is still considered close. And this is our first time to Alaska. Hopefully will return someday on an inside passage cruise (as that is really the only way to see it, I think. Thanks for any and all input!
Sat, Jun 6 Arrival:
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I'll have to come back later and read a bit more to wrap my head around a few of your days (and hopefully Gardyloo and some others will see your thread) . . . But your last day/June 21 jumped out at me. That is a long trek to catch a flight. Homer to Wasilla and back down to the airport is more than 6 hours car time plus how ever long it takes to clean the camper plus lunch and you'll want to be at ANC by 3PM at the very latest. Since the days are so long I might consider driving up to Wasilla the evening before.
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The first thing that struck me was that the Denali part of your trip should be put near the end of the trip as the park might not be open fully on June 9, unless there has been an early breakup.
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Originally Posted by janisj
(Post 17020538)
I'll have to come back later and read a bit more to wrap my head around a few of your days (and hopefully Gardyloo and some others will see your thread) . . . But your last day/June 21 jumped out at me. That is a long trek to catch a flight. Homer to Wasilla and back down to the airport is more than 6 hours car time plus how ever long it takes to clean the camper plus lunch and you'll want to be at ANC by 3PM at the very latest. Since the days are so long I might consider driving up to Wasilla the evening before.
You have to put your Costco card into the pump before your credit card. |
I tried to reply already but I don't know where it went. Trying again! I am hoping this is our worst case scenario I have planned for. The bear viewing could start and end early in the day. Or it could start as late as 6 or 7 at night and end late at night. It all depends on the weather. If it ends really late, we will stay in Homer and get up really early to drive. If it ends at a decent time, we will drive to Wasilla that day and not be so pushed for time. Our friends will take us from Wasilla to Anchorage.
Regarding Denali, I thought I understood it opened the full road beginning June 1. Is that not so? Thank you, everyone, for the feedback! |
Wow, you've done your homework!
We did not have a guide for Independence Mine just read different signs. A guide would be better. The restored buildings and photos are great. You'll already know how far from "civilization" it is yet think of how long it took to get there back when it was operating. I bet your daughter would love reading more about the Iditarod. There are a lot of books. If you don't buy some ahead of time, Title Wave book store in Anchorage is a great source. She might want this tee shirt https://iditarodstore.com/apparel/t-...-iditarod.html She might also want to follow Junior Iditarod news this winter. Check times for Pratt Museum. The Skyline drive doesn't take long. The overlook as you approach Homer has a great view of the Spit, too. Don't miss the Pratt. Check time to drive Homer/Wasilla/Anchorage and when you have to get to airport. It's probably about a 6 hour drive. Do-able but pay attention to time. (I agree with Tom Fuller) Since you're doing some of your own cooking, check if farmers markets are open. The one in Homer had fresh oysters. Drive by Lake Hood in Anchorage (it was on our trolley tour) - think huge marina only it's sea planes not boats. Potter Marsh: we didn't see many birds when we visited so it must have been wrong time of day. Check to see best time to visit. The Kenai peninsula is probably best chance to see a moose. A mother and calf were hanging around a suburban neighborhood in Kenai when we visited. Places to check for moose https://www.alaska.org/destination/k.../moose-viewing |
Originally Posted by ferg42995
(Post 17020653)
I tried to reply already but I don't know where it went. Trying again! I am hoping this is our worst case scenario I have planned for. The bear viewing could start and end early in the day. Or it could start as late as 6 or 7 at night and end late at night. It all depends on the weather. If it ends really late, we will stay in Homer and get up really early to drive. If it ends at a decent time, we will drive to Wasilla that day and not be so pushed for time. Our friends will take us from Wasilla to Anchorage.
Regarding Denali, I thought I understood it opened the full road beginning June 1. Is that not so? Thank you, everyone, for the feedback! The "full" road, i.e. to Wonder Lake/Kantishna, usually opens at the end of the first week or the second week in June (the 2019 schedule showed June 8 for the full opening.) You ought to be able to get to the Eielson visitor center as of the first of the month, but remember that the park service will only open the road when they're sure it's safe to do so. If it's an unusually hard winter it might be delayed a day or two; unfortunately I can't find any listing of opening/closing dates for the road but they probably exist. Your current schedule (June 9) ought to be okay, but I guess I'd say that if you could rearrange things so that Denali is at the end of your stay rather than the beginning, it would add a measure of additional security. In general in Alaska, in late spring southern is better. I also think the to-and-fro on the Seward Highway/Kenai Peninsula part of the trip doesn't make a lot of sense. If it was me, I'd head south from Anchorage all the way to Homer, with limited stops along the way, then work your way back up the Kenai to Seward, Hope, Portage/Whittier, Girdwood and Anchorage, then north back to Wasilla (and Denali.) Especially pulling a trailer, you're in for a lot of time suck navigating the Seward and Sterling Highways back and forth. June is pretty early for bear viewing. Have you confirmed where they'll take you? I just have to wonder out loud if you might also look into bear flights from Anchorage, which are often comparably priced but which can also be changed to other flightseeing destinations/activities if weather or viewing conditions are sub-optimal. Remember you're talking about a spring, not summer, trip. You've obviously done a lot of homework, good on you. I just wonder, however, if you might not think about a couple of - how to put it? - "major" revisions, just as thought experiments. 1. Off the road system, out to the bush. (Note I tend to be a broken record on this, apologies.) For around $300 per person (much less if you have any Alaska Airlines frequent flyer miles) you can fly round trip from Anchorage to Nome or Kotzebue, up in northwestern Alaska. Nome is an historic gold rush town on the Bering Sea, and possesses surprisingly good access to the interior of the Seward Peninsula. You can see "living history" (there's still a lot of gold mining going on, as well as relics of the gold rush of the early 1900s) as well as a lot of wildlife on the roads - muskoxen, moose, reindeer and caribou, lots of birds, maybe some bears... https://www.alaska.org/destination/nome/scenic-drives and https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cf...ewardpeninsula . Kotzebue is an Inupiat Eskimo community located on an inlet of the Arctic Ocean. It's located above the arctic circle; in early June you'll have 24 hours of sun. A "day" and a "night" in Kotzebue would be a revelation - stick a toe in the Arctic Ocean (maybe at midnight in full sun) or learn about the fascinating Native culture in this remarkable part of the world. The Native-owned Nullagvik Hotel is comfortable, across the street from the beach, and priced pretty similarly to hotels in Anchorage or Fairbanks. Either (or both - served by the same plane) of these destinations would take you well off the beaten path, and would give you a view of Alaska that only a small percentage of visitors experience. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...42088216e4.jpg 2. Sitka. For a modest change fee from your present plane tickets, you could stop in Sitka either heading north or south. Sitka is the prettiest town in Southeast Alaska; it was the capital of Russian America and boasts historic sites, whale watching, the Fortress of the Bear and Raptor Center, rain forest hikes, totem poles, rich Tlingit history... and all in stunning scenery. Sitka is bypassed by most big cruise ships as its harbor can't handle them, so it won't be as intense an experiment as the other Southeast cruise destinations. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...bd3a0d64f3.jpg Just sayin, maybe think out of the box a little. |
The bus routes out into Denali USUALLY open on June 1 as far as the Eilson Visitor Center (Mile Post 66). The dirt road past there may not be ready for bus travel. Any new bus drivers for the season take at least 1 training run with a seasoned driver in late May. The school buses do have the old windows that you can lower.
As for the moose that we saw in Alaska, we saw 1 mom moose with calf at a distance on the trip out in Denali. We saw a cow moose with yearling from the window of our B&B on the hill above Homer while we were eating breakfast one morning. We had a bull moose step up over the guard rail right in front of us between Homer and Soldatna. My wife braked pretty hard to avoid hitting him. |
I give up. Trying to reply, quote, answer, etc. The forum rejects everything I do. But thank you, everyone. I tired to answer multiple times and every post kept getting rejected. This forum technology is ancient as if Fodor's doesn't want it to succeed. Frustrating. BUT THANK YOU for your tips.
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Originally Posted by ferg42995
(Post 17020977)
I give up. Trying to reply, quote, answer, etc. The forum rejects everything I do. But thank you, everyone. I tired to answer multiple times and every post kept getting rejected. This forum technology is ancient as if Fodor's doesn't want it to succeed. Frustrating. BUT THANK YOU for your tips.
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Plus . . . your initial post was quite long -- were the posts you lost multi-quote and equally as long? It could have been something to do with your browser or who knows -- gremlins ;)
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