Well, it's taken me just over three weeks to finally tackle this report despite thinking throughout my trip of things that I was going to be sure to include as if I was planning on running home and writing the report right away.

You all know though that some trip reports take time to simmer. I also don't like to dwell too much on a great vacation when I first get back so that I can speed up my reintroduction to the "real world".

But I'm ready.

So the itinerary with basic highlights:

This trip was during the last week in May.

Day 1: Land in Anchorage, midnight.
Highlight-- "chasing" the sun midway through the flight until the end.

Day 2: Drive to Seward
Highlight-- Tie: Buying an ulu at IRBI Custom Alaska Knives and Exit Glacier

Day 3: Seward
Highlight-- Northwestern Fjord Cruise

Day 4: Drive back to Anchorage
Highlight-- Tie: bike ride on Tony Knowles and Guitar Hero at Humpy's Great Alaskan Ale House in Anchorage

Day 5: Train to Denali National Park
Highlight-- My "private" dining car; reindeer stew

Day 6: Denali National Park
Highlight-- Being abandoned by all shuttle buses, laughing with friends

Day 7: Drive to Fairbanks
Highlight-- whitewater rafting outside of Denali

Day 8: Fairbanks
Highlight-- Salmon Bake

Day 9: Fly home
Highlight-- Minneapolis Airport; such a palace compared to JFK

Traveling companions: Two of my college roommates. One lived in Fairbanks for the last year and invited us up. Thanks to everyone who made me realize how much I would regret it if I didn't take her up on her offer on this thread:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...4&tid=35101429

I'm going to post this now because if I don't I never will! Will really start it and finish it soon...

More to come...

It's an amazing place, isn't it/Were the weather conditions such that you could see the Mt. in Denali?

Katie, I can't wait to hear more. THis is a trip I really would love to do... so reading about your trip is really getting me thinking about it.

"thinking throughout my trip of things that I was going to be sure to include as if I was planning on running home and writing the report right away" - Katie, were you reading my mind?

I read and hear from others, we all think of reporting on Fodor's during our trips.

And I like the way you've started: day by day highlights.

Hi Katie, i too am excited to read your report! I'd mapped out a tentative trip a few years ago and hope to do it soon. And ITA with Faina - since fodorville helps us plan our trips, i always think of reporting when we return. Although sometimes it takes awhile to do it

Day 6: Denali National Park
Highlight-- Being abandoned by all shuttle buses, laughing with friends

So tell us about the shuttle busses leaving you ... I'm always worried about this but so far have been pretty lucky.

Bill

Yes, the shuttles left us in what we dubbed "the frozen tundra". More to come on that.

And Denali/Mt. McKinley was visible once---on the way up in the train we got a peek of it.

Budgeting: This trip was the longest trip I've taken in over 3 years; all of my recent trips have been shorter, 3-5 days. Taking a longer trip definitely changed how I viewed what should be accomplished on each day (opting for less is more); it also curtailed my spending.

We stayed at hostels each night of the trip except for our time in Fairbanks, where we stayed at my friend's place. This dramatically cut down on the trip's cost with some night's lodging costing as little as $65 for the three of us.

Lodging: We stayed at three hostels overall--one outside of Denali, one in Anchorage,and another in Seward.

Denali Mountain Morning Hostel was the best of the three by far. It also might just be the best hostel I've ever stayed in---even trumping some really lively, clean, and well-run hostels I discovered traveling around Europe just out of college. What it lacks in location (it's a 20-minute drive south of the entrance to Denali National Park), it makes up in total character and plenitude of characters. The hostel consists of several small cabins named after nearby river rapids. A small creek runs just next to these cabins, some of which have small porches looking out at the creek and up at Fang Mountain. An octagon-shaped main lodge has several bunks upstairs and a private suite; downstairs is devoted to a communal kitchen and living room devoted for lounging. Any time I walked through here there were always different folks chatting. The majority of guests when I was there were in their mid-twenties through forties. The three of us had our own cabin for both nights of our visit.

The hostel runs a shuttle to the park two times in the morning and back two times at night. We missed these shuttles for a variety of reasons, but were able to receive rides from other guests with rental cars. We did get stuck in Denali twice and had to call a car service from Healy. The 20-minute ride was $30 but it was worth it--- these two rides introduced us to two chatty locals who freely talked about the area and their lives, including a conversation about the concept among locals in Alaska of "going outside"--- that is leaving Alaska.

The hostel has three restaurants directly across the street. We dropped into Panorama Pizza twice for a pitcher of Alaskan Amber, a pizza, and a game(s) of cornhole (greatest game ever!)

Sorry for the long description...my descriptions of the other two hostels will be shorter!

So next will be that...then some thoughts on food maybe and a final description of our activities.

Here's the hostel address:
http://www.hostelalaska.com/

Keep going, Katie, we are thinking about a land trip next year and can't wait for more of your tips!

hikrchick posted the following on a new thread and I'm going try to answer her questions here...

"I'm trying to plan a 10-day trip to Kenai/Denali for August 2009 that could be somewhat on a budget and hostels would be perfect for my boyfriend and me.

Also, could you tell me how far in advance you had to book the hostels? And, any other helpful budget hints?

Thanks very much!
hikrchick"

Hikrchick... we stayed at 3 hostels while on the trip:
Anchorage: Arctic Adventure Hostel
This hostel was okay---nothing too exciting about our stay here. It's not within walking distance of Anchorage's downtown. Didn't really stand out in any way honestly.

Seward: Moby Dick Hostel
http://www.mobydickhostel.com/
This was a small hostel; friendly owners (have two kids). There was hardly anyone here when we came through. The three of us shared a room that had 6 bunks. It was about $25 each. I believe they have a private room too. There were two shared baths--very clean. There's a kitchen as well that we didn't use. You can walk into town from this location. No complaints.

Denali: Denali Mountain Morning Hostel
http://www.hostelalaska.com/
I loved this hostel. You can book your own cabin and several are near/on a little mountain creek.

There are three restaurants across the street, including a pizza place that's more bar-like at night. This is a great option if you have a car with you---Denali's park entrance is about 20-25 minutes north. We did not have a car because we took the train from Anchorage to Denali; we then took a car service/van to the hostel.

In the end, we used this van service 3 times and it cost us total $75. The hostel does run a van (that you pay a small fee for) to the park daily and back but it wasn't very convenient for us. Anyway, if you have a car than this won't be a problem. I really like this hostel--which is essentially a cabin campground with a shared kitchen and "hangout" room. Clientele was on the older side for a hostel---say 25-45.

We were there in May and booked fairly late I think (probably mid-April). For high season (August) I would book well in advance as it's not big. I'd call though and maybe they can give you a better idea of how quickly they fill up. Let me know if you have any other questions and thanks---it was fun thinking about this trip again.

One suggestion-- I saved up for a pretty nice camera for this trip and I certainly didn't regret it. (Got a lot of great advice actually in the smart travel tips forum)

This is one destination that you'll want your photos to be really great--it's just so beautiful that you'll want your pictures to do it justice.

Thank you Katie!
The Denali hostel sounds perfect. BF and I are in the right age range too -- I'm early 40s and he's late 30s. We will have a car so that takes care of the inconvenient bus. I will check out the other hostels. The big paper here in NJ -- the Star-Ledger -- had a story about Anchorage in the Sunday travel section and mentioned another hostel that got good reviews too.

As for a camera, I've got an awesome Nikon 8008s with a 28-120 mm lens that I got in 1993 and I've taken all over the world. Yes, it's not digital, but it still gets the job done and very nicely too.

Alaska just seems so expensive so I am trying to figure out if it's even doable. Hostels would go a long way to reducing the wallet pain.